16 Days in India

Intro
In February 2009, I took a two-and-a-half week vacation from work to travel India. My first stop was Mumbai, where I stayed with my aunt’s brother, Shaffat, for a few days. Shaffat lived in Canada and was spending one year abroad in Mumbai for work. In the evenings we went to dinner together and met some of his friends, and during the day I was on my own, though often serviced by Shaffat’s personal driver, Sheker. Afterwards, I continued my trip on my own. Throughout those first few days and the solo ones that followed, I took to writing notes about my trip in a pocket-sized notebook. It hadn't been my intention to keep any kind of journal or to write anything down; rather, the desire sprang spontaneously and I enjoyed the occasional reflection.

Blurb: Guy on Metro

On the metro I sat next to a guy in a dark suit and a top hat. He had a black briefcase on his lap that looked like it came out of the early 1900s or something. Out of the corner of my eye I could see that really the whole outfit looked like he’d just walked off the boat at Ellis Island, back in the day when many people walked off boats there. Something smelled strongly of flowers and it came from him I think. The smell was very strong, like he’d just taken a shower in his mother’s perfume, or his girlfriend’s perfume. He started looking for something in his briefcase, and I was wondering if maybe the whole thing was filled with rose petals. I thought of him opening his bag and the rose petals pouring out of it, onto the seat and my thighs and the floor and my feet. I felt good next to this guy, like I was in a very sweet time warp. Like I was on a ship coming from Eastern Europe at the beginning of the 20th century, but instead of the air smelling like seawater and piss, it smelled like this guy who showered in rose petals.