After only a week here, my social life is taking off. I have plans every night this week - crazy! Luckily my project isn't super demanding right now, so I'm able to leave at a decent hour and work out before meeting up with friends.
Side note: I forgot to mention this in my post about last Friday night, but I had a Bombay Sapphire & Tonic...in Bombay! So check that one off the list...
Last night Ami and I went to meet up with our colleague Kaushal at the Hard Rock Cafe here. He is the guy who cancelled on us to go to Elephanta Caves on Sunday, so he had suggested we meet up with a group of people tonight to make up for it. During the day, Ami and I asked around the office and no one else had gotten an invite, which I thought was a little weird, since Kaushal had phrased the invitation as being that he and a group of colleagues were already planning to go out. Regardless, we invited a few girls who we've become friends with, and we all agreed to meet up at 9 (things start late here - luckily, including work in the mornings). It took a while to get a taxi, so we didn't get there until 9:15 probably. I was worried about being late (how American of me) - but when we arrived, no one else was there yet. Chill out, Katie - this is Bombay, not Chicago.
As soon as we walked in, it felt abnormal, like something was wrong. I couldn't put my finger on it until it dawned on me - there are a LOT of white people in here! I'm already used to being the only white person in the room most of the time, but here it was probably 50% white people. I'm guessing that most of them are tourists, who just come to the HRC because they're familiar with the brand? One of the most noticeable groups of non-Indians was this group of about 20 burly, athletic looking white guys. They happened to be standing in the bar area near our table, so we had some fun hypothesizing about what unites this particular group. My guess was that they are a traveling sports team of some kind. Turns out they are in the Royal Navy and Marines! They then turned to our table for advice on where to go next in their evening of bar hopping. The hilarious part of it is that the first question they asked us is if we know how to get to Smaash!!?!?? Of all the places for them to mention, they picked the ONE that we actually could give directions to! Plus - they were on the verge of making the same mistake we were - by assuming that it's a hot spot for nightlife rather than 13-year-olds. We ended up steering them in the right direction to a different venue (with the help of our local companions) and felt kind of proud that we were able to help prevent them from repeating our mistakes of Friday night.
The conversation with our colleagues turned out to be fascinating. Kaushal didn't show up - after being the one who suggested the event in the first place, I'm starting to think he's kind of flaky. I'm pretty sure that there was no "group of us" originally planning to go to the HRC that night either, because the only people who showed up were the ones Ami and I invited! Regardless, we had a lot of fun chatting with them (two girls and a guy - all close in age to us). The women regaled us with stories of online dating "Indian style" - which sounds very similar to OKCupid, Match, EHarmony, etc - except for the fact that the purpose of the site isn't to go on dates but to find someone to marry! They're not dating sites - they're "matrimony sites." The major difference is that your parents are involved in the selection process. Your parents search the site and identify profiles of men they think would be a good match for you. Then once you've read their profile and agree, the parents contact the guy's parents to discuss a potential match. If the two sets of parents agree that it has potential, then the guy and girl talk on the phone and possibly agree to meet. The girls had some pretty funny stories about guys they had met this way, and how devoted their parents are to sending them potential matches on a daily basis. Apparently there's also an element of astrology that goes into the matching process - each person on the site will get a "sun chart" made, and your sun chart has to be compatible with your future partner's sun chart, or else it will not be an auspicious match. This isn't just a quaint custom - it can be a dealbreaker if your stars do not align (literally). Like I said, fascinating stuff...Now, Mom and Dad - I don't want you getting any ideas. I love you both dearly, but there's no way in hell I'm going to let you pick a guy for me to marry off a website.
Varun and Paresh tried calling us last night to go out with them. I have the feeling they go out every night...although I suppose I really can't judge now, can I?
Side note: I forgot to mention this in my post about last Friday night, but I had a Bombay Sapphire & Tonic...in Bombay! So check that one off the list...
Last night Ami and I went to meet up with our colleague Kaushal at the Hard Rock Cafe here. He is the guy who cancelled on us to go to Elephanta Caves on Sunday, so he had suggested we meet up with a group of people tonight to make up for it. During the day, Ami and I asked around the office and no one else had gotten an invite, which I thought was a little weird, since Kaushal had phrased the invitation as being that he and a group of colleagues were already planning to go out. Regardless, we invited a few girls who we've become friends with, and we all agreed to meet up at 9 (things start late here - luckily, including work in the mornings). It took a while to get a taxi, so we didn't get there until 9:15 probably. I was worried about being late (how American of me) - but when we arrived, no one else was there yet. Chill out, Katie - this is Bombay, not Chicago.
As soon as we walked in, it felt abnormal, like something was wrong. I couldn't put my finger on it until it dawned on me - there are a LOT of white people in here! I'm already used to being the only white person in the room most of the time, but here it was probably 50% white people. I'm guessing that most of them are tourists, who just come to the HRC because they're familiar with the brand? One of the most noticeable groups of non-Indians was this group of about 20 burly, athletic looking white guys. They happened to be standing in the bar area near our table, so we had some fun hypothesizing about what unites this particular group. My guess was that they are a traveling sports team of some kind. Turns out they are in the Royal Navy and Marines! They then turned to our table for advice on where to go next in their evening of bar hopping. The hilarious part of it is that the first question they asked us is if we know how to get to Smaash!!?!?? Of all the places for them to mention, they picked the ONE that we actually could give directions to! Plus - they were on the verge of making the same mistake we were - by assuming that it's a hot spot for nightlife rather than 13-year-olds. We ended up steering them in the right direction to a different venue (with the help of our local companions) and felt kind of proud that we were able to help prevent them from repeating our mistakes of Friday night.
The conversation with our colleagues turned out to be fascinating. Kaushal didn't show up - after being the one who suggested the event in the first place, I'm starting to think he's kind of flaky. I'm pretty sure that there was no "group of us" originally planning to go to the HRC that night either, because the only people who showed up were the ones Ami and I invited! Regardless, we had a lot of fun chatting with them (two girls and a guy - all close in age to us). The women regaled us with stories of online dating "Indian style" - which sounds very similar to OKCupid, Match, EHarmony, etc - except for the fact that the purpose of the site isn't to go on dates but to find someone to marry! They're not dating sites - they're "matrimony sites." The major difference is that your parents are involved in the selection process. Your parents search the site and identify profiles of men they think would be a good match for you. Then once you've read their profile and agree, the parents contact the guy's parents to discuss a potential match. If the two sets of parents agree that it has potential, then the guy and girl talk on the phone and possibly agree to meet. The girls had some pretty funny stories about guys they had met this way, and how devoted their parents are to sending them potential matches on a daily basis. Apparently there's also an element of astrology that goes into the matching process - each person on the site will get a "sun chart" made, and your sun chart has to be compatible with your future partner's sun chart, or else it will not be an auspicious match. This isn't just a quaint custom - it can be a dealbreaker if your stars do not align (literally). Like I said, fascinating stuff...Now, Mom and Dad - I don't want you getting any ideas. I love you both dearly, but there's no way in hell I'm going to let you pick a guy for me to marry off a website.
Varun and Paresh tried calling us last night to go out with them. I have the feeling they go out every night...although I suppose I really can't judge now, can I?
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