July 15 evening: the silly and the sober

I sat in the hotel room, well...truth be told, I was bunched up in covers and pillows in my bed...and finished the 14 July post about Polar Opposites. Then I cut and pasted my notes from St. Xavier's College today--no editing, no filtering.

Then I summoned the energy to go out with my roommate Chris to meet a group at Leopold's. This bears telling.

So if you have time, you might want to google Leopold's Cafe in Mumbai. It's over 140 years old and has been an expat hangout for years apparently. I have done NO research on it, so be forewarned. I was expecting a bit of Rick's Cafe from Casablanca, tufted chairs, a sense of ease, ceiling fans whirring in the damp air. Well they've got the ceiling fans, but it resembles a pep club burger joint more than the European swanky cafe I'd envisioned. No matter, just adjust the paradigm, it's all good. I'd say the expat population was 15-20%, at least in the downstairs portion I could observe. The upstairs is air-conditioned, walled off with frosted glass and wood, so I could only see the occasional shadows of climate controlled patrons. (ok, so they're not really climate controlled.) Pitchers of beer come in what look like a fusion of old fashioned gumball machines and standard blenders. You pour through a tap at the bottom of a slightly conical receptacle of beer. And the beer is toward flat, not totally so, but heading in that direction. So the main group of folks had been trouping around for ages on Colaba Causeway, the shopping district/peddlar's row where Leopold's in located, and they were beat. We could hardly fault them for wanting to take off shortly after we arrived. Long day. Chris, Sanjeev and I stayed through 2 more big beers, a plate of french fries and a scandal over a 1000 rupee note that our friends left. Long story short, a 10-15 minute debate ensued about who should take responsibility for a defective (counterfeit?) 1000 rupee note that apparently our friends had left when they paid their tab. The accusations/explanations/negotiations went on for some time, and people who know me know that I have no stomach for this kind of thing. So I learned a lot by watching Sanjeev and Chris react and handle the situation. Eventually Chris and I exchanged the note with our money, and we'll give it to the group tomorrow. Then when it came time to pay our bill, Chris insisted on using the same bill in the payment booklet (what do they call those things?) I was against it, but her instincts proved right. In a matter of minutes, we were all laughing, waiter, manager, Chris, me and Sanjeev. We took pictures together with the offending bill and I will post one on FB.

That's the silly part. Oh, plus I bought and consumed paan on the way home. 10 rupees. If you don't know what it is, look it up. I spat red saliva like a champion all the way back to the hotel. I brushed my teeth and took my first PeptoBismol swig of the trip. I told Sanjeev, if I don't make it out tomorrow morning, he knows why.

So, the sober part. The Mumbai terrorist attacks of 2011 had several targets, not just the Taj Mahal Palace hotel. The Leopold Cafe was also targeted, and our waiter told us that 19 people died there. 19. Just hanging out at a cafe. It's unbelievable. But it happens in the Middle East (not going to name names) and in various places around the world, all too often. Colombia. Mexico. Indonesia. Tons of places. And I thought about this as I sat there, talking to friends, building memories in safety. Over 150 people died in those attacks. Chris and I determined to look them up, to study them more closely--each of us is regrettably foggy on the details of those events. But it makes you think about terrorism, its goals, strategies, and operations. And then too about why it exists. Why do people feel like they have no other option, that violence against civilians or symbols is the only way to advance their cause? That must be a desperate place to inhabit. Few people think of violence as a first course of action. What are the problems that underlie the violent actions of our age? Can we know the answer? And if so, what can we do about it?