Mumbai nights (and days).

Well I don't have any pictures to prove it, because I don't feel great about bringing my big camera around while I'm "making the scene", but I promise you, I have in fact been partying down in Mumbai. For those of you who have only ever seen the side of India that we are familiar with: great spiritual places, amazing squalor, the realness that pervades all areas of life, I can tell you there is something else going on here too.

Turns out Mumbai is seriously getting down at night.

OK, sure, it's not partying with the reckless abandon of New York or Ibiza yet, but just to see a scene at night anywhere in India has been mind blowing, and believe me, this is a serious scene. Last night I had the pleasure of joining my new friend Adil at a bar called "Not Just Jazz by the Bay" which was right on the famous "Marine Drive." And as Adil told me, is the only place he knows of in Mumbai that actually has a cover charge. The place was happ'nin, and the brilliant news, they were having a Karaoke night. And for the record, I love the way Indians do Karaoke. They take it very seriously, and the people that run it always do a good job.

It also turns out that Adil is a ridiculous, let me repeat, RIDICULOUSLY good singer, as in a dead ringer, and I mean a DEAD RINGGEEEERRR for Sinatra. I am not exaggerating!!!!! So that was a lot of fun, Indians are so funny and endearing when it comes to praise. They are always honest. Like when I sang "No Woman, No Cry," which was out of my range, they shook my hand, "good try man." When Adil got off the stage, 5 different people came up, "You are amazing!"

Before Jazz by the Bay I checked out SBX Sports Bar in Colaba which was decent actually, loud, and had some damn good Indian Buffalo wings.

The night before that I went out with an old friend who grew up in Mumbai, and I got to see the young peoples scene. She took me out with her friends to a restaurant called "Maharaja" which was so damn swanky and really tasty, and after that it was off to a place she called Mumbai Gym, which was basically a country club the British started right in the middle of the city way back in the day, and is still in use as such by well-to-do Indians who kicked the Brits out.
They were having something called "Bar Night" which seemed to be quite the exclusive event, and also, extremely eye opening. It was basically like every educated and loaded Indian I had ever met or gone to school with in America or met overseas on their home turf and in droves getting completely smashed on the lawn of the country club. It was fascinating, and fun.

Anyway, I gotta run. Gotta go meet an artist in Juhu beach 1 and a half hours away (gah!). Turns out I might have the opportunity to help this young Indian printmaker named Tanuja Rane do an edition for her upcoming show! I'm really excited. I hope the meeting goes well!

In the meantime, I've posted a few pics,
such as my time at an Indian McDonalds,


from my jaunts around Mumbai, check them out here.

Until next time,
Namaste peoples.