Recently I went to India to visit my colleagues in Mumbai. Funny enough, I had been in Mumbai once. Well, at least in the harbour. About 50 years ago, I travelled home from Indonesia (the country I was born) to Holland. About nine months old, I think I was in a basket so I must admit I don't remember a lot of the stay .

Before i start with some Mumbai experiences, i must admit that one of my highlights being on Amsterdam airport are the bookshops. It's really amazing how many magazines this world is publishing and usually i try to be early and spend a lot of money there. One of my favs is WIRED although I can buy this near home too. It more or less became a symbol for travelling . This time i was also looking for some real scientific stuff about Quantum Computing which i found. Click the link or go to page 2 for my impression on this topic.   

But now back to Mumbai, besides the spendid evening diners it was work, work and work . "Fortunately" the busrides between the hotel and our office in and through the suburbs were long enough to get some impressions of Mumbai. Of course there are the usual one-liner-descriptions (and understatements) like: "very hot", "a single traffic jam", "a huge amount of people", "golf plate city" and others. But looking at the people some things really struck me. It made me stop making pictures by-the-way because i felt it was inapproperiate to do so. First, although everybody seemed to be awful busy, the respect for another. People were quietly working on the street or moving to somewhere. I never saw anything like an agitation or even a traffic accident. Amazing! Secondly, i was impressed by the pride the people were showing. Although living in houses we wouldn't even call a barn, women were always dressed up and looking proudly into the world. Obviously it's more important how u feel and what u do then what u r. Mmmm, i guess i already knew that but this made me remember.

Well, may be on the next trip I  have some time available to explore Mumbai a bit further. A short visit to the old centre near Floral Fountain was asking for more .

About a month ago, we suddenly decided that living alone without a cat had lasted long enough. In an animal home for lost animals we found a about 9 month old cutie with a 90 degree sharp angle in his tail. It looks like the result from a severe accident with a slamming door but it can be a natural "disorder" too. Besides an odd short curl where a noble tip should have been waving, there seemed to be no pain, physically or psychologically  In fact, he played a strange game of switching fast between being "the terrorist of the cage" and "the sweetest creature on earth".