Speaking of the weather...

Mumbai is humid 365 days out of the year. When it isn't hot and humid, it's cooler and raining. Even though I've been here before, and I once got heatstroke from wandering around Delhi at noon in August, somehow I haven't learned how to deal with it.

The other day I went for a walk down in the compoud near the apartment. The gated compound has leafy green gardens, rich with leaves and flowers. It's a little like I'd imagine a tropical getaway would be.

Meanwhile, the street outside is a mass of hot air and bustle. I toured the street for nearly an hour. I meant to come back sooner but somehow, even though I was walking in a straight line, I managed to get lost. After walking back and forth on the sidewalk, looking lost, and garnering my fair share of stares, I finally found the compound again.

What did I see in the street? At first, I was too busy feeling self-consciously American to notice anything. Then I noticed the cars. Then I noticed that there were at least five men on the street for every woman. (Why is that, I wonder?) I walked past several icy-looking glass-doored banks, of the kind I normally expect on Fifth or Pennsylvania Avenues. I passed a Volkswagon Autobahn. I also passed several streetside soda stands, where a guy sat behind a plank counter, peddling glass bottles of Pepsi out of his nearby fridge. I went past a Bazaar, which (from what I gather) is a general supply store.

I walked past an alley where fruit, vegetable and flower vendors worked. The smell of jasmine flowers and rotten tomatoes wafted out, a perfume with very high and very low notes mixed up in it. I also passed the police station, up on the hill. (Which reminds me, I still don't know the emergency numbers here)

I turned around and made it all the way to the area temple, a vast domed structure on the opposite side of a concrete wall. The domes were pink. On Monday nights, pilgrims walk three, four and more hours to be blessed on the most auspicious day of the week.

I turned around and made it back to the compound. I was wearing jeans and a jersey T-shirt that went down past my waist. Both were wet with sweat by the time I came back.