Inside Heyman's Head

From Bollywood to Delhi

Mombai is known as both the Wall Street and Hollywood of India. There are many companies based in Mombai but it is also the home of India's Bollywood film industry. They make some 1000 movies a year in Bollywood whereas Hollywood makes about 750. They are most all musicals and are very tame by western standards but they are becoming more racy over time. While in Mombai a report came out that a reporter had posed as someone that wanted to be a film star and was lured into a situation where they were expected to have sex with some of the top movie makers in Bollywood. The story was run on a TV channel that was until then someone unkown and the newspapers are undecided as to whether they were entrapped or this is just standard for the film industry. IT didn't help matters much that during the same few days some Bollywood producers were arrested for the hanging of 'indecent' posteres adverstising their movies. Indecent doesn't refer to exposed body parts but more suggestive than is the norm in India.

Recently it was in the paper that US$45M were approved for the upgrade of the Mombai and Delhi airports. Arriving at the Mombai airport I saw that there were a huge number of people outside. They were getting in lines to have their baggage scanned through x-ray before being allowed to go into the airport. India is not without their own enemies from within and from outside. Only people with tickets are allowed to enter the airport terminal and only if their baggage has been scanned and a plastic band has been put arond it to prevent it from having been opened. Once inside we needed to make our way to the Jet Airline desk. Everything went pretty smoothly at that point. Nobody checked my ID as it was a domestic flight. The terminal was hot inside and there were two kids sitting in a little booth selling coke and bags of chips. In another boot there was a guy sitting with one of those instant coffee machines. I guess it is too much to have people press the buttons themselves. Instead of a news stand with books and travel guides there was a vending machine selling books.

The plan was an older plan of the type I don't think I've seen in twenty years. Unlike the planes of today there were no LCD screens in the back of the seats, no televisions hanging from the ceilings, no place to plug in earphones for musical entertainment. It was the first flight I'd been on this trip where there was not a single empty seat. At the start of the flight they broght around cold damp towels whereas all the other flights passed out hot towels. Perhaps this has to do with the heat of Mombai. They also passed out candy at the start of the flight. Jet had just gone public the month before and was just passing from debt into profit. The seats were a bit cramped for my long legs but I was happy enough.

The Delhi airport was packed with people. We walked around and found a guy with a sign that had our names on it. He introduced himself as the hotel's Airport Officer and gave us his card. He walked us out and met another man who would be our driver. Together they walked us to the car and off we rode.