What I learned from the A to Z challenge Well, the A to Z challenge is finally over! Thanks for sticking with me through it all! I hope you learned a little about communication, culture, and current events here in Mumbai, India. Participating in the challenge for 30 days enabled me to build good metrics … Continue reading Magnolia2Mumbai’s top 5 A to Z blog posts
a to z challenge
L is for languages
According to the People's Linguistic Survey of India, 780 languages are spoken across the Indian subcontinent. The count includes many dialects spoken by less than 10,000 people. By comparison, the United States has 337 languages spoken within its borders. Yet, while the US has no official language, India has two official languages: Hindi and English. … Continue reading L is for languages
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I is for Indias
Nope. The title's not a typo. I is for Indias. Plural. Traditionally, three names are used for India: Bharat (used in Hindi), Hindustan (used in English and Hindi; literally the state of Hindus), and India (used most often in English; the name the British used). Which name you use reflects your cultural and political orientation. … Continue reading I is for Indias
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H is for Hindu
A few months ago, Buzzfeed writer Rega Jha published a list of 26 questions that Indians are sick of answering. Number 3: "Do you speak Hindu?" Her response: Yup, fluently. And I can say a couple of things in Muslim and Christian too." The Hindi/Hindu mix-up is a constant problem for foreigners, even for those of … Continue reading H is for Hindu
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G is for aloo gobi
I first had Indian food in the late 1990s while I was a student at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. At the time, Providence had a decent variety of Indian restaurants. That's when I discovered aloo gobi (sometimes spelled alu gobi). I loved ordering aloo gobi on Fridays during Lent to observe the American … Continue reading G is for aloo gobi
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F is for FMCH
Expat wives have a reputation for high fashion, but we also have one for compassion. You can't live in Mumbai and not be touched by the poverty and the hunger that accompanies it. Many expat spouses spend their time volunteering at NGOs throughout Mumbai. In the spirit of volunteerism, every year, the American Women's Club … Continue reading F is for FMCH
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E is for efficiency
Yes, efficiency. India is often associated with inefficiency. From the traffic that delays you for hours to the mind-boggling bureaucracy that makes you laugh and cry (sometimes simultaneously), India's inefficiencies are many. And, yet, Indians have an incredible capacity to be efficient when they want or need to be. In Mumbai, such efficiency is epitomized … Continue reading E is for efficiency
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D is for dancing
So many D words, so little time! Didi, downward-facing dog, and driver, to name a few. Few words capture a foreigner's imagination more than dancing. Dancing is a quintessentially Bollywood trope. The trope is so common that many US TV shows with Indian characters have parodied the dance sequences. Take this example from Big Bang Theory. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0alLuXHrU6c … Continue reading D is for dancing
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C is for chihuahua
I was going to blog about chaiwallahs, Mumbai's ubiquitous tea sellers, but then I found this old video of Peanut in his rain boots. http://youtu.be/A4PPX2Dntrw This video is from our first monsoon in Mumbai when I was worried about Peanut traipsing through torrents of filthy rainwater. He wore the boots maybe twice. Our chihuahua is … Continue reading C is for chihuahua
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B is for Bombay
My site might be Magnolia to Mumbai, but one of the earliest names of the Maximum City is Bombay. Derived from the Portuguese for "good little bay," the British officially adopted Bombay as the city's name in the 17th century. Mumbai derives from the name of the Koli goddess, Mumbadevi. In Marathi, the local language, … Continue reading B is for Bombay
Jean Burke-Spraker 