Mumbai, India--My wife Deborah and I arrived in Mumbai at 10pm on Wednesday,
November 26th. We were spending the night in Mumbai on our way to Goa early
the next morning, where I was being honored and Deborah was giving a Master
Class at the International Film Festival of India. There was the usual
crowded confusion at the airport and we were unaware of anything out of the
ordinary. A man was holding a sign with a list of names, including
Deborah's. He drove us to the hotel listed on our itinerary where the desk
clerk told us that our reservation had been canceled. After the 20-hour trip
from LA, this did not make us happy and we called our Indian contact who
said he was at the airport waiting for us, to stay put and that he would
come and get us. He moved us to the Leela Kempinski Hotel, closer to the
airport.
In Goa, the mood at the International Film Festival of India was somber and
most of the gala events canceled. However, the Festival, with its
international offering of films, soldiered on to great success. Goa was
quiet, although the Anjuna flea market was filled with Russian and European
tourists. Despite the heat, humidity and gunfire, our Indian hosts treated
us royally at the India Film Festival. The local government insisted we have
bodyguards our entire stay in Goa. We had two alternating bodyguards, a
quiet Goan plainclothes cop named Johnson, and a sari clad village woman who
proudly showed me her Colt 45 that she kept in her handbag. With two members
of the international jury (and our security), and we took the rusted
flat-bottomed car ferry across the Mandovi River to Divar Island to visit an
old Portuguese church. We were surprised to find that a big service was in
progress in the middle of the day. Goans dressed in white massed around the
church entrance and every pew was filled. A flower-laden hearse arrived and
within moments, we heard the sounds of a small brass band leading mourners
into the church. This was the funeral for the first casualty of the Mumbai
attacks, the young chef of the Taj Hotel, murdered in the hotel kitchen. All
of India is in mourning.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-landis/india-in-mourning-my-week_b_148441.html
John David Landis (born August 3, 1950) is an American film actor, director,
writer and producer. He is mostly known for his influential comedies and his
music videos with Michael Jackson; Landis has also done many horror
projects.
Incidentally this past week was the 25th anniversary of the release of
Michael Jackson's blockbuster, Thriller
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Landis
