Namaste! The EyeWriter development team just hit the streets of Mumbai, India on a mission to develop a GML-compliant version of the EyeWriter with the best engineers in the near-east from IIT Bombay for TechFest 2010. Maharashtra-style! We will be updating FAT and the EyeWriter blog on the maybe daily with news and instruction sets on how to survive in ole’ Bombay, which hand to use for every occasion, how to be a slumdog hundredaire, etc… oh, and also how to make your own MumbaiWriter.

For the first Mumbai how-to we’ll share some of the advice we got from the original artwankers at c6: How-to haggle down a market vendor in bad Hindi.

(written phonetically cuz we don’t know any better)

— You go into a market and you approach a vendor who is selling something you want. Point at the item and say…

You: “Kidna pasa” — how many pennies for this?

— the vendor is offended. You basically just said they are selling cheap shit. But everyone respects an arse, so they give you a decent price in rupee.

You: “Bo jadda” — too much!

— What did you just say? The vendor should be shocked a dumb foreigner like yourself can speak any Hindi at all and come back with a lower price out of pity…

You: “Com corro” — a little less.

— Are you serious? If the magic is in the air, they may give you an even lower price…

You: “Or com corro” — a little more less?

— WTF? You’re breaking my balls here! Whatever the vendor says next, you should take it. Its probably as low as its going to go for you.

You: “T.K.” — OK.

Don’t be shocked if this goes horribly wrong and stay tuned for more field R&D from sunny Mumbai! If you want to get involved with the project send us an email at info at eyewriter dot org.

FAT LAB HQ in Mumbai

Big thanks to Mick Ebeling and Anurag Garg for making this happen.