Bombay, or as it is called by some, Mumbai, is the financial capital and largest city by population in India - approximately 16.4 - 18 million people depending on the source. I can't say that it is one of the world's prettiest cities. The land is very dry (at this time of the year anyway), there is not a lot of floral "colour", and many of the buildings are either externally deteriorating, blackened by weather and pollution, or unfinished. Despite this, there are some spectacular buildings such as the university, the high courts, the very special Victoria Station, various temples, and of course the world renowned Taj Mahal Palace and Tower. What is special about Mumbai are the people. The city is like an electrical current. It is alive, makes sparks, and is constantly on the move. At first the city confuses you as it moves on so many different wave lengths and three days is not nearly enough to understand its inner workings. First there are the tourists, their white skins standing out amid the pale, mid and dark browns of the Indians. The Indians are a fine, proud people with dark hair, large dark eyes, and fine facial features. Our clothes look the same as many Indians, and you just want to slink along with the crowd, but you can't. Out of the millions of people in Mumbai, about 55% live in slums. If you have read A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry, you will have some idea of slum life and the battles that poor people living there have to face on a daily basis. Living in a slum doesn't mean you don't have a job, it just means that you can't earn enough in your job to live elsewhere. Then there are the beggars, who I have to admit do not appear as a large group. The most heartbreaking are the women with young children, the older women, the physically challenged, and the children. When you have just left half of your dinner on your plate, you feel very humble when some kid grabs on to your arm and begs you for food. Then in contrast to all of this is "officialdom", i.e. the police, the army, the navy, etc. who walk around importantly in starched white uniforms and highly polished shoes. There are the very rich, who I suppose we haven't seen, but we did go into the Taj and we have noticed some very luxurious yachts in the harbour. And then there are the rest of the population who you see rushing about their daily chores. The Indian people are mainly very slim. They walk erect with an air of importance and the knowledge of a place to go. You don't get many smiles, the people are serious. At least, this is my "bird's eye" view as a tourist having spent 3 days in Mumbai.
On Thursday we rented a car and a driver and went around a small part of the city. We saw most of the main sights that are in the tourist books, and many more. The more interesting of the sights were the house where Gandhi had stayed, and the laundry ( I need my book to fill the names in here). On Friday, we took a ferry 10km to the Elephanta Caves, abut an hour over, two hours there, and an hour back. The island contains a series of cave-temples which it is thought were carved into the volcanic rock somewhere around AD 450-750. The main theme is a Hindu temple and depicts the Brahmin, Vishnu, and Shiva gods. There is a huge and spectacular carving depicting this. Our guide told us that when the Portuguese ruled Mumbai they used the carvings as target practice, and all construction work was stopped.
We have read the local papers and noted some different social problems from ours, for example: spitting, a health hazard; spitting "paan" which is a mixture of tobacco and other ingredients wrapped in bechtel nut leaf and which is mildly narcotic, when spit, the red dye from the mixture leaves nasty stains and costs the government millions to clean up; the noise level, its horrendous, your ears get sore with all the honking, ringing of bicycle bells, sound of the traffic, and the chatter of people. India continues to evolve from its British roots and is realizing the necessity of change in order to manage its vast numbers of people and keep up with the global world.
On the global scale, India is concerned about Obama's plan for Afghanistan. Its main fear is that there is no control over aid going to Pakistan and that this aid is ending up in the hands of the Taliban. There is a huge fear, and quite real I believe, that the Taliban once in Pakistan, will be able to penetrate India quite easily. This is a very serious problem here.
We have wandered through markets alive with people in colourful sarees and other dress buying and selling their produce and goods. We have seen the largest laundry in the world where clothes are washed in hundreds of concrete tubs and hung outside to dry. We have seen slums and houses which in our priviledged western lives we couldn't imagine. We have seen elegance and beauty to match the best in the world. When people say India is a country of extremes - it is. It plays with your emotions, it stretches each of your senses, and just when you think you can't listen to one more honk of a car's horn, or ring of a bicycle, or listen to one more child begging you for food, or one more street vendor trying to sell you something, the day ends, and there is a deathly quiet and peace which lulls you to sleep until the next day when it all starts over again.
We head out of Mumbai on Friday night - and I will catch up again with you as soon as possible. In the mean time, Happy Easter to all.
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