Mumbai

While the city has been renamed Mumbai, almost everyone we talked to called it Bombay. Whichever, it’s a big, crowded city, but not as bad as we expected. We were in northern India several years ago with the NC Zoo and decided we didn’t care if we ever came back. We didn’t like the food; it was hot, dusty, dirty and filled with very aggressive sales people and beggars. On top of it, you had to pay a lot of money and go through a complicated process to get a visa.

So why come back? It was on the ship’s itinerary and we vowed to dip our toes in and get right back on the ship. Guess what! We had a great time in southern India. Don’t know if it’s just the difference between north and south, or we’ve mellowed or we just got lucky and had a great experience. We enjoyed a couple lunches off the ship—in restaurants, not markets or street stalls—and the food was great. We didn’t feel “attacked” by street people. And, we had some really interesting cultural experiences. Not sure we’ll come back, but the thought isn’t so daunting.

It’s an interesting time in India. Elections started this last week and will continue for 6 weeks. During the elections, taverns are closed, although hotels are still allowed to serve alcohol. Locals line up in HUGE lines at the state-run liquor stores to buy alcohol. In Goa, the whole mining industry has shut down until after elections. After a survey, the government discovered 115 mining companies that hadn’t registered with the government and, therefore, weren’t paying taxes. Instead of just closing the 115, they closed all until a new government can straighten it out. In Mumbai, many streets are torn up, whether they needed it or not. Our guide told us this makes the government look like it’s doing something. The future of India will be interesting.

The first day we took a ship’s tour “Mumbai: Off the Beaten Track” and it was great. We started at the Gate of India (Picture 1). This was built in 1911 to celebrate King George and Queen Mary’s visit to Mumbai. The Royal Yacht docked here with all the royal ceremonies that you can imagine. Interestingly, it’s also where the last British troops left India in 1947. Today it’s a gathering place. You have to go through security and have your bag searched to get to the gate, but once there you can do wonderful people watching.

Picture 2 shows why security is so tight in the area. It is a picture of the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, which in November of 2008 was attacked by terrorist, resulting in several deaths. It was built in 1903 by Jamsedji Tata—part of the Tata family, which seems to own everything in India! Rumor has it that he built a hotel grander than any of the upscale English hotels because he had been refused entry in an English hotel, which allowed “Whites Only”. It’s a lovely hotel with a grand staircase under the large dome (which was almost impossible to photograph) and we had a great Indian buffet lunch.

Following this, we went to the Church Gate train station for an opportunity to “ride the rails”. At the train station we came upon one of the most successful entrepreneurial businesses we’ve seen. Picture 3 shows a young man with a large number of lunch boxes on his head, on his way to deliver them to their owners for lunch. His wife will have packed it at home; it will be picked up at the house and delivered to the office for approximately $6.00 per month. The business is entirely dependent on on-time trains and has received recognition for it’s successful delivery rate—well over 99%.

The trains keep Mumbai running. Picture 4 shows our first class comfort, which cost us 8 cents a piece to go 5 stops. The trains aren’t air conditioned, so doors and windows remain open. As trains pass, you will see passengers hanging out the doors—sometimes for the cool breeze and sometimes because it’s packed with 3 times the people it was designed for!

Our destination on the train was Mahalakshmi dhobhi ghat. This is a laundry service unique to Mumbai. The area, shown in Picture 5, is a vast system of vats, where men bring laundry they’ve collected to wash, boil in starch, dry and press. If you look carefully at Picture 6, you’ll see one man working at his vat, which contains not particularly clean-looking water. Water is changed once in the morning and once in the afternoon, but beating the clothes on stones and bleach powder supposedly make things clean. In times past, English women sent their clothing here for laundering. Over time, they found that beating on stones damaged buttons and shortened the life of fabrics. Today, the laundry is largely uniforms or newly-manufactured clothing that says “pre-washed in India”. What a sight!

We made a quick stop at Mani Bhavan, which was Mahatma Ghandi’s home from 1917-1934. They’ve preserved his room on the second floor (Picture 7). For such a great man, it was a very simple home and a museum, which told about his life in dioramas, kind of like you do in elementary school, with simple figures wrapped in cloths. I’m sure every city has some memorial to Ghandi and this appears to be a minor one.

Our next stop was extremely interesting. Hidden in the bustle of the city is Khotachiwadi, an urban village, with houses dating from the 18^th and 19^th centuries. The Portuguese settled here and Picture 8 shows the prettiest street in the village. Unfortunately, the owners of these houses are being offered huge sums of money for the land, in order to build skyscrapers. We visited the house in the center of the picture, which is owned by one of India’s first fashion designers, James Ferriera, who is trying to raise money to keep the houses from being sold to developers. For a sum of money, which he donates to his foundation, he brings in select groups of tourists for tea. We also got to see his workshop and samples of his work, which were gorgeous. He specializes in silk garments with one seam.

We stopped at Victoria Station (Picture 9) for a quick picture. This Victorian creation has achieved World Heritage status, although the statue of Queen Victoria has been removed to a garden where they keep British relics. While the train station has been lovingly maintained, most colonial building are less fortunate. Picture 10 shows a typical shop/apartment block, which is much worse for wear. Rick mused about starting a pressure washing and sand blasting business….

Our final stop was at the fruit and vegetable market. The wholesale portion, which is shown in Picture 11, was slowing down for the day.  But the public section was very crowded, although our guide told us it was nothing compared to shopping prior to festivals, when you often can’t move! Picture 12 shows a fairly typical vegetable merchant.

The next morning we visited 2 temples before our noon departure. The first temple was a Jain Temple. The front is shown in Picture 13. This religious group is very nonviolent, wearing masks while they pray, so they don’t accidently swallow an insect. They’re obviously vegetarian and won’t eat root vegetables because insects are killed digging around in the earth. We asked our guide about eating other vegetables because insects might be injured when seeds are planted in the ground. She replied that they are not farmers, but will eat non-root vegetables planted by others. She followed this with “It makes no sense to me, either.”

During worship, the congregation builds swastikas with their offering, which is mostly rice. Picture 14 shows an example. In the case of the Jains, the Swastika represents the 4 worlds where one can be reborn. Incidentally, Swastikas have been used for centuries in eastern religions—greatly pre-dating Hitler.  Picture 15 shows worshipers inside the temple hall. Note the covered mouths.

We also visited a Hindu temple, where we were not allowed to take pictures. Hinduism is a great mystery to us, with over 300 million gods and an ever-changing set of beliefs. The temple was not beautiful and all we could figure out was that you bring an offering in and you’re given a piece of the offering to take out. Quite a mystery to us….

We also learned some about the Parsis, which are a sect of Zoroastrians (also a mystery to us). Parsi means Persian, where the religion originated. Bombay is the center of Parsis in India. They base their beliefs on earth, wind, water and fire and, therefore, cannot use fire to cremate the dead, nor can they bury the dead and pollute the earth. When a Parsi dies, the body is carried to the nearest Tower of Silence (no tourists allowed), where the family turns it over to a priest and the workers, who carry it to the top of the tower and place it on a metal grate. The vultures then eat all the flesh in 2-3 hours, followed by a bleaching of the bones and the bones eventually fall through the grate. Very interesting!

Picture 16 shows something that doesn’t happen very often. Seabourn only has 6 ships and they roam the world. For the first time in our history, 2 docked side-by-side in Mumbai. We’re on the Sojourn and that’s the Odyssey in front of us.

Finally, Picture 17 shows our final view of Bombay: the Taj Mahal Hotel and Gateway of India from our ship. It was a hazy day—much of it pollution—so the picture is not clear. We sailed away happy that we had given India another chance.