Mumbai Moments

It's been awhile since I posted a sunrise shot like this, but the air quality was so poor in the early hours as we sailed in that it's very hard to see the cityscape in my other photos.  There were many of these ships moored in the harbor, but we never figured out their purpose.  They were much bigger than the fishing boats we have seen all through Asia, but too small to be cargo carriers.  

Mumbai, formerly called Bombay, has over 21 million residents.  The city lies on what used to be seven separate islands.  A land  reclamation project from 1782-1838 joined the islands.  The history of the city involves the Portuguese, the British East India Company, and the rule of the British Raj as in the other ports we have visited on the west coast of India.  Consequently, the architecture of the historical heart of the city is a mixture of Gothic Revival, Indo-Saracenic, and Art Deco.  The presence of these beautiful colonial buildings contributed to my enjoyment of this city.  

The premier landmark of Mumbai is the Gateway of India, built to commemorate the visit of King George V and Queen Mary (Queen Elizabeth's parents) in 1911.  It was built in the Indo-Saraceni style and completed in 1924.  It stands regally on the waterfront and at the time, would have been the first structure seen by any who approached from the sea.

The Taj Mahal Palace Hotel was first opened in 1903 adjacent to the Gateway of India.  At present it has 600 rooms and has housed rulers and celebrities. 

I know this is a terrible photo as I was shooting into the sun, but it's the best I have of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, formerly called the Victoria Terminus.  You'll need to imagine  the left side of the buildings as symmetrical to the right which is shown.  I couldn't fit the whole thing in my lens.  It was built in 1887 in the Gothic Revival style to commemorate the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria.  It's 18 platforms handle 1,250 trains and 3 million passengers a day, making it the busiest train station in the world.

Adjacent to the Victoria Terminus is The Municipal Corporation Building.  It houses the civic body that governs the city of Mumbai.

Another bad photo taken from the moving bus, but it shows the clock tower of the Mumbai University on the other side of the cricket field.  Our guide told us that Indians not only play cricket, they eat, drink, and breathe cricket.










                                 



Our tour took us to the Kamala Nehru Children's Park.  It's always a little surprising to see American movie characters displayed half-way across the world.  The tree is a banyan, the national tree of India.

From an overlook at the edge of the park we could look out on the cityscape along Marine Drive, or the Queen's Necklace as it is especially referred to when lit up at night.  It was Saturday and the beach was busy.

 We drove to the edge of the Dhobi Ghat, the world's largest open air laundry.  The dobhis do the laundry for small hotels and hospitals.

Each day, 7000 workers collect clothes and linens from around the city, wash them in concrete wash pens...

dry them on lines, iron and fold and deliver them to the place of origin.

We went to the house where Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi lived for 17 years from 1917-1934.  Mahatma was not his first name, but is an honorific and means "great soul".  The house, named Mani Bhavan, belonged to a friend who hosted him there.  It is now a museum containing photos of his life and the few simple articles he owned.  One can see the second-story room where he slept and worked.  In this room are two of his spinning wheels, or charkhas.  His teachings encouraged the use of the charkhas as a means to self-sufficiency and independence.  A stylized spinning wheel is seen on the flag of India.  One room of the museum was filled with dioramas like the one on the bottom right which showed events in Gandhi's life using small models.  

Another view of Marine Drive in the modern city of Mumbai.

This the the most expensive private residence in the world called Antilia.  It is owned by India's richest man, Mukesh Ambani, the chairman of Reliance Industries.  The home cost around $2 billion to build.  It has 27 floors and a staff of 600 to maintain it.  From the house one can look over one of the slums of Mumbai which house 1 million people. One more of the contrasts which we saw at every turn in India.

I went by myself on a second excursion while in Mumbai which took me to three markets.  The first one was in the Gulal Wadi neighborhood.  Several streets branched out from a central hub, each street with a different commodity.  There are also about 100 temples in the area.  It was just my luck that we went from the temple to the central hub through this alley.  Our guide gave us 30 minutes of free time to explore.  I saw one of our lecturers, a young woman of about 40 named Carin Bondar and asked if she would like a buddy for companionship and safety.  She was thrilled to go to the fabric alley with me and said that her mother is a quilter.  I exhibited supreme self-control and only bought three 1/2 meter pieces to share with my crazy quilt friends.  I would have loved to buy out the place!

I have to say that my favorite part of India was looking at the gorgeous patterns and vibrant colors of the traditional women's clothing.  

While riding in the bus through the streets of Mumbai, at every turn there was something remarkable to see.  Many people eke out a living by selling something or providing a small service.  The cows are considered sacred and are allowed to wander through the streets foraging for food.  I think this woman was trying to feed them, but they may have just taken advantage of what she was trying to sell.  Vendors seemed to display their wares, no matter how simple, where ever they could--on a tarp on the ground, or on a cart in the street. 

Crawford Market is the big fruit and vegetable market.  Stall after stall of fresh tropical fruits and vegetables provide many choices for this largely vegetarian population.  The basket on the left of the bottom photo contains the hat that is worn to protect the head and provide a flatter surface when carrying the baskets.

Carrying large, heavy loads on ones head is common practice.  The man on the left is wearing the traditional lungi made of Madras fabric.

This man drove his ox-cart and shared the street with the autos.

       

    Although there is a public water supply, many people prefer the water that is delivered in small water-tank trucks.  I watched as this man walked down the street with his jug on his head.  When he reached the store, the owner brought out his container and lined the opening with gauze.  The water man proceeded to pour the water from his jug into the store's container.

                                           

  Even though our guide said there are laws about honking car horns, you'd never guess it.  In some places, the honking seemed like one continual blare.  The guide said residents don't understand why all drivers proceed with their thumb on the horn button, but joked it might be their way of saying "I don't have a driver's license, stay away from me."

I'm glad we ended our visit to India in Mumbai.  All of us on the ship had been pretty amazed and saddened by the conditions we saw in our first ports of call, but I felt that Mumbai was making efforts to modernize and improve the sanitation of the city.  I even saw people sweeping the streets by hand to clean up the leaves.

But the irony of this scene was not lost on me. 

At our last market visit, Carin and I had a fun adventure.  She needed a couple of new tunics to wear for her upcoming lectures, so we went searching.  Our guide had a young man as a helper who shepherded us (holding hands and praying) across the street. When we put our heads in this shop, she saw the mint green chamise and trousers on the right side.  She is a very small woman, so even the smallest size was too big for her.  The clerk said, "No problem, we'll just take it to the tailor."  We told him we had 20 minutes until we had to be back on the bus.  He replied that it could be done in that time. 

With the clerk from the store in the lead, Carin and I, followed by the assistant guide,  walked about 3-4 blocks to a row of men behind their sewing machines.

As we turned down a smaller alley, I heard David's voice in my head saying, "Julia, this is how women get kidnapped and sold into the white slave trade!", but I followed anyway.  

Around another corner the clerk from the store stopped at this doorway and called for the tailor to come down.  He brought his tape and took two measurements.  

He disappeared back up the steps and in the time it took for Carin to take a selfie and get the Instagram name of our assistant guide, he finished, put the chamise back in the bag and threw it down to the clerk.  

We retraced our steps, paid the 1,800 Rupees (about $27), threaded our way through a maze of side-walk souvenir stalls, re-crossed the street hand-in-hand again and got back to the bus before the others started loading.  Once inside, Carin thanked me for going on the adventure with her and said, "We'll always have Mumbai!"