Final entries.
Days 15 and 16
Day 15
Today we picked up a local guide who is originally from the far eastern state of Manipur. It is almost above Myanmar-Burma. You can see that her features look more south Asian than what we normally think of a traditional Indian look.
It’s going to take us awhile to get to our destination! Mumbai traffic. In the heart of Mumbai, tuktuks are forbidden. They can be used in the suburbs. To get an idea of how extensive the suburbs are, it can take her 2 hours by train to get to our hotel!
Cricket players. Indians are very serious about cricket
Ticket
If you’ve read Katherine Boo’s Beyond the Beautiful Forevers, you know about the illegal slum by the airport. Today we visited the Dharavi slum where about 1 million people live. It is legal slum. That means that they pay taxes and get service— electricity and water. Notice I didn’t say plumbing. Many many families use a shared public toilet. 60% of Mumbai’s population live in one of these slums.
This couple is from Tamil Nadu and Leo could speak to them in Tamil. They sell about 250 plates of fruit each day. There are flies on the fruit
families.
We take off our shoes before entering a home.
Then we went to an upscale neighborhood where Gandhi often stayed with a wealthy friend. It is now a museum.
The room where he stayed.
The museum was filled with detailed dioramas on his life.
Mumbai was originally 7 sleepy fishing villages.
The British filled in the water with mud making if one big city. You can see the map of Mumbai today.
Our guide also mentioned that when Gandhi was ill, he went to a hospital built by the Jewish Iraqi merchants and philanthropist Sasson family where he was treated for free.
Day 16. Final Day
Final day. Today we went to Dhobi Ghat is an open air laundry in Mumbai, India. It was constructed in 1890. The washers, known as dhobis, work in the open to wash clothes and linens…
Getting out tough stains!
Then we met a dubba walla. These are the lunch men. People commuting early in morning don’t have time to prepare a lunch. They don’t eat sandwiches or leftovers so they have an elaborate system for making and delivering lunches.
Traditional lunch containers which must contain 4 things. I think rice, curry,Dahl , and I’m not sure about the last.
Then we went for our last group meal. We went to a Gujarati thali meal that was excellent. Whenever we go for a meal, we don’t see any Indians— until we are almost ready to leave. Traditionally, their lunch around 1:30 or 2 and dinner is around 8 or later.
Then our guide said she wanted to take us to the train station. I thought “Ho,hum.” Boy was I wrong. It was built by British and originally called Victoria station for a certain queen. Since independence it’s been renamed. Some outside photos.
Detailed look.
She could only take us in because it wasn’t very crowded, not rush hour. Looked busy to us.
The difference between first and second class is you pay much more for first class — which means the train is less crowded.
This is where they filmed the famous scene in Slumdog Millionaire. They had to do it over 15 nights between 2-4 AM. Otherwise the station is too crowded. 3.5 million people ride the trains each day.
Original windows.
In 2008 Pakistani terrorists entered the station and killed 58 people and injured 104. This a memorial to those who died and were injured.
Someone reading the blog asked, since this is your second trip to India, what draws you to it. I can’t exactly say. Certainly it isn’t the crowds, traffic, or trash. But there is great vitality about it and its rich cultures. There are 22 official languages and 1600 dialects!
Some people say the north is less religious but I think it’s more that it is less obvious. There aren’t these huge shrines in the north. It’s more like they go to their neighborhood temple, like a neighborhood church or synagogue.
The northerners are tall and lighter skinned than the darker,shorter southerners. Most northerners speak Hindi and the southerners speak one of theDravidian languages. Southern food is spicier and a lot of coconut and local rice. The northerners use basmati rice that is drier and won’t grow in the south. If northerners and southerners are speaking to each other, it is probably in English.
Sign on the inside of the elevator door. Sounds like a good idea.
Several of us decided to go out for a final dinner. It wasn’t easy to walk down the street.
The hopping restaurant where we were lucky to get a table.
Rice straw that was surprisingly hard and functional.
My dinner companions.
And then walking back we were accosted by street merchants.
I feel like there’s so much to say about Indians and religion. No matter the religion, it’s not a casual thing. It seems to dominate not just religious practices but total world view and experience of life. Hinduism
It is extremely confusing as there many gods who change names and forms as they reincarnate. It’s easy for me to want to westernize it say they are worshipping different aspects of our one God, but I know that’s not really accurate. It’s hard to grasp that in the family one person worships Vishnu and another Parvati. I think you just need to live it to understand it. Though Leo gets it. All of his relatives are Hindu— except his parents — one was Protestant and one was Catholic and he was raised Catholic, but he totally understood both the religion and the symbols on all the Temples.
Thanks for joining me on this journey, whether you just scrolled through photos or actually read the posts.
Next adventure: Kate is joining me on a trip to Iceland with a short post trip to Greenland. There have been a lot of jokes about how we might not need our passports!!! I hope we do. !!!
What an adventure you've had. Many thanks for sharing it. I feel as though I now understand a bit more about the differences between Northern and Southern India.
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