Mumbai, India (Day 2) - Mar 11, 2013

Mumbai originally consisted of islands which were home to communities of fishing colonies. For centuries the islands were under the control of successive indigenous empires. Eventually they ceded to the Portuguese and then were gifted as part of a dowry to Charles II of England on his wedding with Catherine of Braganza, daughter of King John IV of Portugal and then subsequently to the British East India Company. During the mid 18th century the area was reshaped and undertook the reclamation of the area between the seven constituent islands, from the sea. This was completed by 1845 and the construction of major roads and railways began. This transformed Bombay into a major seaport on the Arabian Sea. It became a strong base for the Indian independence movement during the 20th century. Today the thriving cosmopolitan city is the heart beat of India. Mumbai is truly an amazing and incredible city, everything and everyone is out and is seen. Everyone seems to have a function or place in the chain of, well everything, and it just seems to all work. A few quotes from a great movie, The Best Marigold Hotel. It is an “assault on all your senses” and “Everything works out in the end, if it hasn’t worked out it cannot be the end”. Case in point, Jan and I were out on deck the night before arriving here in Mumbai, our usual deck stroll prior to retiring, and there was this strange scent in the air, ah we said, must be India (they say that you can smell Mumbai before even seeing it - well there is some truth to that). As mentioned in the prior Mumbai post, today was out comprehensive tour day of Mumbai, Mumbai in motion as it were. Our first stop today was at the Victoria Terminus (Central Train Station), opened in 1887 for Queen Victoria’s golden jubilee, this station was planned by Frederick William Stevens and was completed in 10 years. Striking, extravagant and swarming with people, the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (Victoria Terminus) is the city’s most exuberant Gothic building which transports about 4 million riders a day - yes 4 million. This is an amazing place, no one carries a briefcase or lunch as there is just no room. Riders are crammed in and hang on and then get pushed out upon arrival, our driver says everyone gets a free massage, we thought, hey, great they have a free massage service for weary passengers, he said, oh no sir, it is due to everyone rubbing each other with their bodies as they get moved around - our pictures do not this train station justice but hopefully you can get the idea. So, I must give some examples of daily life here for many, one has to do with the lunches, as I have indicted that no one packs a lunch due to just no space available. So for lunches... A person leaves for work on the train as mentioned, at home their significant other packs a homemade lunch, could even be a hot lunch and it goes into a lunch container with a number on it (like an address but much simpler). A runner comes to the house, usually on bike or by foot, and picks up this lunch and takes it some blocks to a lunch assembly area. Here it is sorted by placing on to a hand cart (say a flat bed cart of about 5 feet by 10 feet) to determine which train cart it should go on. This new group then runs (literally) to the train station where it arrives at the Terminus and then gets resorted to the hand carts, delivered to a distribution centre, then transferred to the individual runners/bikers to be hand delivered top the office or labour worker by 12:00. At 1:30 this whole cycle is then reversed to deliver the empty lunch container back to its starting point. They do this everyday, five days a week, there are some pictures of the process and it is truly amazing watching it in action. Our next stop was the Crawford Market, oh my what a crazy place, whatever you want it is here, you could by a clove of garlic (one piece) or by the pound, the same with any and all the different spices. There is a cashew stand with flavored cashews, it looked to be about a hundred different choices - amazing. There is seafood area, a butcher area and even a huge area for pets, dogs, cats, birds etc. Crawford market was built in 1871 and is also known as Jyotiba Phule Market and is known for for not only all the goods that it sells but also for its grand architecture. Our tour then headed to Mani Bhawan, which they say is a must visit for all those who wish to learn about Mahatma Gandhi, the torchbearer of Ahimsa or non-violence. This memorial is dedicated to this legendary freedom fighter of India and the Father of the Nation. Gandhi stayed at this house between 1917 and 1934 during India’s freedom struggle. This house pays great tribute to Gandhi with a cordoned off area where he spent much of his time as well as very well two room size picture gallery showing his life’s journey. After touring Gandhi’s house it was off to the Dhobi Ghat, Ghat meaning river or waters edge and Dhobi meaning washing man. This is another amazing site to see in motion and is a unique feature of Mumbai and my second example of daily life, the dhobi (laundryman) will come to your house daily and collect your dirty linen and laundry. He will take it all to the “ghats” which are rows and rows of concrete wash pens, each fitted with its own flogging stone. The clothes are soaked in the sudsy water, thrashed individually on the flogging stones, then tossed into huge vats of boiling starch and hung out in the sun to dry. Once dried they are ironed and then piled into neat bundles, loaded back onto these man powered carts and delivered back to your doorstep. I don’t know what the charge is for this service but I understand that it is a pittance. From here we did a drive by the Flora Fountain and then onto the Marine drive and to the Hanging Gardens - a beautiful park offering grand views of the city. After all this touring it was time for lunch and again a great choice provided by our tour company, Khyber at Fort was the name of the restaurant which specializes in lamb and chicken. A great setting for lunch with excellent service and probably the best lamb and chicken we ever had, moist, delicate and delicious - great mix of spices and sauces. Note, our lunch was served with some sides, including a bowl containing cut limes and green beans. Jan kind of felt like having a bean and grabbed and chomped into one, let’s just say that this was not a bean but a very hot jalapeno pepper - for those who know Jan and her sensitivity around spicy foods, would have a good chuckle watching as she removed this bean from her mouth and tried to remove the hotness from her mouth. Jan did say shortly thereafter that the food did not seem so spicy after this initial hot attack. After our lunch it was back to the ship, a great two days spent here in Mumbai. Some pictures from day two.