As we sailed north to our final stop in India, each port got
larger. Mumbai is the largest city in
India at 17 million, according to the 2005 census. This also makes it one of the world’s largest
cities. We weren’t sure what to expect,
but we certainly didn’t expect to see what we saw!
In the 16th Century the Portuguese named it Bom
Bahia, which meant “Good Bay”’; this was anglicized to Bombay when the British
took over. The name was officially
changed to Mumbai in 1995, honoring the local Hindu goddess, Mumbadevi. Mumbai was built on eight islands which are
now connected by reclaimed land. There
are sixteen languages throughout India; the recognized languages are Hindi
(first) and English (second), and the rest are regional languages that are not
understood in other parts of the country.
When speaking in Hindi, the city is referred to as Mumbai, but when the
people speak in English, they call it Bombay.
Hence our tour guides on both days referred to the city as Bombay.
As we awaited our first shore excursion of two scheduled for
Mumbai, Banganga and the Khotachiwadi Heritage, we wondered what made
us choose that one when we’d never been to Mumbai and would have appreciated
having an overview of this massive city!
But there we were with tickets in hand and the description printed up on
the computer verifying that we’d made this choice for some strange reason!
Our tour guide explained that she had been told that the
city reminded people of Edinburgh, but she couldn’t verify this as she’d never
been to Edinburgh! After her comment, we
really began to notice the similarities in buildings. However the masses of humanity are far more
prevalent in Mumbai, and we were more likely to see a cow on a street corner
than a kilt! Everywhere we looked people
were walking, riding, driving, weaving in and out! What a colorful place. We would have been happy to just sit and
people-watch! Certainly though, we found that everywhere we went the people
were once again greeting us with friendly smiles and waves! As we drove, not only did we enjoy the tour
guide’s commentary, but we were fortunate to sit in front of a very interesting
lady! The last two people on the bus had
been a blind man and his legally-blind wife.
Since there was no place where there were two seats together, the man
sat behind us and his wife sat ahead of us.
The lady seated next to the blind man spent the time when the guide
wasn’t talking describing the urban scenery in great detail. One of the first things she said was that she
had been in Mumbai several years ago and she was very pleased to see that by
comparison with back then, there was very little litter on the streets. We started watching for it also, and in
contrast with Goa, where we saw litter everywhere we looked, we quickly realized
that Mumbai was far cleaner!
Our first stop was at Banganga, an area where there are many
Hindu temples. We alighted from the bus
and began a trek down many stairs, through narrow streets, past small temple
after small temple, arriving at an enormous cleansing pool which Hindus would
use for bathing before worship. This
pool was created from a natural spring which is an offshoot of the Ganges
River. The Ganges is as sacred to Hindus as the Vatican is to Catholics. As we
walked, we could opt to step inside the small temples, but since most of us had
already visited temples in Mangalore and Goa, we didn’t feel the need to once
again remove our shoes and enter temples.
We contented ourselves with peeking in the doors, listening to the rich
sounds of bells and gongs clanging inside the small temples, and watching the
people going about their daily business.
At one point I noticed a man on small side street giving another man a
haircut – right on the sidewalk. People
walked by us pushing carts or balancing things on their heads; all seemed
willing to stop for pictures or to greet us with a smile. One lady who had been to India before
commented, “This is the real India! When I’ve been here
before I’ve never had a chance to get into areas like this.” It truly was amazing to watch these people as
they went about their daily lives.
A short ride took us to Khotachiwadi, an area dating back to
the 17th Century settlements of the Portuguese. The colorful homes were Portuguese style, and
most of the people who lived in this area belonged to The East Indian Roman
Catholic Community. We were invited into the home of one of the people who
lived there and served tea or lemonade and hors d’oeuvres. It was very interesting to get inside a local
home. We went upstairs where there was a
small shop where handmade clothes were available. We had passed a room where
the fabric was being woven. When we exited
the home, we walked through the very narrow streets to view the architecture of
other buildings in the area. I honestly
think that the rear access drive in our subdivision was wider than these
streets, which teemed with pedestrians, vendors with pushcarts, bicycles, and
motorcycles, all performing a seemingly intricate dance to advance through the
neighborhood.
We made a final shopping stop, and on our way we passed the
famous Gateway to India as well as the Taj Hotel, which had been bombed in the
terrorist attack of 2008.
This was the first photo stop on our excursion the second
day in Mumbai. That day we had selected
another wonderful, but very different tour, A Day in the Life: Mumbai on the
Move. Within minutes of leaving
the port, we were exiting the bus in order to take photos of the Gateway to India.
Built in 1911, it commemorated a visit by King George V and Queen Mary,
this archway not only symbolizes
arrival in India but also was the exact location where Britain left India once
and for all, giving them their freedom in 1947. Across the street was the Taj
Hotel, giving us a much better opportunity to get pictures than we did the
previous day! Apparently the best hotel
in India had denied entry to a man who decided that he was going to build an
even better hotel. The result was the
Taj, and the original hotel is now very run-down and not nearly the showcase
that the Taj has become!
Both days we made a quick photo stop at Victoria Terminus,
which was built to look somewhat like St. Pancras Station in London. (For those people who have never been to
London but have seen the Harry Potter movies, St. Pancras is located across the
street from King’s Cross Station and was used for the filming of King’s Cross
exterior in the movies. This will give
you an idea of what Victoria Terminus in Mumbai looks like.) India has the largest network of trains and
is the largest single employer in the world, and Victoria Terminus sees a
half-million passengers every day!
We took quite awhile to visit the Mani Bhawan Gandhi Museum,
the site of Mahatma Gandhi’s base between 1917 and 1934. It is filled with
memorabilia, including letters he wrote to FDR and Hitler, as well as dioramas
that depict important events in his life.
Our guide timed things so that we would be getting of the
bus at Churchgate Station in time to watch the dabba-wallahs in action. Dabba-wallahs are members of the Mumbai
Tiffin Box Suppliers Association. There
are approximately 25,000 dabba-wallahs who go out to homes and pick up tiffin
boxes (stackable aluminum lunch boxes that can hold a multi-course meal), take
them by train into the city, get off the train, separate them according to
destination, where others pick them up and deliver them to the person at
work. This first started in the 1800s
because men were reluctant to eat food if they did not know who had prepared
it. So the wife would prepare it at home
and send it to her husband. At first the
dabba-wallahs were not all literate so various methods were used to identify
the destination of these unique lunch boxes.
Now it has become a real art as the men rush off the station with about
100 lbs of lunches balanced on palates on their heads, deliver them across the
street where they are separated to be carried further to their destinations by
bicycle or other method. After lunch
these boxes are picked up and delivered home again. They virtually never make a
mistake! Our only question was, “Why
can’t the men bring their lunches to work when they leave home in the
morning?” Guess we’ll never know…
We entered the train station, which reminded me of the train
scene in Slumdog Millionaire and
boarded a train for a short ride to Mahalaxmi Station, where we got off to view
the Dhobi Ghat, or laundry. Our guide
had told us that we must hurry because all of us had a total of 30 seconds to
get off the train before it would continue on its way. Glad to know that after so many days on the
ship, we’re still all very quick as nobody was left behind! We walked up the stairs and over the station
to the Dhobi Ghat. There were what appeared to be hundreds of men doing hand
laundry in the local river and hanging it out to dry, then pressing it,
wrapping it in bundles, and returning it to the owners. Once again, these professionals mark the
laundry in such a way that nothing gets lost.
Absolutely amazing!
As we returned to the ship, we got caught in a traffic jam,
which in itself isn’t surprising in this vast and populous city. However, in this case it wasn’t the traffic
that caused the jam. We had timed our
return with a demonstration just outside the Port House, which apparently has
something to do with the Mumbai Port and employs people outside the state of
Maharashtra (of which Mumbai is the capital).
These people were blocking the road waving flags and placards protesting
for the hiring of people within the state rather than outside the state. Fortunately we were only held up for about 15
minutes before the police came along and paved the way for us. I would not have wanted to be the bus driver
who had to back down that narrow street onto the major thoroughfare we had just
left!
I’m not sure what I expected when we came to India, but having
felt very indifferent about seeing India, this was the one part of the trip where
I was not terribly enthused about our stops.
I’m delighted to say that I was very pleased with all three of our
Indian ports! Each was very different,
and each had something unique to offer.
We were received very warmly in all three ports, and I am so glad that
we had this wonderful opportunity! I
enjoyed Mangalore and Goa, but I think I would definitely put Mumbai on my list
of places that I would like to visit again sometime!
While we were in Mumbai our ship was fitted with a little
extra decoration. We are now adorned
with barbed wire that surrounds the ship below the Promenade Deck in
preparation for our tear across the Indian Ocean and (supposedly)
pirate-infested waters!
BT
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