Day 46 ~ Mumbai

As my friend Kristy says, “We’re not in Singapore anymore.”

As we neared Mumbai, the air quality was even worse than in Cochin (though later in the day, I saw a sign telling me it was a “Good Day. No Precautions Required.") We, however, took precautions. Both the DH and I put on health masks before we headed out for our tour.

Once we disembarked, we boarded a shuttle bus that took us about 100 yards to the terminal door. We weren’t allowed to walk even that short distance because…well, those are the rules. In the terminal, after we and our go-bag were run through a metal detector, we had to produce the same landing cards we’d been given in Cochin. I have to say, the Indian version of TSA was very considerate after they saw that the DH and I were connected by my 7 foot cannula. They waved us through for a cursory pat down instead of making the DH take Travel Herkimer out of his backpack and put him through the x-ray machine. (In contrast, the TSA agent in St. Louis even made me take my cannula off my face, stick it in a plastic bag and run it through the x-ray.  Hey! It’s a clear plastic tube! I thought but didn’t dare say. Heavy sigh…my tax dollars at work.)  

Men usually wear western style  clothing, but women wear beautiful saris or kurdies (long tunic & pants.)

Just riding the tour bus through the streets of this city of 20 million souls was an adventure. It was chaos on steroids. In this case, a picture will make my point more eloquently than words.

Hand carts share the streets with cars,trucks, buses and pedestrians. There's more honking than in Gershwin's An American In Paris! 

On the way to visit a Jain Temple, we passed an area called “The Queen’s Necklace” because at night it glitters with light. 

The Jain Temple, built in 1904, is in the Malabar section of town, an upscale area. We were only allowed to enter the courtyard of this gorgeously garish place of worship.

Our tour guide described the Jain religion as very strict. Devotees believe all life is sacred and some even cover their mouths lest they inadvertently swallow a bug. We watched this worshipper move from one shrine to the next and at one point, he rang a bell.

Note the beautiful marble and intricate carvings.

Our next stop was Kamala Nehru Park and Hanging Gardens. The Gardens are built over a huge cistern that captures monsoon rains. At the park, we encountered several groups of children on a lunchtime outing. They were completely adorable, and several of them gave me shy smiles and waves. My friend Kristy missed her grandkids all the more. 
  

The Old Woman and the Shoe is a good allegory for Mumbai. With a population of 20 million, the city is 150% over capacity.

On the way to Dhobi Ghat, our next stop, we drove past a heavily wooded area that surrounded a Tower of Silence. It is not a tourist destination. It’s a place used by a sect of Zoroastrianism called Parsi. This is where they bring their dead. Only pall bearers are allowed to enter the grounds and climb the tower. Once there, they leave the dear departed lying in the open for the natural elements and birds to dispose of. There are five such towers located around the city. (After our guide offered us this admittedly gruesome insight into local culture, one of the passengers started in with some wildly culturally offensive questions, which I feel duty bound to discuss in a later post. Stay tuned for what not to do and say in a foreign country.)

Dhobi Ghat

At Dhobi Ghat, thousands of men labor over the dirty linens of the city's businesses in a vast open-air laundry. Starting early in the morning, the stone cisterns are filled with water and the men wash all the items by hand. After they air dry, they are ironed and delivered back to the businesses where they belong. The washers live where they work in the humble dwellings with their wives and families.

A word about family arrangements in India. Marriages are still arranged here, though there are beginning to be more of what our guide called “love marriages.” In Mumbai, a married woman leaves her family and goes to live with her husband’s parents and his brothers and their wives in a big extended family relationship. By contrast, in Cochin, our guide told us he had to move to his wife’s family’s home and is responsible for caring for his mother and father-in-law in their old age.

Then in this jam-packed tour, we were treated to a visit to the home of Mahatma Gandhi, which has been turned into a museum showcasing the events of his life and his world-changing accomplishments. His library alone was enough to make me honor the man. Unfortunately, there were 4 or 5 tour buses of people trying to work their way through the relatively small three story residence so I handed my phone off to Kristy to capture the dioramas on the 2^nd and 3^rd floors while the DH and I waited with her hubby Dave outside. (She took some wonderful shots, but my iPhone is currently at war with my PC laptop and the two of them refuse to talk to each other long enough for me to download them.)

The crowning glory for me was the Prince of Wales Museum dedicated by George V. It houses a superb collection of Indian art, which we had all of 25 minutes to peruse at our leisure. Ha! Since we knew it was impossible to see it all, we decided to truly see the things we looked at. We limited ourselves to two rooms of 6^th-12^th century statuary. Incredible! One of our most serendipitous finds was a 7^th century wheel of astronomical charts. Amazingly enough, those ancient sculptors saw a number of the same things in the constellations that the Arabs and Greeks did. We clearly recognized Scorpio, Leo, the scales of Libra, and Pisces the fish.

Unfortunately, no photography was allowed inside but the DH snapped this pic of the reclining Buddha head outside. The ears of the Buddha are always depicted as elongated to remind people that he was a noble, and presumably wore heavy, costly earrings that stretched his lobes before he renounced it all for enlightenment. The back side of the head was hollow and held this reclining figure. The DH says it’s a woman, because that’s what men think about. I’m not so sure. Several eastern deities are depicted in quite androgynous manners. I think it might be the Buddha himself.

If we’re ever fortunate enough to return to Mumbai, we’ll hire a taxi and spend the day in the Prince of Wales museum, wandering in wonder and contemplation of art that is in many cases more than a thousand years old.

Our final stop was at the Gateway of India, an iconic yellow basalt triumphal arch built in 1911. Across the bustling street stands the Taj Mahal Hotel, site of that horrific terrorist attack in 2007. It’s been completely restored and security is now, as our destination specialist says, “tighter than Fort Knox.”.

Vicky and Craig hosted the Table 60 gang to one last sail-away on their Owner’s Suite balcony. The guys all reverted to middle school humor when they saw some of the words painted on a German ship berthed near the Pacific Princess.

I tried to tell the guys that the "ahr" in "Fahrt" rhymes with "air," but they weren't buying it!

It’s such fun to hang out with this group. We laugh all the time. Here’s little sample of our conversations.

Craig (retired fire captain): Inhaling all that smoke over the years means firemen tend to die 10 to 15 years sooner than most people.

Me: And that’s why we buy your calendars!

Vaugan (retired CPA): Wonder why no one ever buys Accountant Calendars?

More tomorrow...