Mumbai Magic

MUMBAI, INDIA--Saturday, April 24, 2010

It's time for Mumbai Magic. If you are like us and think this city is still named Bombay, here's the lowdown. The original name of the city was Mumbai, for Mumbadevi, the patron Goddess of the Kolis, a fishing community and the city's oldest inhabitants. The Portugese renamed it Bombay, which means beautiful bay. On August 15, 1947, India gained independence from British rule and on January 26, 1950, India became a republic. In 1996, the government changed the name back to the original name Mumbai to be more Indian. The government also changed the name of the Prince of Wales Museum to some extremely long name that can not be pronounced by tourists but forgot to take down the statue of the Prince. So what's in a name?

Credit for this fabulous tour should be given to MaryAnn and John who read the entry in the blog of 2009 World Cruise passenger Michelle (Greetings, Michelle!) that this was the best tour ever. Enough passengers signed up for two touring vans, and MaryAnn quickly became our Patron Saint of Mumbai. Traveling on our van, in addition to MaryAnn, John and we, were Mary and Ed, Adele and Ed, and Heather and Jens from Toronto, Canada. Special thanks should be given to our tour guide Vinita and the tour guide for the second van Jennette, who were fantastic. If you ever travel to Mumbai, our recommendation is to contact Mumbai Magic Tours at deepa@mumbaimagic.com. The tour is run by a women management team and Deepa is Deepa Krishnan.

India is a country that a tourist cannot just visit; the person needs to be surrounded by it and, sometimes, assaulted by it. Members of the ships crew who are from India and participated in a panel discussion the day before we arrived, asked us to enter Mumbai with an open mind. Yes, there is unbelievable poverty with the city boasting the world's largest slum. Much of the city is dirty, deary and run down. We always try to compare a new city to another city where we have been, and our first choice for Mumbai was the seedier parts of New York City but that was too easy. The poorer parts of Mumbai could easily have been in any city in which we have worked or lived. The contrast between the very rich and the very poor is overwhelming. The caste system is alive and well with four castes (the Priests, the Traders, the Warriors and the Laborers) with those who did not follow the rules of their caste being thrown out as the Untouchables, who were treated very badly. Always remember that outsiders do not have to like or embrace these traditions, they need only understand them. (The McDonalds in India does not serve beef.)

Before our tour, Mary asked Ken to take a picture of the jewel that her granddaughter Erin had given her to take around the world (much like the way we are taking our mascot Punxsutawney Phil). This picture is for you, Erin! Once we boarded our van, we drove through the port area, which is the largest port in India that handles 40 percent of India's trade where we saw day workers dressed in perfectly pressed long pants and long-sleeved shirts, looking extremely neat. In the city, there are no rickshaws and cows need to be tied and with an attendant who carries grass. Residents give the attendant money for the grass as part of their duty and then feed the cow, which may not even be the attendant's cow but a rental. Vinita told us that most of the buildings are Hindu/Muslim architecture with slightly Gothic influence.

We got off the van at the Gateway to India. In 1911, a plaster of Paris arch was built for the visit of King George and Queen Mary, which was filmed by Charles Urban in a move called "With our King and Queen through India." Later this temporary structure was replaced by a more permanent one known as the Gateway to India. We boarded the ferry to Elephanta Island about 10 kilometers and a one-hour ride away. Vendors set up shop on the boat to sell us their necklaces with genuine stones. (Does this remind you of Egypt, Judy?) We saw boats on which people lived and viewed men showering. We also saw many yachts that our guide told us may belong to the young people of India who pool their money to purchase yachts so they can go out on the bay and sea on the weekends. We were warned to watch the monkeys on the island and not eat anything in front of them because they will grab it.

Elephanta Island, which dates back to the sixth century, was named by the Portugese who, when reaching the island, saw a stone elephant and shouted, "Elephanta!" They thought that nothing else in the world could come to life breathing the spirit like this elephant. The walk up to the one cave out of six that is finished and open to the public is by 100 meandering steps with stores lining both sides. During the renaissance period in the next century, the Indians built a temple in that cave dedicated to Shiva, the three-in-one Hindu god with many arms and hands for multitasking who controls creation, maintenance and destruction of the world and his beloved Parvati in their Himalayan abode of Kailash. This was definitely a preview for the temples in Egypt. Larger than life-sized carvings depict the creation of the world, the marriage of Shiva and Parvati, his destruction of evil who were trying to steal his wife, and our favorite, Parvati angry because she lost two card games and Shiva attempting to appease her by telling her that she could win the third. The opening to the temple in the cave faces East so that the foot of one statue catches the first ray of sun. After we toured the cave, we were drenched in perspiration. April is summer in India with hot and humid weather.

On the way down, we bartered with the vendors for necklaces, purses, saris, tunics, paintings on silk and other Indian treasures. If one does not want to walk, chair-palanquins carried by four men are available for a fee. We heard people running behind us and yelling for us to get out of the way. We looked to see Adele fly by, dismissing us with her hand and ordering the men to sweep us to the side (or at least that's what her facial expression conveyed!). She said it was one of the most frightening experiences of her life because the men ran so fast. At the bottom of the steps, we had the opportunity to photograph a cow that had come with its owner and was wandering freely through the stalls.

Once we had taken the ferry back to the dock, we walked through the Taj Mahal Hotel that the terrorists had captured and held staff and visitors hostage in 2008. It was built by a member of the well-to-do Tartar family, who noticed a sign at another hotel that stated "No Admittance to Dogs or Natives" so he had the building designed as a hotel. Legend has it that when the architect visited the hotel after it was completed, he found that the building had been constructed front to back but it is still one of the most beautiful hotels in the world. We ate lunch at a typical Indian restaurant. Melanie and Gideon, we wish that you could experience that culinary delight. None of the Indian restaurants in the United States where we have dined come close in flavor and spice. Ken ate everything (including a chili pepper that our guide wished he had not tried) and paid for it that night!

The afternoon tour included many of the must-sees in Mumbai. Every attraction has a story behind it so these are the stories behind the stories:

SMALL AND LARGE TRAIN STATIONS: Everyday 1 and 1/2 million people come through the small train station, which is called the small train station because 4 and 1/2 million people pass through the large train station daily as do 11,000 trains. It looks chaotic but our guide assured us that it is organized chaos. The lion and tiger that guard the large train station represent England and India.

CHOWPATTY BEACH: Empty during the day, the Chowpatty Beach transforms into a magical fair ground in the evening. Indian people like the sun but from the shade so they come to the beaches in the evenings.

JAIN TEMPLE: This beautiful marble shrine is used by the Jains, who want to separate themselves from earthly possessions and believe that every living thing has a soul. They are not farmers because tilling the soil could kill an ant or an insect. Before they sit, they brush away any insects so they do not accidentally kill them. One sect, that is not allowed in the city, walk around naked so that they have no earthly possession. The temple is a beautiful marble shrine.

BOLLYWOOD: Mumbai is the Hollywood of India. Our guide told us that actors and actresses are treated as if they were gods and goddesses and now they think they are. India used to produce only happy movies with good winning over evil, and the audiences clapping and singing at the end of the film. Now, the country produces more meaningful movies that are a bit depressing.

KAMALA NEHRU PARK AND HANGING GARDENS: When these gardens were laid our in 1881 over a series of descending reservoirs, the flora and fauna looked like they were hanging above the water. Now that the park had been filled in, this illusion no long exists but the topiaries and other plants in the gardens are graceful and lovely. The gardens also offer panoramic views of the city and bay. Sara's only regret is that she did not buy any peacock fans from the vendors that hounded us on out walk through the park and gardens. The peacock is the national bird of India.

TOWERS OF SILENCE: The Indians have an old tradition and an ancient practice of disposing of their dead by leaving on this hill to be eaten by vultures, which is the last ultimate sacrifice of feeding the birds. However, there are fewer vultures now and a lack of rain, so the government has installed solar panels to speed up the decomposition.

CRAWFORD MARKET: If we thought that the Night Market in Hong Kong was huge, we were overwhelmed by this market that comes to life in the late afternoons. There are stalls are on each side of the street with more stalls on the side streets. At the Thieves Bazaar, rumor has it that most of the goods are stolen and residents can buy back their items that were stolen, such as bicycles, at bargain prices.

PUBLIC LAUNDRY: This laundry was built by the British. Workers come to the homes, collect the clothes, wash them on stones, dry them in the sun, and return the sparkling, clean-smelling laundry within a week with no stains even though the water looks greenish black. Men with push carts return them to the owners. However, this is a dying profession because more people have washers or hire help cheaply who wash their clothes.

DUBBA or TIFFIN TIN LUNCHBOX DELIVERY SERVICE: (We will check the spelling when we get home.) According to our guide, Indian men are lazy because they were spoiled by their mothers. (Okay, all our women friends do not need to say that all men are spoiled by their mothers.) To satisfy the Indian male's need for a home-cooked meal at lunch, this delivery service was started. The wife or hired help prepares a lunch that is picked up by the service and delivered to the husband at his office. The error rate in 1 in 6 million, which has members of this service giving management training lectures all over the world.

Some final thoughts from our tour guide include that Mumbai is very kind to women. The buses have special seats for women, the elderly and the disabled. Women can go out at night and not be hassled. Parking in the city is terrible with 110 cars being added daily. Drivers honk their horns constantly. While there are silent zones in the city, no one knows where they are. Do not judge India at the first glance. More than one-half of the residents live in the slums where the buildings look bad from the outside because they are under rent control. In the slums, life is organized, the inside of the homes are clean, and the residents do not care about the outside. Banana vendors and beggars have cell phones. The people have a great sense of joy and are happy. Remember that for the people who are born here, life is normal.

The day after our visit, our deputy tour director Frankie held a discussion session titled "Mumbia: Delightful or Disgusting?" Frankie told us that it is another planet from what we are used to seeing. The hassle and red tape makes it not easy to get anything done, the city is much cleaner than what it was when he first visited Mumbai, and the richer a society becomes, the more selfish it becomes. Comments from passengers included that so much of what happens in the West is behind closed doors but in India, it is out in the open: American students know if a class has mostly Indian students, the Americans are screwed; and many found China so much more than they expected and India so much less.

One man who had taught in India in a walled city told us that most of his students arrived in chauffeured vehicles or drove Porsches. They never noticed the poverty outside the city. When he returned to the United States, he went to homes that experienced the same poverty. Some attendees wanted to know where he worked. Try any city in the US for starters.

The final thought from Frankie should be considered by all: Just by luck any of us could have been born in these countries. Everyday we should be thankful for what we have.