Last
Friday, I finally had a chance to go down to the United States – India
Educational Foundation (USIEF) offices and meet in person the two people who
have been handling most of my correspondence as a Fulbright-Nehru grantee since
before I landed in Mumbai. Typically I would have visited the USIEF offices the
first day I was here, but I’m situated quite far away, and one of the officers
kindly met me at my hotel to go through my initial orientation. This excursion
was also my first chance to visit one of the more iconic areas of Mumbai, Colaba,
where the Gateway of India and the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel are situated.
Fortunately I had a “local” friend go with me to show me around and guide me
through my first ride on the commuter train system.
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| Gateway of India and the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel |
In 2008, there was a coordinated terrorist attack in Mumbai
in 2008 at six highly trafficked areas in around the city. I inadvertently
visited two of the attack sites, the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel and Café Leopold
(I’ll leave it to you to look up the reporting from around the world).
Colaba Causeway is a popular shopping area for
the dedicated “haggler” to peruse everything from tchotchke (knick-knacks)
souvenirs to shoes, clothing and more. Stalls line the sidewalk alongside more
traditional stores in a combined bazaar-street mall. Once again I am reminded of
downtown Kingston, Jamaica, from my childhood on account of the colorful
crafts, the mix of local and foreign brands, and grimy, humid feel of the air
in the press of the crowd. My friend treated me to lunch in Café Leopold and
showed me where they had preserved the bullet holes from the attacks ten years
ago. I overheard a young Australian tourist commenting on getting to see the
bullet holes and eat in the café as a “bucket list” item for him. I’m always
torn about the “sideshow attraction” nature of tragedy and its role in
commerce.
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| Colaba and bullet holes in window of Cafe Leopold |
After
lunch in Colaba we ventured to the Churchgate train terminus, and it was
deliberately planned that we would be travelling well outside of peak times.
Still I did learn a few critical details about commuter train travel. As
related to me by my friend, if you are buying a first class ticket you can cut
the line of those waiting to buy second class tickets, though I would be loathe
to assume that I could tell who was buying which class of ticket. Then each car
is labeled for class, and if they are for Ladies Only by class. I have actually
seen the trains during rush hours with people hanging out of the doorways as
while barreling along the tracks. Which led me to realize that the doors don’t
get closed while the trains are moving. I was also struck by the similarities
in the designs of the station hangar ceilings with the metal handle grid in the
train cars. And lastly, it is an honor system of tickets/passes the where
tickets are randomly checked. The only struck me as interesting, given that
there are security checkpoints to enter most buildings and shopping malls,
while getting onto the trains is open entry.
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| Commuter train from Churchgate station in South Mumbai |
By
complete coincidence, I ended up returning to Colaba the next day to meet with
my friend, Luisa, for lunch at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel. She lives in Mexico,
but is vacationing around India with her daughter and had a long layover in
Mumbai while traveling from Aurangabad to Jaipur. I have not seen Luisa in
years, and it was heartwarming to reconnect here in India by happenstance. We
would never have coordinated our lunch except for email and some spotty texting
access, and I was reminded of what it used to be like to travel without
cellphones, texting abilities, or GPS mapping. We set a time and place to meet,
and for the most part had to simply believe in our competence at negotiating
travel as foreigners. Long before cell phones, I remember spending two days in
Lima, Peru for two days meeting every flight from California, USA because a
friend’s original flight was cancelled and we had no way to communicate where I
was staying or when he would be arriving.
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| Catching up with Luisa at the Taj Palace Hotel |
Sunday
was the final day of Ganesh Chaturthi, and it did not fail to live up to the
stories I had been told of crowds processing late into the night with music and
ceremony. Ultimately, the Ganpati are carried to the sea bound for immersion in
the waters along with all sorts of offerings. At the same time, locals and
environmentalists have been struggling with the pollution and marine life that
is killed by the poisonous and non-biodegradable materials used and then thrown
into the seas and rivers. As anyone that knows me is aware, I am not a big fan
of crowds, and had no real desire to venture out into the streets following the
call of the street bands and music. But I was able to watch the endless ocean
of humanity passing by from my apartment windows. It is pretty amazing to watch
not only the crowds, but the sheer size of some Ganesha statues, and then to
imagine them being immersed in the ocean and being left there to come and go
with the tides.
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| I was pretty in awe of the size of the Ganpati being paraded down the streets outside my building. |
There
is so much I can’t imagine ever knowing or understanding about the culture,
language and life of this city and country. But certainly my sensibilities have
been challenged to observe how I respond to or notice differences and
similarities to the life I have lived to date. Happily I have finally connected
with someone that is willing to tutor me in the basics of Hindi, and it is a
language about which I have never done any study or attempted to speak. I have
come to believe that language often reflects how a culture interacts, and in
some very general ways, how a native language can reflect how one thinks about
the world.
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