March 14 – Mumbai (Bombay), India. Today we are going to take a tour that gives us a picture of a day in Mumbai.
Our day starts with a visit to the Gateway of India the city's most famous landmark. It's actually a fairly funny story. It was started in 1911 by the British to celebrate the visit of King George V and Queen Mary to India. Unfortunately it was not finished in time so the celebration had to go on without it. It was finished later, in time for the last departing British soldiers to march through after India gained its independence in 1948. It's a nice arch, not very ornate, sort of a blend of Indo-European and Moorish architecture but overall pretty blocky. The Indians keep is as a fond remembrance of the British leaving.
From the side of the Gateway arch you have a wonderful view of another Colonial British masterpiece, The Taj Hotel. It looks as good today as when it was first built and it's still the classiest hotel in Mumbai. It was the target of a bombing by extremist rebels in the past so it has very good security. The last terrorist bombing in Mumbai was in 2011. At the time they were bombing government offices, hotels and commuter trains. It's been quiet for the last 3 years.
We drove past Victoria Terminus again. I forgot to mention yesterday that it was built to honor Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee and was inspired by St. Pancras Station in London. There are two St Pancras stations now. Well it's one enormous station with two distinct sides. One is the old station and the other is the new Eurostar Station where the trains that go through the Chunnel arrive and depart. It is a remarkable building. It was once described as "Victorian-Gothic-Saracenic-Italianate-Oriental-St Pancras-Baroque." That about sums it up. It is historic as the very first train in India left this station in 1852 and today 800,000 commuters use the station daily.
Our next stop was at the home used by Mohandas Gandhi during his time in Mumbai, 1917-1934. Mahatma is a title by which he became known to the rest of the world. It means 'Great Soul" and was given to him spontaneously by the crowd welcoming him home in 1915 after 21 years in South Africa where he fought for the rights of Indians. The Mani Bhawan Gandhi Museum now occupies the home. Photos on the wall show him at various ages and places. A series of dioramas show important events from his life. They are arranged chronologically in a second floor room. His sitting room and bed room are preserved as he had them furnished while he lived here.
The dioramas are each about two feet long by 14 inches high by 14 inches deep. They portray events from 1883 to his funeral in 1948. They are very well done. There are 28 in all. One of my favorites shows Gandhi on his return from South Africa I mentioned before where he got the nickname Mahatma. On display in the archives are many letters he wrote to various dignitaries including Roosevelt, Tolstoy, Hitler and Einstein. In the 30s & 40s he was truly a world figure.
It was a great place to visit. Gandhi got a very many things right but a few crucial things wrong. That's not a criticism, no human gets everything right.
Our next destination, Churchgate Railway Station, was much more prosaic in nature. We are here to see the dabba-wallahs of the Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Association. The association's 4,000 members endeavor to pick up fresh, home-cooked meals prepared by mothers of wives in their homes and deliver the meal to offices around the downtown area of Mumbai. The lunches are packed in a standard set of round, stackable aluminum boxes that lock together. They are then placed in a cloth bag with handles that has the customer's code written on it. These bags are picked up at the home or apartment and taken to the local train station by men on bicycles. The bags are transferred to long narrow trays and put aboard the train by a man who will accompany them into town. When the train arrives downtown the men who accompanied the bags places the long tray on his head and carries them off the train and outside the station where another cadre of bicyclists is waiting. The riders remove the bags from the tray and start sorting them by route. The bikes have a rack above the rear fender that has many hooks on it. After sorting the bags they hang them on their bikes, on the hooks at the back and on the handlebars, and off they go. In a few minutes a happy but hungry worker will receive a meal prepared by his wife or mother. It looks like a chaotic system but I'm told that less than ½ of 1% get misdirected.
Our guide said that in addition to the bicycle deliverymen there are some places where they are carried on shoulder poles or stacked on decorated handcarts. We are at a station a little out of downtown and the offices here are more spread out. They need the bicycles to make timely deliveries. After lunch they are picked up and make the return trip home to be washed and ready for the next day.
After watching the work of the dabba-wallahs for a bit we entered the train station to take a ride on one of Mumbai's local commuter trains. It's not going to be a long ride but I like trains so it should be fun. Indian trains are unusual in that the cars have no doors. The space is there and the doors are there, it's just that no one closes them. In these crowded trains you want as much ventilation as you can get. Our guide stressed that the trains only stop for 30 seconds so you have to get on quickly and get off quickly. Actually 30 seconds is a pretty long time. If you don't believe me, hold your breath for 30 seconds. The idea has some of the ladies pretty nervous but I think the guide just wanted to impress them that the process needs to be done efficiently.
There was a train just leaving the station when we were walking down the platform and another train parked on the other side of the platform. After we walked quite a way down our guide had us get on the train that was parked there. Then she had us get off. It was just a practice run. The train's door opening is not flush with the platform so you have to step up getting in and down when getting out. I guess she just wanted us to know what we would experience getting on and off.
One reason she had us walk down the platform so far is that we are riding in first class. As we walked I was checking out the parked train and all the cars were marked II for second class. The only first class car I saw was the one we got on. As we were standing there a train pulled in across the platform where the train left as we arrived. When it stopped we were right by the only I (first) class car I saw. At the train pulled in every car ahead of ours was second class.
After peeking into the cars as they went by I can tell you that the first and second class cars are not very different. I think the only real difference is the cost. Most of the second class cars are packed while the first class cars are relatively empty. We all hopped into the train and in a few minutes it started out. We are getting off at the fifth station so we had a chance to observe the activity in 4 stations as we went. Our car didn't have much activity but the second class cars had quite a few people getting on and off. The station we are going to, Mahalaxmi Station, is a hub station for trains going different directions. When we got off the platform was pretty full of people heading for the stairs to get to the street. Since the trains run on the surface you have to go up to the bridge that takes you across the other tracks into the station.
We came out here to see the Dhobi Ghat. It's a commercial laundry but in traditional style. All the workers are men. Every morning laundry from all over Mumbai is brought here to be soaped, soaked, boiled, beaten and hung up to dry. The net day they are pressed, folded and wrapped. The bundles are then delivered to the customers. Every dhobi-wallah has his own mark that identifies him and his customers. These marks are mostly invisible to everyone but a fellow dhobi-wallah.
The laundry is huge; it covers at least a city block. There are parts that are covered with metal roofs but much of it is in the open. There are pairs of tubs, one large, one small, separated by a water source running the length of the area. Clothes are hanging everywhere. They are on lines atop the metal roofs and beside the rows of tubs. In some places the lines are three tiers high. White shirts seem to get priority on the highest lines. Men put the clothes into the small tub to soak in soapy water. While those clothes are soaking the clothes that were soaking are taken out, wrung out and put into the big tub of clean water. Each article is taken out and beaten on the sides of the tub and returned to the clear water soak. Once that load is thoroughly beaten it is wrung out again and passed on to someone else who hangs it up to dry.
The ironing, folding and bundling must be done under the metal roofed areas because those operations were not visible.
It was a nice day of becoming familiar with a way of life lived every day by millions of people.
Still no connection for AOL. Four days and counting.
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