Mumbai, India

On Friday, November 28^th we left the ship early for our trip to Agra to see the Taj Mahal.  Our ship docked in Mumbai, which has the biggest port in India.  We were loaded onto buses and we headed for the airport.  Along the way we got to see a bit of Mumbai originally named after Koli Goddess Mumbadevi whom the fisherman worshipped.  When the Portuguese came in 1534 they renamed it Bombay and it was returned to its native name of Mumbai in 1996.  

Mumbai is the 6^th largest city in the world with 21 million in the metro area and they have the distinction of having one of the largest slum areas in Asia.

This picture shows a typical street scene.  Mumbai has a lot of buildings from the era of British rule and we passed by Victoria Station (from the 1800s and a world heritage site).  Trains are the cheapest way to get around India and are used by many of the 6 million people that travel into the city everyday to work.  According to our guide, pushing and shoving are mandatory to board the trains.

Also according to our guide, the city has 80,000 taxis, 1200 buses (which seems like a small #) and 100,000 auto rickshaws that are a bit bigger than a Smart Car although they manage to cram in as many as a dozen people.

We passed by the 2^nd most expensive house in the world (after Buckingham Palace)…it reportedly cost $50-70 million to build but is now estimated to be worth over a billion dollars. It is owned by Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries, has 27 floors and is 400,000 sq. ft. Supposedly 3 of the floors are to house the family’s automobile collection.  It is staffed by 600 servants and named Antilia after a mythical island in the Atlantic.  This of course is in stark contrast to the hovels that many of the people live in.  Without a doubt, India is a city of sharp contrasts.

We also drove along Marine Drive past some very nice beaches with pricey apartments on the other shore.  Our guide told us that you will never see Indians sunbathing as they don’t want to make their skin darker but they do use their beaches for socializing.

Cows were common along the roadway and on sidewalks even in the cities.

Mumbai has a unique system for delivering lunches for those living outside the city:

“5,000 dabbawallas deliver over 350,000 lunches per day to office workers across the city.  Those who engage the services of dabbawallas tend to be middle-class office workers who embrace the Indian preference for and pride in ghar ka khana (home-cooked food). Most of them reach work by train, which means they leave home early and may be boarding chaotically packed carriages, making carrying their own tiffin a challenge. Add to this the status of arriving at work unencumbered. The dabbawalla system provides a welcome solution by collecting meals lovingly prepared at home, then getting them to the office and back. Lunching clients have diverse dietary preferences—Muslims, Hindus, Parsis, Jains, Buddhists and more join diabetics and dieters—increasing the need for precision delivery of the correct meal to its rightful recipient.”  https://worksthatwork.com/1/dabbawallas

Interesting facts from our guide:

• Unemployment, literacy and corruption are major problems but they are hoping their new government will make changes.  We did see many signs around about not paying bribes and education is now mandatory to at least age 14.
• Over the years, extra money earned was spent on gold jewelry as it could theyn sustain them during hard times.
• Both arranged and “love” marriages take place today although generally now the bride and groom are given the opportunity to at least meet for a potential arranged marriage.  After marriage they live with the husband’s family but the bride’s family pays for the wedding.
• Dish internet and TV are everywhere, even in the shanty towns (see picture below)

 Upon reaching the airport, we went through security (separate lines for men and women) and then boarded our IndiGo jet for our 1.5 hours flight to Delhi.

Delhi and Taj Mahal in the next post.