Festival of Lights, Diwali

It's Party Time all the time in India, but if your in India near the end of October you can be part of the largest celebration of the year, Diwali.  There are other Hindu festivals but none that are so celebrated as Diwali. It's so big that this holiday marks the new fiscal year for Indian businesses.   The excitement of the festival sizzles in the air and builds as the week hits a climax. And I have to admit that as a bystander I have been drawn, like a moth to a flame, to this festival. I am so unfamiliar with the Hindu festivals and traditions and have become most curious about this festival, the biggest Hindu celebration of the year, called Diwali (Deepavali). 

The holiday means "festival of lights" and the main overall theme is good overcoming evil, light overcoming darkness. Lights are strung all over the streets, trees, and homes and candles illuminate the doorways and windows. Side roads are smokey with firecracker smoke and the carnage of spent wrappers and crackers fills the streets the next day. It is a combination of Christmas and July 4th all wrapped up into one week of celebrations. Who wouldn't love that?l

Compare the NASA photos of India, so amazing!

You can expect to be kept awake by the booming sounds of firecrackers.  Each evening for about a week, I've jumped nearly out of my skin as someone set off a thunderous "cracker" near my home.  The loud boom that sounds like someone has just bombed a nearby home, sets my nerves on edge.  These are definitely not legal crackers back in the U.S. but here you have access to "Thunder Bombs", "Atom Bombs", and "Hydro Bombs" and the bigger and the louder the better.  There are no rules of engagement with these bombs, just let go of your inhibitions far enough away that you don't get hurt.

Someone told me a story of their childhood days when trying to show off with her big brother and the crazy excitement of the day led her to momentarily loose her mind as she lit a "Hydro Bomb" too close to her home.  It blew out all the home's downstairs windows plus their neighbors' windows.  She lost her hearing for a solid two days. You can guess how loud they are.

I've heard a few of those crazy loud ones go off all week and sometimes the crackles and booms wake me up at night or early in the morning.

More than any other culture I know of, the Indians really know how to party. They are so diverse and passionate, their weddings last for days, and every religion gets a series of official government holidays for it's proper dedication and celebration.  There are so many official government holidays one has to wonder how anything gets done.  Aside from the mandatory government holidays and regional emphasizes on a holiday, it's pretty much left up to the company or the individual to decide which days to take off. 

But this is the culture, they are very tolerant folks, everyone has a belief and everyone respects everyones' beliefs.   We all benefit in the end.  So although there may be a little confusion about which holidays to take off, what is certain is that there is an overall theme of acceptance and celebration which is a guarantee of a good time.

Little kids and big kids alike are in love with the "fountain" crackers.

Happy Diwali!

Cheryl's Visit to India

I haven't done an entry in a couple of months and I'm becoming backlogged with news.
In September the much anticipated visit finally happened.  My girlfriend, Cheryl, came to visit me in India for a couple of weeks and her only serious request was to visit Kerala.  Her aunt had lived there for one year 40 years ago as a pioneer member of the Peace Corp.  She had heard stories from her aunt her whole life and was interested to see if Kerala was such a magical place for herself.  I planned the visit for Kerala right in the middle of her two week stay so I filled our other days with numerous India experiences, anxious to give her a taste of my life for the last five months.


There is not a lot of touristy-type of destinations in Bangalore, but just taking in the day to day street life keeps the typical visitor in sensory overload for a few days. The traffic, horns blaring, road construction, cows in the middle of the street, the hodge podge of businesses and street vendors, colorful sarees, and brightly painted temples. It's hard to take it all in and one feels exhausted at the end of the day.

typical four seater motorcyle

city cow eating from a trash heap

Colorful temple in Bangalore

We did spend a day seeing temples and stopped at the Bangalore Palace which is a "no-go". If anyone is reading this with the intention of taking notes for a future trip to Bangalore I will tell you, don't waste your time here. The camera fee is 600 rupees (over $10) alone.  It is typical everywhere you go for the foreigners' tickets to cost you about 500% more than the nationals' tickets, not worth it here.  I was told that there is nothing to see inside except for some gaudy paintings of dead animals and hunting scenes. So we skipped the tour.

Judging by the way the security officer was blowing his whistle at us we apparently weren't allowed to walk around the grounds without a ticket or even take a picture. The security dudes around here are not very intimidating since they look like they are about 15 years old and they are usually bored and occsionally fall asleep. Just for kicks as we were pulling out of the parking lot I cracked my window and I took this picture. He went crazy on the whistle. We gave the security dude the most excitment he'd had all day.

Bangalore Palace and bored security in blue shirt

We visited a handful of my favorite restaraunts in Bangalore such as Tandoor on MG Road, Barbeque Nation, Leela Palace (great ambiance), Tuscano, The Fat Chef, The Great Kebab Factory at Mantri Mall, and for a night cap we did an evening at the outdoor bar at Taj Vivante.

Cheryl and I had a huge lunch at Tandoor

Enjoyed our time at Barbecue Nation where the food is grilled right on your table.

We spent all day in the car one day, driving to Dubare to see the elephant camp.  This was going to be an exciting day of seeing elephants up close, maybe even bathing them in the Kaveri River, just like the tour book said.  So we left early to try to beat traffic, which was pointless, unless you're on the road by 6 a.m.  After a five hour car ride we drove the last 15 minutes through windy, pit filled roads, came to the dead end at the river nearly nauseous, only to find out that they were not showing the elephants that day.   However, they would be giving five minute boat rides for 20 rupees each (under $.50).  We decided the kids needed SOMETHING to believe in after all that driving. 

We moved on to Mysore to see the Mysore Palace because I knew we'd get an elephant ride there.  Since I had been there before I knew where to go and I walked Cheryl and the kids all the way around the back of the palace and found a camel and elephant ride for about 400 rupees ($10). 

We finally got an elephant ride at the Mysore Palace

I had to show her the palace since we were this close to Mysore, but we didn't bother doing the tour.  After the elephant ride we made tracks back to Bangalore.  Whew, that was a long day!

KERALA

Our trip to Kerala was the highlight of her visit.  Kerala is a state on the South-West side of  India tucked between the state of Karnataka and the Arabian Sea. There's plenty of excursion choices from plantation tours with cool temperatures and rolling hill stations of tea and spices, or lazy backwater tours in a rice boat on the inside rim of Kerala, or beaches. There is too much to see in just four days so we narrowed it down to a backwater adventure and went the easy route,  we lazed around a resort for four days and watched the boats quietly float by.

View from the room, rice barge house boat floating by at sunset

Traditional Kerala house boat

We stayed at the Zuri hotel on Lake Kumarakom which was a great choice.  The resort was only one and a half hour drive from the Cochin International airport.  I had prebooked the hotel shuttle which included a box lunch, a necessity with kids. When we arrived it was like we had entered a new country.  It was such a nice respite from Bangalore's noise, pollution, and speed bumps.

Swimming Pool at the Zuri Spa

The best part is that the resort was all-inclusive and we had two separate rooms.  Steve and the kids got the presidential villa complete with their own private infinity swimming pool overlooking Lake Kumarakom, while Cheryl and I got our own cottage villa with views overlooking the lagoon.  I had to try the Kerala style spa treatment where they pour a liter of oil on your forehead.  The pool, food, entertainment, and personal attention we got made our stay very memorable.  The resort has a lovely paved path that meanders around the lagoon and leads you over a covered bridge where you get great views of the lake and resort.

covered bridge looking over the lagoon

Each morning at 7 I did yoga in a small pavilion called the "body temple",  which was placed on a tiny island in the lagoon.  The sun sparkling off the lagoon where purple water hyacinths grew in patches, early morning birds singing, and the distant sounds of the rooster crowing carried my mind into pure relaxation.  I was taught about many different styles of breathing.  Cheryl and I tried to contain our laughter as we participated in breathing exercises that reminded me of the lamaze classes I had taken ten years ago.

Through the resort we booked a traditional house boat tour of the backwaters which took us to a lovely little plantation called Philipkutty's Farm.  I think Cheryl would agree that this was the highlight of our Kerala trip.  Immediately upon our arrival we were escorted to an outdoor pavilion and seated at a beautiful, large round table with the biggest lazy-suzanne I had ever seen.  We ate lunch family-style, served by the owner herself where dish after dish of traditional Kerala food was spread before our eyes. This is the place where I discovered that you can eat banana leaf flower. The outer layers of the flower are peeled away and the inner flower part is chopped and put into vegetable cutlets. I'll put the recipe in another blog.

banana flower

 The food was rich and delicious, all cooked in coconut oil, which became a joke between me and Cheryl.  Cheryl said that coconut oil to India is what window cleaner is to Greece (from My Big Fat Greek Wedding).  They tell you to put coconut oil on everything from hair, to bug bites, rashes, sunburns, you name it. 

One memorable night at dinner we were waiting out a monsoon rain and sat through a couple of black outs. When the rain didn't seem to be letting up we decided to brave it back to the room.  The hotel offered us a couple of umbrellas and as we were about to head out into the downpour we heard the thumping of dance music coming out of a conference room where the sign announced an HR Strategy Conference was happening.  This didn't sound like any HR meeting I had ever been to.  The staff explained that they were doing a rain dance and offered to let us take a peek.  A rain dance seemed like the last thing we needed.  We entered an empty room filled with tables of food and smoke, the party was happening outside in the rain!  Middle-aged men and a couple of brave women were dancing their hearts out Bollywood style in the pouring down rain.  Laser lights of different colors bounced off the rain as the music was pumping.  I've never seen grown-ups have so much fun.  As we turned to head back something made us stop in our tracks...we couldn't believe it.  John Denver's song "Country Road" had been remade into a modern dance song.  The people were singing at the top of their lungs "West Virginia, Mountain Mama, Take Me Home, Country Road"  Did they even know what they were singing?

Addien, Cheryl, and Keely in Kerala

Kerala is called God's Own Country for a reason when compared to the rest of India you can understand why.  It was hard to leave to head back to Bangalore.  I had Kerala on my mind for many days afterwards.  But it was even harder to say good-bye to Cheryl and I really started to miss my friends and family back home.  To me, North Carolina is God's Own Country....In My Mind I'm Going to Carolina.

Gayathri's Village

Recently we got to see Gayathri's, our cook's, village all the way out by the Kolar Gold Fields. She lives with us full time because her village is too far to go home each night.  I knew she had a long commute but her commute is even longer than our two hour drive was.  In the early dark hours of the morning she has to take a rickshaw through the countryside to reach the train station.  Then after an hour and half on the train she takes a bus the rest of the way to our neighborhood.  She arrives around 7:30 on Monday morning and doesn't leave for home again until Saturday afternoon.  After doing the drive myself to her village I now really appreciate the time it takes her to reach our home on Monday.

Gayathri was really nervous about having us over but I could tell she was also very excited.  I gave her plenty of opportunities to back out if she felt overwhelmed but she insisted that she wanted to make this happen.  I offered to bring a dish or drinks but she refused a single bit of help. 

I prepped the kids a couple days in advance about what to say and what not to say.  And we practiced together thinking of loving things to say that would make her feel special.  Sometimes kids don't have filters so I didn't want them to accidentally hurt anyone's feelings by making little comments about her village or home.  I knew it would be different than what the kids had seen before and I knew this would be a great opportunity for them to see the way the villagers live, but I had no idea what her place would really be like.  I knew they wouldn't have running water and they wouldn't have a convenient toilet.  Other than that I had no clue what to expect.

After a little over an hour and half drive through beautiful countryside we finally passed through a small town. We renedvoused with a guy on motorycle who instructed our driver to follow him the rest of the way to Gayathri's house.  I didn't know it would be another 15 minutes through even more country.  On these roads, a two hour drive easily feels like a three hour drive.  Field after field of nothing but green, one lane country roads that were so curvy and bumpy, and plenty of cows and sheep to avoid along the way.

A little after noon we finally turned off the main road and pulled into a little village that was nestled quietly in the middle of rice paddies and cow pastures.  We pulled up infront of a small row of cement huts.  They were painted bright colors and had blue doors, and orange clay tile roofs.  Can you imagine the color splash as women in bright colored saris came out of their homes to inspect the visitors?  One of the woman had drawn "WELCOME" in bright chalk colors on the stones in front of the doorway. 

We felt very welcomed and loved.  Her family showed us what it meant to be hospitable. 

Mother, Sister, neice, and Gayatrhi

The girls love Gayathri, and they instantly took to her family.  I love the bright green walls in this bedroom/living room.

Girls are enjoying Gayathri's neice.  

 

This is the cutie being loved on by my girls.  The kitchen has one small window but the bright color on the wall made the place feel happy.  Gayathri fed us a delicious meal of traditional biryani and raita. I didn't think it was possible, but her biryani tasted even better here then it did when she made it for us back in our home.  After lunch Gayathri took us for a tour around her village.



Owen was quite a scene in the village with that curly blonde hair, that mixed with his vivacious personality made him the center of attention.  He fell in love with this chick and was so disappointed that he couldn't bring one home.  The older chickens are actually tethered by a thin rope tied to their leg.  There aren't any chicken coops around and I suppose that keeps them close to home. 

We walked behind the homes and green fields spread out in front of us as far as we could see. It was so peacful and you could literally smell the green.  If green had a smell that would be it. I filled my lungs with fresh air and dreamily asked Gayathri what the stars were like at night.  This was such a nice respite from the dirty, grimy, noisy streets of Bangalore.

Village life is very quiet but everyone knows everyone's business, and it seemed that everyone was somehow related to each other in one way or another.  The local school has two teachers and no one who stays here gets above a fifth grade education.  Every person who stays in this village works the fields and helps with one of the many crops.  This was the first time I saw where peanuts came from.  I knew they came from a bushy plant but I didn't know they were a root of that plant.  Gayathri pulled some directly out of the dirt for us to see what they looked like when they were ready.  The sweet potatos and corn were all planted together with other plants with no rhyme or reason.  Just all mixed together.   They've been doing this for centuries so it must work.  I saw rice paddies being worked for the first time.  That was pretty cool to watch.

We watched the oxen tread over and over the same little area of rice paddy, making sharp turns in thick mud.  The guy called out commands, raised his arm as if to strike the oxen with his stick, but he never once used his stick. How long does it take to train oxen to obey a command?  This was the first time I've ever seen a rice paddy being tilled and planted. The women in the background were planting small segments of rice plants into the muddy water.  Their saris were pulled up over their knees and they were singing songs as they worked.  

This woman started singing and dancing Bollywood style for us when she saw she had an audience.  We were cracking up over her little antics.  Then she came up out of the mud and started telling jokes that Gayathri translated for us.  Life is hard for these folks but this lady still keeps her sense of humor.


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The village is in the background and Owen was being followed by this small group of boys.  Everyone was intriuqed by that blond curly hair. 



 

Days before we came I anticipated feeling like I would have to fix something.  But to my surprise, I actually didn't feel that way at all. They treated us like honored guests.  They showed us a quiet, and peacful life, I almost envied it (except for the no plumbing part). Kids were full of smiles and giggles.  No doubt they work hard and life is hard, and they are poor.  But they are happy.  They have so little but have so much. I left feeling like they "fixed" me for a bit.  I wasn't sure what we could give them but they were quick to give us smiles and make us feel welcome.

Living the Expat Life

One of the benefits to living in an expat community like Palm Meadows is getting to meet people from all over the globe.  No matter what country or culture we come from, Sweden, Norway, Canada, France, Germany, or U.S., we seem to all have one big thing in common that brings us together, we have moved far from home and we are now foreigners.  We have bonded over the similar foreigner experiences we have, we share directions, frustrations, laughs, then a beer, and soon all borders begin to fade.  We are now just friends. 

Getting to know the other cultures has been great fun, and a great experience for the kids.  Our immediate neighbors to our left are Swiss, and across the street they are German. The Swedish family have a young boy, Hannes, who couldn't speak much English when we got here, but our boys found ways around the language barrier and shared toy cars, making crashings sounds together.  Soon Hannes was speaking confidently in English. 

The twins became fast friends with the little German girls, Lucia (3) and Sophie (6).  Soon my girls began to talk like them with a German-English accent.  They soon started telling me what German words are for day to day things.  The kids went to summer camp together, rode scooters together through the streets, and took daily trips to the pool and playground.   It's definately been a great summer for them. 

As fun as it's been, I now understand one of the downsides to expat living, your neighbors come and go.  Two weeks ago we had to say good-bye to our neighbors from Sweden.  And in two days our friends from Germany head back home.  They've been living in Bangalore for three years and for their youngest daughter, Lucia, India is home.  My girls will miss them so much but especially their oldest, Sophie.  We've already made plans to Skype with them and we'll definately stop by for a visit if we fly back through Frankfurt.  ( Christina, if you read this, I want you to know that I've enjoyed getting to know you and have enjoyed having you as a neighbor. )

Two things living like expats has taught me, first, all kids are the same no matter what country or culture you are from. Second, no matter the differences, we all love a good laugh.

1st Visit to the Indian Hospital

I was really hoping to avoid this situation, but we had our first visit to an Indian hospital. Keely is so accident prone and all three previous ER visits in the U.S. were because of her.  This time she was racing friends along the street on her scooter and flipped over the handlebars, landing hard on her shoulder and head.  I was more concerned about her head and didn't think much of the small scrape on her shoulder. But a few days later a big bruise began to show up on her shoulder and then I noticed unusual swelling along her collar bone. Keely didn't complain about much pain and had good movement of her arm but I've never had a broken bone before and I got suspicious.  I asked around for a good hospital and a few of our local Indian friends recommended TeleRad RxDx which was not far from here.

Our friend, Roopa, loaned us her car and came with us to show her support. Steve got behind the wheel and drove us that night.  I was a nervous wreck in the backseat, closing my eyes half the time.  I'm a terrible backseat driver.  I must say, he actually did a great job considering everything is reverse, the steering wheel is on the right side, the stick is on the left, the cars drive on the left side of the road, also it was dark, and pedestrians, bicycles, and the occasional dog will dart out in front of a car at any moment.  There are unmarked speed bumps all over Bangalore which is supposed to keep traffic at a reasonable speed, but they become a road hazard to unsuspecting drivers.  BUT, Steve got us there in one piece.

Poor Keely, she was so afraid to go to an Indian hospital. However, I think her twin, Addien, was even more afraid for her sister.  She was very quiet, holding my hand in the backseat and whispered that her heart was "beeping" ("beating") so hard for Keely.  Roopa reassured us we'd be well taken care of. 

My first impression put me at ease right away.  When we arrived at 9 p.m. the place seemed relatively quite and quite modern.  I found my way to reception easily and was given a form to complete asking for the patient's name and age.  That's it for paperwork, no legal disclaimers, no HIPPA forms, nothing.

The cost was unbelievable.  We paid less than $10 to see a dr.  After talking with us he ordered the x-ray, and get this, we paid an additional $2 for the x-ray.  TWO DOLLARS! I was almost giddy.  We took the x-ray film back to the dr. who then confirmed my suspicion, Keely broke her collar bone.  Next stop was two doors down with the orthopedic specialist.  That was an additional $10.  He also looked at the film and confirmed it was broken, wrote a prescription for the swelling and an arm sling.  He said it should remold itself perfectly without a problem since she's so young.  We went to the hospital pharmacy and paid maybe $.25 for the medicine and less than $2 for the sling.  So all in all, we paid the same as about one co-pay for Keely's broken arm. 

It wasn't a bad experience at all and Keely so innocently announced to everyone, "I'm not afraid of Indian Doctors anymore".   Which is a relief since I'm nearly sure it won't be our last visit.

America: Oh How I Miss Thee!

I got a little homesick this Fourth of July weekend when I knew family and friends were getting together to bar-b-que, enjoy a little apple pie, and watch a parade and fireworks show.  Since I've been in India, I've never missed America so much as I did that day.

We had our own little party to celebrate America's independence.  My American friend, Lynn, and Indian friend, Roopa, came down for the weekend from Mumbai, and we celebrated the weekend together.  Steve got us a VGA cable so we could hook up the computer to the t.v.,and he got us some decent speakers, then we got on Youtube and cranked up "Star Spangled Banner" sung only the way Whitney Houston could.  Then we searched Grooveshark for some John Mellencamp and Bruce Springsteen to help us miss home more.  Sweet Roopa was a trooper and tolerated our patriotic revelry.  India's day of Independence is celebrated in August so she can pay us back then.

After singing at the top of our lungs and sharing our tunes with the neighborhood, we headed to a 4th of July party near UB City.  It was a nice condo (worth about 2.5 million USD) in a hip part of town.  We met a lot of Americans from all over the country and had good ol'fashioned American food, potato salad, cole slaw, hamburgers, and hotdogs.  I brought instant pancakes and American style syrup which was a hit.

This party had an agenda, a Democratic one.  Apparently, the party was hosted by the "Bangalore Democrats", at the condo of the country head for the "Indian Democrats".  After polling us to make sure we were registered and knew how to vote overseas, he put in a plug for the "Obama 2012" posters, 100 rupees each (around $2).  However, no pressure to buy because no one really cares what party you're affiliated with, in India we're all just Americans who are proud of our land of the free and home of the brave.

We had a baby!

If you recall our earlier post about our trip to Mysore, we were given about five silkworm cocoons.   Then one started wiggling and I put it outside.  The others I presumed were dead and we brought them home.  Then one morning Keely asked me what was in her bedside drawer...



A silk worm moth hatched!



It's a female silk worm moth!  Turns out all the cocoons were alive but only one was actually seen. We had one more cocoon broken open but we couldn't find the moth. Two other moths had tried to come out but they didn't make it. 

Our cook used to raise the silk worms and she said they only eat mulberry leaves.  We did a little research on the moth and discovered that they live only to mate and lay eggs then they die shortly after.  It lived a couple of days then died.  As luck would have it, in Owen's book studies that week we learned about the life of a silk worm. I can say we truly had a great homeschool experience. 

City of Contradiction

The warm smell of sandalwood and the blare of horns fill the air with the essence of Bangalore.  In the three months that I've been here, the best way I can describe Bangalore is a city of contradiction.

Traditional and modern, it's an old city but the fastest growing metro city in India.  A mix of religions, mostly Hindi some Muslim, a little Buddhist and a tad of Christians thrown in on the side.  It's a city of agriculture and technology.  

The first couple of weeks of being here, it's a little overwhelming and shocking.  Everything looked so  dirty and trashy.  Cows meandering down busy roads or eating out of garbage piles is a little suprising at first.  Garbage litters the beautiful country-sides and lakes are foaming with soap. 

But many people are here to "clean" the city.  I have seen women with thin little stick brooms sweeping the streets, piling the trash high for someone else to collect in baskets and throw onto a truck to go somewhere for final dumping.  These very women are so poor some don't even wear shoes, yet as a street sweeper they are wearing beautiful sarees, sometimes even embroidered with sparkling threads and beads.

These women sweep the streets and clean the yards. 

I have seen slums right next to an estate or beside a high rise, modern, office building.  Right beside the 5 star hotel where we stayed there was a small river of "gray" water, which simply put, is stinky sewage water.  The smell will almost knock you over as you cross over the bridge.  But the hotel has discreetly covered it from view with a wall of beautiful foliage and fragrant flowers.

And the traffic...with the way people drive and their incessant honking around here, one might think the city was full of New York city taxi drivers all having a bad day.  But the honking is not used to express aggression, its a means of letting the other drivers know you are there - which is kind of important when you have 5 lanes of traffic smashed in a 2 lane road.  In reality, I've never met friendlier people in all my life.  They will not tell you "no";  Instead they do the famous Indian head bobble and tell you "no problem".

Bangalore is growing so fast and there is construction everywhere.  They have the fastest growing middle-class so affordable single family apartments and homes are going up everywhere.  But with that comes infastructure problems: traffic is a mess, drainage can't keep up with the heavy rains, and the roads are horrible.  We drove past a knee-deep hole in the middle of the road -- but instead of warning signs or traffic cones they just filled it with debris, shrubs, and bits of concrete, and the handful of cars that end up falling in.  It eventually gets filled up.   

A strand of Jasmine in a braid.

Despite the sewage water smells, and garbage strewn about, Bangalore is called the "garden-city" for a reason.  You know how I love gardens and have a fascination for plants.  I constantly ask the names for everything so I can see if it grows in our zone back home.  Owen informs me when he sees a great climbing tree.  They are abundant and in full bloom with these bright orange clusters of flowers.  There is a shrub here that no one can recall the name of, but it has gorgeous white blossoms.  The coconut trees and palms line the streets.  Women even wear strands of fragrant jasmine in their braids. 

Eventually you see that the city has a rhythm and a flow, if you try to resist, you'll be frustrated but if you go with the flow you begin to see the beauty of it's land and the love of it's people.

 

Mumbai

They're excited and ready to see the big city.

We toured Mumbai last week.  It's a huge city, too big to walk around in.  I normally like walking and touring a new city by foot, but not this time. For one thing, it rained buckets on us the whole four days we were there.  The second thing, with three young children in tow it didn't seem like the safest, most relaxing option.  So I'll tell you about Mumbai from a backseat driver's perspective.

A travel book I read recently described Mumbai as having both "all the beauty and all the ugliness of humanity".  It's a perfect description. 


Rain soaked window perspective...what is this sign telling us?  We can't go straight, left or right?

 

While my husband sat through meetings all day I realized I was going to be stuck in the hotel for four days with three kids looking through rain blurred glass at a pool and an ocean we couldn't use.  This was not good. What to do??   


View of pool and ocean from our room.

 

I rented a hotel taxi for a half day, packed up the kids and rode into downtown Mumbai to catch a show about constellations at the Nahur Planetarium.  BORING, I know, but hey, things were looking up (catch the pun?)  

Next stop was the  Gateway of India,  which was built in 1911 to commemorate the visit of King George V and Queen Mary to Bombay.  Next to the Taj Mahal, the Gateway is one of the most recognizable symbols of India.


 The architecture is a mix of Muslim and Hindu designs which I thought was quite ironic and interesting. We didn't get out of the car since the place was crazy crowded and I was alone with the three kids.  So I told the driver to keep going as I did drive by (photo) shootings.  I have many terrible shots so I added a link above from wikipedia where you can see a great shot.  Now you can compare my two shots.  A good photo wasn't worth getting drenched or braving the crowd.

We did take the time to go across the street and step inside the famous Taj Palace Hotel.  It was built by Tata (his name is everywhere) back at the turn of the 19th century. Rumor has it that he was denied access to a "Europeans only" hotel so he built a bigger and better one.  I don't know if there's truth in that story but it's a beautiful hotel.  It's definitely worth a cup of tea to sit at the upstairs "Sea Lounge".  From there the view is calm and serene.  I could enjoy the ocean and the Gateway of India, and people-watch from a distance. After a very expensive lunch (two pizzas and three ice creams = $100) we explored the hotel's many walkways and strolled down a hall of fame.  Behind glass we saw many framed photos of famous people like presidents, the Queen of England, various politicians, rock stars and silver screen stars.  My photo wasn't on the wall yet but I'm sure it'll be up there before long. 

Aside from all this, the Taj Palace Hotel is famous for another reason.  It was the site of an unfortunate 2008 terrorist attack where over 160 people were killed. It took a couple years to repair the damage to the hotel and it was a sobering reminder of the delicate times we live in. Everywhere we go I'm reminded of this. Security is tight all over India and guards are a common sight at the entrance to every building.  Cars are inspected, everyone must pass through metal detectors, and bags have to be checked just like at an airport.  

On the way back to our hotel that evening we experienced true Mumbai traffic.  The kids and I were told by the driver that the hour and a half drive down would now be a 2 1/2 hour drive up due to rush hour, heavy traffic, and rain.  The kids were pretty exhausted and bored, but as luck would have it, things got exciting. The left side of our van smeared the right front fender and hood of another car.  I saw it all happening out my window in slow motion, as the other driver pounded on his horn, there was nothing I could do but watch as our driver turned into the smaller car with a crunching and scraping sound (that sound that gives everyone goosebumps). Horns from every direction joined together as the chaos ensued. The drivers got out, hats were thrown, and a yelling match began. The kids were suddenly alert and wide eyed as they took in all the excitement.  I expected this at some point in my India visit,  but the part that had my nerves all to pieces was when the big bus behind us came mearly inches away from our backside and filled our entire back window with a view of the engine grill. The monstrous horn was blaring at us as if to threaten us that at any moment the driver of that bus might just decide to push us out of the way. In less the three minutes the argument was resolved, everyone got back in their car and traffic resumed as normal.  That was it.  No cops involved, no exchanging of insurance.  I don't know who won that one.

Peninsular City of Mumbai

Mumbai is unlike any city I have ever seen before.  It's got the fifth largest populated city in the world all crammed into a peninsula surrounded by ocean.  They have a huge amount of ocean front property and no one is using the beach.  What a waste!!  And I mean that literally.  The ocean waves rise up not with surfers or swimmers, but with trash riding the waves.  I felt shock for Mumbai's total disregard for the trash and lack of interest in the ocean.  It has become a toxic waste dump and I've heard from a local resident that it was like that back in the 60s when she moved there.  You couldn't swim in it even back then, she said.

The hotel we stayed at, Novotel,  was modern, clean, and in the Juhu beach area, on the north part of Mumbai.  Juhu Beach is lifestyles of the rich and famous.  It's a nice area and Bollywood celebrities are everywhere, not that I would recognize any of them.  There was an outdoor pool and covered lounge overlooking the beach and the waves were massive due to an approaching storm, it was impressive at first glance  There is an energy that the ocean exudes so I was anxious to get out there and enjoy the view from the pool side lounge. However, we never got to enjoy the pool since it rained nonstop from the moment we settled in to the moment we packed up.  We did spend our final morning at the sea side lounge to enjoy a few last minutes of the ocean view.  From a distance all appeared normal as there was a lot of  activity and soccer games being played on the beach (even in the rain) but we noticed a strange smell in the air.  It was not salty ocean water we were smelling.  It was a chemical smell, hard to describe.  The water is gray like storm water and it's covered in floating debris.  It's any one's guess where the smell is coming from, but I'm guessing it was coming from the ocean. 



Dhobi Ghat is a large outdoor laundry facility.





The rain paused just so we could take some photos of Dhobi Ghat.

On our last day there was one other place I wanted to make a quick stop at called, Dhobi Ghat.  This place is famous because it is a massive outdoor laundry cleaners where many hotels and restaurants have their laundry done. I didn't get out of the car again.  Just the boys got out to get pictures and take a look.  The pictures show an organized and efficient operation.  It fascinated me how organized it was.  It was also quite gross, notice the gray water and the men standing in it.  Does anybody ever wonder where that water goes?
Mumbai is the richest city in India and home to one of the worlds largest slums area.  There is a Slumdog tour that used to be available.  The slums seem tolerated and I've heard they are not so bad for India.  It actually produces a lot of revenue for the country.  Our neighbors explored the slums the same weekend so they shared pictures and stories.  They informed us that the slums actually make a lot of items that we use everyday, for instance, one building was manufacturing backpacks for a company's promotional item. 

Our driver told us that beggars were not too much of a problem this weekend due to the heavy rains.  But we did have one little boy about Owen's age come up to the car begging for money.  I couldn't resist, and as only a mother would do, I rolled down my window and told him about the importance of going to school to get an education.  We were told by our driver to never give money to young beggars, only give money to elderly or disabled.  He said the young people can get a job and work for money.  We keep to this rule of thumb in every city we go to.  In fact, the driver always locks the doors when we are stopped at intersections and likes to keep all the windows rolled up. However, in this last instance my motherly instincts kicked in and I couldn't resist giving him a little motherly advice.

Mumbai's skyline is impressive and you get a great view from the recently completed sea link bridge.

Wikipedia photo of the sea link bridge which links the north end to the south end cutting the commute time way down.

 Office towers and apartment complexes light up the skyline at night.  It's so beautiful at night that Marine Boulevard was nicknamed the Queen's Necklace.  But by day the buildings with minimalist architecture, look awfully old and run down with black mold shadows staining all the buildings.  Apparently the insides of the apartments are quite modern and nice, but we only saw our neighbors' pictures and never actually went inside one.  You definitely can't judge the inside of these places by the outside appearances. 



This is what the train station through the rainy car window.

Mumbai city centre on the way southern tip had some beautiful architecture from the British colonial days.  Old European style buildings have now been converted into government buildings and museums.  There was one particularly beautiful building once called the Victoria Terminal which is the largest rail station in India.  Really striking building because of its mix of Gothic style, and traditional Indian.  It was also one of the other locations of 2008 terrorist attack.



One of the other quick stops we made was to the famous late freedom activist, Mohandas Ghandi.

He is considered the "father of India" and his portrait is on the Indian money called rupees.  He was able to lead India to independence from foreign rule by using non-violent protests and demonstrations. 

His residence has now been converted into a museum but we didn't take the time to tour since this would have taken hours.  I'm hoping to visit his memorial site in Delhi, but that's another adventure to write about in the not too distant future.



We were all exhausted after a long day.  There was so much more to see.  If I ever go back again I would like to visit Leopolds which is a famous pub not far from the Taj Palace Hotel and the Gateway.  Mumbai is a big city and takes many days to explore. But despite the rain I feel like we saw a lot in a short amount of time and had a memorable trip.


wiped out after a long day in Mumbai...