AROUND MUMBAI
Like most Indian cities, Mumbai is a city of enormous contrasts. All throughout the city, you will see slums next to luxury high rises and golf courses. Located on a narrow peninsula jutting into the Arabian Sea, Mumbai concentrates a lot of people into a small land area. Even for India, the crowds in Mumbai can be very concentrated and the traffic seems to move in geologic time.
Many tourists complain about the lack of architectural grace of Indian cities, especially when compared to other parts of Asia. This is largely because the concept of large cities is relatively new to India. Large megalopolises like Mumbai and Delhi did not evolve until the arrival of the British.
Many tourists complain about the lack of architectural grace of Indian cities, especially when compared to other parts of Asia. This is largely because the concept of large cities is relatively new to India. Large megalopolises like Mumbai and Delhi did not evolve until the arrival of the British.
Despite the fact that Mumbai is the largest city in India, sometimes you feel like you're in an Indian village. Scenes such as this are a common sight throughout the city. Not only will you see water buffalo, but you will also see horses and people pulling carts.
Early morning (before 6:00 AM) is the best time to catch the produce markets. Here is where everyone from the housewife looking for ingredients for tonight's meal to restaurants and stores get their fruits and vegetables. Fresh cut flowers are also sold here. In another section of the city, you can see live animals being sold for meat.
Even as a passenger in a minibus, I found negotiating Mumbai's traffic to be a white knuckle experience. To experience it on a motorcycle with your entire family riding with you would be a whole new type of thrill. It's a common sight throughout India and believe it or not, it's a sign of economic progress. Whereas before, they had to spend hours riding buses or trains, now they have the luxury of going where they want when they want in a fraction of the time.
Since the release of Slumdog Millionaire, Mumbai's slums have become a popular tourist destination, including the Deravi Slum where the movie was filmed. When you tour the slums, the first thing that stands out is how much work is going on within them. Recycling is a major industry in the slums and virtually all of India's trash is recycled by the country's poor. Recycling at this level is a highly labor intensive process, but the low cost of labor means that you will find folks separating the foil from pharmaceutical blister wrappers and stripping the plastic insulation from electrical wiring. In this photo, you can see a slum where laundry is being washed for the city's hospitals.
Believe it or not, the slums are where the relatively well off of Mumbai's poor live. Many of the poor live on streets. Some will live in makeshift tents while these folks sleep in the open. Technically, these folks aren't considered homeless, but instead live in villages outside of Mumbai. They migrate to the city where the opportunities to make money are better. In order to maximize their earnings, they choose to live in the streets allowing them to return to their homes sooner rather than later.
We also had an opportunity to socialize with Jivan's old friends in Mumbai. Here he is with his best friend Rajaran and his family. Despite 15 years of being on opposite sides of the globe, their friendship remains just as strong as it was when Jivan lived in Mumbai and they consider each other as close as brothers. Rajaran will even attend the wedding essentially as a family member.