This city was formerly known as Bombay which means “good bay” in Portuguese. It is a major shipping port and the most populous Indian city. We had to have a face-to-face passport check with Indian officials who boarded the ship before breakfast and docking. On the dock we were greeted by a very large seated band playing English/American tunes badly, and at the end of the gangway 2 women in lovely sarees (their spelling of saris) giving everyone a rose as they disembarked.
Mumbai Greeting
Unlike Kochi, here we had a nice terminal building with some vendor booths. The weather is the same; hot, and sticky humid.
Our first tour was called “Marvels of Mumbai”and our woman guide was a Pharsi and very proud of it. Only 60,000 Pharsi are left in Mumbai, long ago they came to India from Persia and are Zoroastrians not Hindi. Today they are among the very richest and most powerful in Mumbai, building the Taj Hotel and now the highest building in Mumbai. Our tour’s first stop was the Taj Hotel (one of the sites of terrorist killings by Pakistani gunmen) and the Gate of India, both well-known landmarks of Mumbai.
Taj Hotel
Gate of India
Dad had once stayed at the Taj and wanted to look inside. We went through very tight security with scanners and friskers to enter the lobby and were able to see the lovely inner courtyard that he remembered.
Lots of traffic, mostly taxis, buses and trucks, it seems. We made photo stops at other sights like the Amazing Victoria Station.
Victoria Station
We wished we had more time to inspect the gargoyles and other amazing decorations on the building but we had more things to see and so little time. On the way to Gandhi’s residence when he was in Mumbai we learned about the baba walla system. Lunch pails are picked up from people’s homes with just a number as identification on the pail and they almost always find their way to the correct person for their lunchtime and are then returned to the correct home.
Mani Bhavan (Where Mahatma Gandhi Stayed While in Bombay, 1917-34)
Next we went to a street overlooking the dhobi ghats a place where for a small fee a man (and only men) can earn a lean living washing other peoples clothes as they have for centuries before. Like the baba walla, the pick up and delivery system for the laundry is unbelievably accurate and the clothes come out very clean.
Dhobi Ghats
The last stop on this excursion was the Prince of Wales Museum which, among other wonderful things, has some of the carved forms from the Elephanta Caves, a site we would have liked to see but was to rugged for dad and the schedule of the boat ride to and from them did not fit our schedule anyway.
Trivikrama Vishnu from Elephanta, 6th Century CE
After a late lunch, dad relaxed while Hanson and I hired a taxi driver to take us back into the heart of Mumbai and to the Crawford Market where we found this wonderful spice seller who showed us all kinds of different curries. It was an amazing experience seeing Mumbai in a much more “up close and personal” way.
Buying Spices in Crawford Market
Our excursion on the second day was called “Mumbai’s Religious Beats” and was one of our most interesting tours so far but also one from which we have the fewest photos because photos were not permitted inside any of the temples we visited. We had a great guide who explained as much as she could about the 3 million Hindu gods and effects the Hindu religion has on the politics and culture of India. A Hindu herself she bought offerings, explained what they were for, and helped those of us who wished to participate, give the offerings at each of the 3 very different temples we visited.
Our Guide and the Offerings for Shiva
The first temple was the Babulnath Temple (built in 1780) dedicated to Shiva, the god of destruction (in the sense that things must be destroyed before they can be rebuilt). The floor was wet with water so our feet got wet as all remove their shoes before entering a temple. Passing by a statue of Nandi, (the bull who will carry your messages to Shiva if you whisper them in his ear), and ringing the bell outside the alter chamber, we were able to approach the alter (a round black stone in the middle of a circular place) more closely here than at the other temples. Joining our hands or touching arms we all placed the offerings of flowers, a small coconut (which represents our ego), water and milk and sweets directly on top of everyone else’s on the alter.
Second was the Mahlakshmi Temple, one of the most popular and therefore crowded temples.
Mahlakshmi Temple
It is dedicated to the goddess of wealth, Lakshmi. The basket our guide bought from one of a long line of stalls and vendors selling offerings, contained flowers, a small coconut, but not small things representing a sari, makeup and jewelry.
Vendors Outside the Temple
The later was tended by priests behind an offering counter and in exchange for our offerings he gave each of us a dot of red on our foreheads and some small white candies like I had gotten the day before at the Gateway of India.
The last Temple was the 200 year old Siddhi Vinayak Temple to Ganesha, the elephant god.
Siddhi Vinayak Temple to Ganesha
It was even more crowded and had television monitors of the alter so that those who had no time could observe the alter from outside the crowded area.
View into Ganesha
Security was very high and we went through metal detectors and a light frisking. We all tried to stay together in a very crowded alter area containing a black stone carving of Ganesha crowned with gold in front of which priests took offering baskets put them on the alter and handed back a basket which had been previously placed on the alter for us to take away and enjoy some of the small yellow candies made with milk and sugar that always make up part of the offering to this god.
To round out the tour we were again taken to Mani Bhawan (Gandhi’s ashram) and the dhobi ghats.
Again a late lunch after which Hanson and I took a taxi back into town for a great, inexpensive pharmacy and a bit of souvenir shopping. That night before we sailed away we had an Indian folkloric dance company perform on the ship’s stage.
Indian Cultural Show
They were delightful and we were sad to leave such an interesting country of coexisting contradictions.