Off to Mumbai (or, I didn't mean to go to India)

Friday 16 February 2024

Last Autumn, my daughter Caitlin’s friend announced that she was getting married in Pune, India, in February 2024.  Caitlin and friends planned to attend but her travelling companions, being teachers, were only able to take a week off.  So last November my phone went.  She started, "Mum, you know you said you’d keep me company in India for a week next February?" (Guess where this is going). "Do you fancy joining me?" "Of course!" I said without hesitation.  After the call I realised what I’d signed up to.  A fleeting - and terribly bad on the carbon footprint - jaunt to Mumbai.  But exciting!  

So Friday 16 February saw me leave my Dad's, in Basingstoke, in a 0550 taxi.  Then it was a bus to Heathrow (Reading bus flightline is a steal at £4 government rate), Heathrow Express from T5 to T2, then a non stop flight to Mumbai courtesy Air Canada.  The flight was fine and I seized the opportunity to watch the Barbie Movie knowing it certainly wasn’t a JC choice.  Turns out it wasn’t really mine either!  My plane reading was spot on though.

We landed at 0130 and it was a slightly disorganised, but achievable, entry onto India.  I found my pre-booked taxi - there is nothing quite like spotting your name held up in a crowd of taxi drivers - and I eventually got to the hotel 0300.  I was too buzzed up to sleep immediately, and concerned about the resident mosquito, but I eventually slept like a log.

Saturday 17 February 2024 

I woke at 1030 and made my way to a coffee and omelette in the hotel’s breakfast area.  A guy invited me to join him and so I met Donesh, a pharma company manager.  He had a few hours to kill so suggested we share a taxi down to the Gate of India.  He then felt the need to tell me about his international girlfriends (there appeared to be one in Nepal, Azerbaijan etc) and that, although he had a wife, "what’s the harm?" Well if his wife doesn’t know or approve then "quite a bit" I responded!  Anyway, I did share a taxi with him and he was very keen to show me the museum and have lunch with him.  I didn’t warm to him at all and soon told him very clearly “goodbye” and walked off. 

I first saw the majestic Gate of India in the Mumbai haze due to the perpetual poor air quality.  It looked better from the harbour side.  The harbour looked pretty polluted with grey/sludge water.  Not even locals were swimming in it.

I walked, seemingly faster than everyone else (perhaps I’m too stupid to slow down in the heat?) to the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya Museum passing a few local signs.

There is a a foreigner's mark up of a 700 Rupee entrance ticket, compared to 200R for locals, but if you can fly into Mumbai you can certainly pay a £7 entrance fee!  It was away from the noisy, dusty, crowded hustle of the streets so a welcome retreat.  It's a really interesting museum.

I enjoyed the jewellery area.  Such massive earrings!  And the anklets look half like manacles.

And there are hundred of statues of various deities.  Jainist.  Buddhist.  Hindi.

This is Yajna Varaha, the boar incarnation of Vishnu, one of the main deities of Hinduism.  

There were also maps such as a map of Jain cosmology.  And on the right is a more (to me) conventional navigational chart of Bombay Harbour.    

The rest of my afternoon was spent wandering past architectural sights such as the university and the oval gardens where, naturally, most people were playing cricket (boys/men only though).

The architecture is fabulous in this area with colonial relics and some lovely Art Deco items.

I decided to walk back to the hotel.  It was only 3 or 4 km but I kept getting lost as my map was too generalised and I was trying not to have my phone out too much (in case someone swiped it).  I inadvertently walked into a government area and was interested by the spike covered things on the bonnets (daggers?).  I never got close enough to find out, but all the official cars had these.

I ended up walking around the rail terminus - mainly because Caitlin and I leave from there on Tuesday and I wanted to check it out.  But I hadn’t anticipated the vast numbers of slow moving locals weaving their way past the numerous pavement stalls which kept causing pedestrian traffic jams.  A lovely building though.

I did find an Indian post box.  They all looked like this.  Hand painted and complete with padlock at the base.

I was amused to see this historic canon on its pedestal totally now enveloped by Mumbai 21st century style (hard to spot I know).

I discovered that the bridge I was aiming for to cross the railway back to my hotel wasn’t just closed to traffic, it just wasn’t there.  So a bit of fretting in my head as I didn’t want to be out after dark, but I found an unmapped footbridge bridge and was back before sunset.  An evening to recover, reset and plan tomorrow.