In some ways India has turned out to be precisely what we thought and in others most surprising. The poverty is bad. The crush of humanity is overwhelming. The heat is thick, the sun bright, the traffic miserable. All those things are true.
We had been warned that India has a fragrance to it that can be difficult to handle. We had been doubly warned about pickpockets. Those things have not been true. But ultimately the place is punishing. That is true.
We dithered about this morning about how to best approach seeing what we wanted to see in Mumbai in the limited time we have here. Our choices were to strike out on our own and flag down cabs or tuk-tuks all day to get between venues, or just hire a car from the hotel and have the driver take us from place to place.
Two words for why we went with the hired driver: air conditioning.
Lots of it. We were just afraid of succumbing to the heat if we didn’t have an air conditioned car. We wound up with Anthony, a Catholic from Mumbai’s north suburbs.
Here are Jeff and Anthony at Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus, also known as Victoria Terminus. It’s the largest and most famous railway station in Mumbai and an ornate relic of British rule.
Of course there are people everywhere around the station running to and from trains. Inside is a maze of platforms and queues of people waiting to buy tickets.
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| Inside Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus |
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| Throngs of people stepping off trains |
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| Lots of standing around and waiting |
From there we went to see the dhobi ghat, or laundry men of Mumbai’s open air laundromat. The dhobi ghat are famous in Mumbai for taking in the city’s laundry — washing, drying, folding, and returning laundry. You can see below what they have to work with.
The wealth contrast is amazing in Mumbai. Minutes away from the dhobi ghat is the world’s largest home — the 27 story residence that cost more than $1 billion to construct. In it lives a family of four and a staff of 600.
Apparently land in this neighborhood goes for US$2,500 per square foot, thus making it economical for the builder to go vertical rather than horizontal in order to build a house of the size they wanted.
Here is an enduring Mumbai scene: the little Fiat taxis that are everywhere. Not air conditioned.
