Oct/091
Mumbai
Whew! Out of Thailand and while I’ll miss the traveling crew I left there I’m thrilled to have left the hassles, scams, and not being able to trust vendors or people in general. I was starting to think I was becoming paranoid and crazy, but I can’t tell you what a relief it is be in Mumbai, and be meeting people again and feeling inspired to travel again.
Maybe it’s the low value of the dollar so people can’t spend like they used to, maybe its the recent political instability, maybe its the low tourism, or maybe its just that the country has had it’s fill of obnoxious white drunk travelers, but Thailand is no more the backpacker playground I’ve heard so much about over the years. My general impressions of the place were that it was beautiful, but most of the people I met were trying to fuck you in one way or another, or were just cold.
Hitting the ground in Mumbai was instantly inspiring. A wild blend of different religions, culture, class, with people of all kinds living next to, and literally on top of each other. It took a couple of days to lower my guard from Thailand - people who greet you on the street, even when they are hustling, generally have something or some information of value and aren’t attempting to can you. A lot of folks approach you and just want to talk and hang out. Its crazy fast city life, but somehow people have time, and will help you buy a bus ticket, give you directions, and have a beer with you.
One guy Sunil walked up to me the night I landed and he was schmoozing and I was sure he was going to either try to kidnap me or steal my wallet - why else would a guy meet me on teh street and ask me if i wanted to get lunch? Well after hearing about Sunils canadian girlfriend and him showing me pictures of his life and texting and calling his friends with me and eating a few meals, I felt like a huge asshole because this guy really just wanted to hang out. The next day I met a woman who is a social worker, who’s been in Arizona for 4 years working, who is from outside Mumbai, who offered me help with my train tickets and we’ve been walking around and hanging out for a couple days. One thing I can tell you about making friends in India is that they will call you all the time, and will repeat call until you pick up, and will wait for you outside your hotel. At first I thought this was another sure sign I had walked into a kidnapping operation... but in reality people are just chill and friendly and don’t mind waiting and hanging to see if they can meet up with a new friend.
After buying my train tickets to my next destination I got into a can and told the cabbie where I wanted to go - he warned that it would be very busy on a sunday and suggested that if I wanted to do a tour of the city, he would take me, and sunday was a good day to do it because there is less traffic on sunday. While my NY rectum is so tight on being sold anything, this guy, a Sikh with a sailors mouth - I knew was my kind of guide and I couldn't have been more right. What was originally going to be a few hrs he, and later his father, took me around the city for seven hours and it was awesome.
First we visited Ghandis house in Mumbai, which had an incredible presence. I was very moved sitting in his library, looking out the windows imagining him having his morning tea while planning the nonviolence campaign. We drove around the city, stopped in a department store filled with jewels and expensive handbags that had a view of a slum from all of the windows. We visited the Dharavi slum where Slumdog Millionaire was shot, and the rent is about four bucks a month. My experience with very poor neighborhoods in the states is that people are just hanging out, nothing to do, with lots of teenage men looking for trouble and looking to either fuck you up or steal your stuff or both. When I was thinking about entering a neighborhood exponentially poorer than the worst neighborhood in the Bronx, I was scared, but what I found was much different than any expectation I had. People were too busy to even notice me as I peered into the different businesses. Barbers, cell phone stores, recycling centers, potters making clay pots, store fronts and work places constructed with sticks, pieces of fence and plastic tarps. People ignored me for the most part, and the mood was that of any city - only it looked like a Mad Max post apocalypse nightmare. The poverty is real. Naked babies crawling on concrete. Hundreds of thousands of people shitting in the same river. But the hardworking spirit was here, as it is in all of the India that I’ve seen.
Another realization that came yesterday is that my hotel is in the middle of the chaos of the Mumbai bombings that took place less than a year ago. In the cafe below my room 10 people were murdered with automatic weapons. The main Taj Mahal hotel that was bombed was less than a block away. I haven’t seen the Chabad house but I did see a NY Kosher Deli so I can’t imagine that it’s too far. I ask about race relations with most people I meet - and in regards to ethnic tolerance this place feels like NY. While gays just got the rights to hook up months ago - there is a peace underlying the chaos and an integrity and a directness in all of the people I’ve met. Im exited to go north to Rajasthan - supposed to be the land of fairy-tale india full of beautiful sunsets castles and magic.
All the shots are on facebook here.
November 2nd, 2009
So what about the latest adventures, sir?