Mumbai
Trip Start
Nov 15, 2007
1
7
16
Trip End
Jan 22, 2008
Mumbai (Bombay),
India
Monday, November 19, 2007
So we arranged to meet at the hotel. Now this hotel was on one of Mumbai's busiest arterial roads just a short walk from one of Mumbai's railway terminus's and opposite the main post office (a huge landmark in Mumbai). Could either of our taxi drivers find it? Of course not! I have noticed that taxi drivers don't have maps and wouldn't take any notice of mine. I wondered why for a while but realised that they are probably unable to read place names or map legends (or at least certainly not in English). I asked Uncle Google about this and the CIA website says that male literacy is 73.4%
On the way into Mumbai from the airport.
. Of course, I'm aware from reading books that literacy isn't a given in the third world but it's still an eye-opener to see this for real.Now, Mumbai is a city of 17 million (count 'em) people, it handles half of India's foreign trade, it is worth nearly 40% of India's GNP and has the world's biggest film industry.
So it's a pretty big place then.
But after Delhi it felt like a fishing village. Populated my monks. Who've taken a vow of silence. Now this is not to say that it was a particularly quiet and orderly place - but these things are relative. My initial impression of Mumbai was of it being a place where business is conducted and where things are more likely to get done. And therefore a little less alien to a westerner like me.
I should get that 'less alien' thing into perspective here as on final approach into the airport, you pass across mile-upon-mile of shanty town buildings and in the taxi going into the city on the main road, you pass miles more. I would have taken photos but felt very uncomfortable taking pictures of poverty. So I didn't. Sorry about that but like so many westerners in a third world country I'm struggling with the vast gulf between my standard of living and theirs. Here's a link to a picture taken by somebody who doesn't have this problem: http://www.pbase.com/bmcmorrow/image/32004312
A desirable neighbourhood eh? Still, those houses don't appear to be any less well made than the average Barratt 'starter home' and I'll bet they cost a bit less too. And I'll also wager that despite the poverty and lack of sanitation it's a safer place to walk around than your average British sink estate.
