Mumbai, In Conclusion

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  Mumbai, India
Monday, January 2, 2006

A common question we are asked is, "how do you find Mumbai?" That is a question with a complicated answer, and here we will answer it for you (if you too have asked this question). I think we both have liked and disliked this city. We are in admiration of the people who make this city their home and live their life here. Honestly, we couldn't do it and we take relief in knowing we have our home to return to in Portland. Being here has been exhausting, frustrating, exhilarating and immensely rewarding.

This is a city where a sense of humor is a must. We are not always able to summon up that humor in the moment; and we are not always proud of our reactions, but in the end, we find a way to laugh about it.

We were having a conversation with another foreigner about the shear amount of people and the constant intrusion into what we Westerners call our "personal space." We realized that having a complete stranger touching us on the train, in a line, or on the bus does not bother us

01 How can you not be happy here?

. It is the "people dodging" that is frustrating. Think of dodge ball, but instead of a ball, it is a mass of people coming at you, one after another after another. Your pace slows or quickens depending upon who walks in front of you, or who is coming at you. Many times, we have done that little "dance:" left, right, oh, which way is that person going? Luckily, there have been no bruises from people dodging, but a padded suit would be nice if it weren't too hot to wear one.

...We're going to be crass for a moment, so skip this part if you want to... but one has to also dodge the "butt bombs" from various sources - and there have been a few times when Jamie's dodging ability has not been so good. Ok, enough said.

Finding our way around the city has put Jamie to tears more than once (well almost to tears). No good maps exist and street signs and names are invisible, although we have been told they exist. Stacie has a system for asking for directions. She profiles those whom she thinks speak English and will give her reliable directions; she looks for women or young high school or college students. Those directions should always be double checked with another person and then you may be lucky enough to find your way to your destination. Surprisingly, rickshaw drivers don't always know their way around town and they often have to pull over and ask someone for directions (we are thankful that they usually do this instead of driving around in circles for hours)

02 We don't have to do ironing here

. Jamie has had our office boy, Vinayak, take her to a meeting to show her the way by bus and foot, so there would not be a white women lost in this enormous city, never to be seen again.

Indian graffiti otherwise known as Paan spit is another minus here in our book. Paan is sort-of like chewing tobacco - it is a leaf that is often times filled with tobacco and mixed with betel nut, giving it a red color. It grosses Jamie out beyond belief to be sitting in a rickshaw and see the driver lean out the side of the vehicle and spit a long stream of dark red juice out of his mouth. On more than one occasion, we have had close calls with being marked with this tinted spit. On many sides of buildings here, the lower part of the wall that meets the ground is reddish-brown - stained from the spit marks of hundreds of paan chewers.

In every country we have been to, including our own, we encounter beggars. Never have we found the beggars to be so aggressive as the ones here in Mumbai. A simple "no" does not work here. A more forceful "Jao" (go) only results in laughs (theirs, not ours). We have been grabbed, hit, and constantly hounded. It is a test of wills: will we break down and give them money to go away and stop hitting us, or will we ignore them until they get tired and finally leave us alone? Sometimes it takes several minutes before they finally give up and go away. It takes all of your willpower to withhold from hitting them back. It is not a good feeling to be hit and grabbed, but at the same time, you begin to not like yourself for the reactions and thoughts you feel towards these people who have next to nothing in life.

On the more positive side, this is a city where you see life being lived

03 It's the little things that make you smile...

. Life is in your face, it is sometimes raw, and that is exhilarating, but at times depressing. On a bus ride to a meeting at Sion Hospital for Jamie's project, she watched a young boy of about 16 carefully remove his pants from underneath a small cloth wrapped around his waist and begin to wash his pants - probably the only pair that he owns. On the side walk next to him, a young girl was having her head of matted hair groomed by another woman, presumably her mother. That side walk was their home and their life was on display for anyone who happened to be passing by and take the time to look. As we are riding along, we constantly look out to see people literally living life: cooking, eating, sleeping, etc - just as you would but without four walls of their own. We have seen families rolling out perfectly round rotis (like tortillas) on the side walk as tourists and pilgrims make the walk to a local Muslim shrine, Haji Ali, to pray. We wonder what would happen if we sat down to join them in their meal - they probably would offer us some food, as that is the type of generosity we have encountered here in Mumbai.

We interrupt this program for an educational moment - thanks to Professor Justin:

You would think that this huge problem of homelessness would be due to the obvious - a lack of housing. But the root cause comes from a seemingly benign piece of legislation that took effect right after World War II. Allied troops were moving into the city's apartments by the boatload. In an effort to keep rents from skyrocketing, the government passed the Rent Act of 1947. It froze the rents for many residences at 1940 levels, extended leases indefinitely, halted evictions (assuming tenants were paying rent on time) and it allowed tenancy to be inherited, so a father could pass his tenancy on to his heirs (at the frozen rental rates!)

04 Christmas Decorations for Sale

. Meant to be temporary, the Act has been extended over 20 times since WWII (since the number of voters that are tenants far outnumber those who are landlords!).

But the results have been disastrous. With all these restrictions, landlords had no incentive to lease out their apartments - there were 400,000 empty residences in the city in 2004! For many years, the only way landlords could get people to move out was to stop maintaining/repairing the buildings. As a result, most buildings look like the maintenance staff have been on strike for 50 years. Due to the scarcity of residences available for rent, Mumbai's slum population (squatters who build make shift plastic-wrap-and-string shelters on somebody else's land) doubles every ten years. The grim irony is that the scarcity of housing has made rent levels in many parts of Mumbai on par with those of New York, Paris, and Tokyo. Parts of the Rent Act were repealed recently, but the effects will take a long time to solve.

And now, back to our musings:

The exhilaration comes from the energy that buzzes around you as people move through the city, on their way to work, selling their goods, either in their shop or along the street, or going out for the night

05 Bangles, Bangles, Bangles!!!

. We have heard many times that you can get anything in Mumbai (legal to illegal) and much of it is right out there, where you don't have to look very far.

Late nights in Portland leave you with very few options for a mid-night snack out. Here, at any time of night you can stop at the road side stand and get a plate of egg bhaji (masala spiced scrambled eggs) with white bread grilled on the tawa with liberal amounts of butter. That definitely satisfies those late night munchies.

We have not known a dull moment since we arrived here. There is always some new experience to enjoy and some new road to wander (um, get lost) down. Everyday, something happens that makes you smile - from the puppies playing on the road, the goat hanging out on the seat of someone's scooter, to the generosity of a stranger inviting you into his temple so you can experience his faith, or the taste of some new and yummy food (like egg bhaji).

We have ridden the local train here numerous times, but it wasn't until the last week of our stay that Jamie got to watch Justin perform a ballerina's leap to make it onto the departing train. The locals were cheering him on and congratulating him as he gracefully jumped into the compartment as the train carried us out of the station.

On that same train ride to the end of the line at Churchgate, we learned what men will do for a seat on the train. A seat is such precious real estate at rush hour on these commuter trains. At rush hour (which we try to avoid), the 1st class compartment can be insanely crowded, but traveling against the commute (which we were on this particular trip), or at non-rush hour times, one can generally find a seat in the 1st class compartment

06 Late night snack of Egg Bhaji

. As we approached our terminus, a kind man sitting next to us told us to not get off when the train stopped, but wait until the men boarded the train. I wish I could have captured the noise and feeling of the rush of air as about 50 men stampeded onto the train in about 1 second, all clamoring for a seat! We had to squeeze past the men who were jumping onto the seats we just vacated and pushed our way off the train. It was one of the funniest moments we have experienced in a while (maybe this is one of those moments where you just had to be there). We just regret that we didn't try to auction off our seats to the highest bidder.

This week, we attended the wedding of a good friend's sister-in-law. It was a three-day affair, replete with family members engaged in choreographed dance performances. We noted that a lot of the other guests were NRI's (non-resident Indians) who had flown in from New York or Boston. Weddings, like many of life's important events here, are scheduled for auspicious dates (according to one's astrological advisor). Last week must have been particularly lucky - there were 25,000 weddings in New Dehli alone!

There are the little joys that can make our day - like buying bangles to complete the outfit Jamie had made for the wedding above

07 A Gujrat Thali, mmm....

. There are little stalls that sell bangles in every color imaginable. You bring your sari or salawar kaameze with you and the men behind the counter go to work. In less than a minute, they have matched the colors of the bangles to the exact colors of your dress and have made an intricate design with different sizes, textures and decorative bangles. Jamie wanted to buy bangles for every outfit she owned, just to watch them work. Justin was even impressed by the display, but he stopped at buying some for himself.

We have also learned new ways to communicate with people, our favorite being a phone conversation... There are no pleasantries exchanged at the start of a conversation. A conversation may go like this: "Hello, this is Jamie." Person on the other end of the line: "yes, tell me." You can be sure that we tell them!

It has been wonderful to have a peak into the public health world in another nation. After studying and working in one public health system, learning about how another country does business has been eye-opening and rewarding. Interactions with members of the health community have taught us that people share the same passions, as we do at home: to improve the lives of the millions of people who make this city their home. In many ways, public health is harder here due to shear number of people and many more limitations of resources.

So, as we leave the craziness of Mumbai behind, we take with us the knowledge that we are living life - both the sweetness and the sorrow of it. With this, we look forward to experiencing how people in the other parts of India live.

Post your own travel photos for friends and family More Pictures

08 Riding in a Rickshaw	09 Life on the streets	10 Dharavi Slums	11 Another view of the Slums
11.5 swimming in the slums	12 The young girls practicing their Mehendi	13 Ways to transport eggs here	14 A temple tucked away on the way to the slums
15 Construction	16 A Mosque in Town	17 A bit of Nature outside our window	18 Modes of transport for the handicapped
19 Party at our place, and excuse to dress up	20 Dressing up for an Indian wedding	21 On the train to the wedding	22 Mehendi by a professional
23 The bride and groom dancing	24 Family members dancing	25 At the Wedding	26 Meow...

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