Mumbai

Gateway of India, Mumbai

And so we arrive in Mumbai, India. A new country, a new timezone, a new sub-continent, a new city, a new way of life and an utterly mind blowing and overwhelming experience. I keep hearing Andrew whispering in my ear, relax, your making me tense, relax. But for some reason I can't and I can't actually put my finger on why? Its not that I don't feel safe, though I am clutching my camera, just in case – but it is the shear number of people, that makes me feel uneasy. Maybe I'm a bit agoraphobic. It feels like you are coming out of a large concert all the time. But its also the way people treat you here. The hotel we are staying in is lovely, complete with, lift-men, doormen and bell boys – but it is as if I don't exist. They look right past me and talk directly to Andrew. Every morning I get into the lift first, and its “Good Morning, Sir” “How are you today?” “What have you planned?” or something such similar, looking right through me at Andrew, I barely get a nod.

Local Cricket in Oval Maidan, Colaba, Mumbai

Its loud and noisy, its smelly, its wonderful colourful but at the same it dirty and grimy. You don't go to India to see things per say, you go to experience it. We walked around the Colaba and Fort areas, looking at the all the colonial building mixed through an array of modern, derelict and collapsing buildings and concrete jungle. But it's the people that make what it is, and more importantly, the sheer numbers. For example, yesterday was Sunday, which like much of Europe most businesses were closed and streets were quieter (only in the sense that there were not as many cars/taxis about, so less horns) but that did not make it feel less crowded - in fact maybe it was more crowded... Every quiet street had a local game of cricket, played with a tennis ball and most players running barefoot. Then there was Oval Maidan (the local park), about 4 times the size of St. Stephen's Green, it had a cricket oval at either end with a game playing in each and in between (the size of another 2 cricket ovals) there must have been 50 / 100 (too many to count!) cricket creases just full of people playing - kids, teenagers & adults. There were literally 1000's of people playing... it was hard to see where one game started and the other ended. To give a sense of scale to Mumbai, there are more than 16 million people living in the city. 2.5 million people pass through CST (the central railway station) daily. There are a mere 17 public toilets for every 1 million people and there are about 29,000 people per sq km.

Streets of Mumbai

Colaba, where we are staying, maybe epitomizes Mumbai and the class and wealth divide. The streets are lined, both with markets stalls (selling everything from cheap clothing to giant balloons) and up market high street, with everything from Nike, Nikon, Body Shop, to Louis Vuitton. Everyone from the clearly wealthy Indians to whole families living on the streets. This afternoon we walked passed a group of small semi naked children and their parents all asleep on the street at the entrance to a busy petrol station on a road junction. Poverty is obvious and a huge problem. 

CST (Victoria) Central Train Station in Mumbai