Our Traveler of the Week - My Mumbai Travelogue : Bruce Kennedy

  

I share with some trepidation a sampling of pictures taken during my July 2018 visit to Mumbai. Many of our colleagues know the city much better than I and others may have superior photography.  All I have to say on the subject are travelogue things and the photos are the best I can do with the iPhone X camera I can stick in my pocket. Nonetheless, I suppress my inhibitions in hopes of inspiring others to share their memorable moments wherever they may be.

Of the many beautiful colonial buildings in Anglo-India Fort district of Mumbai, one of the most iconic is the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj railway terminus (commonly referred to as VT for Victoria Terminus). Built in 1887 as the Victoria Railway Station to celebrate that queen’s 50th anniversary on the throne, it boasts a marvelous blend of Victoria Gothic and Mughal architectural features. The British lion and Indian tiger on the gate pillars purport the same synthesis of cultures. This is the only railway station in the world which is on the UNESCO World Heritage list.

The CSMT complex covers 30,000 m2. There are 11 inter-city platforms and five serving the suburbs. Everyday 1,250 trains depart the station carrying 3 million passengers. Commuters have only 15 to 30 seconds to disembark/board local trains at peak hours. Those trains do not shut their doors. In the wild scramble to get on and off, an average of nine people die daily.  Here I visited at a relatively quiet time around 10 am. I didn’t have the courage to go back at rush hour.

This magnificent foyer is one of the CSMT railway ticket offices. Clearly it has been remodeled at least once. The booths look modern as do the stained glass decoration above them but the heraldry on the walls proclaims the same synthesis of Anglo-India symbolism which looks so conspicuously dated now.

Behind the lovely Buddha head is the Museum of Western India, now renamed Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya or abbreviated to CSMVS. Built to commemorate the visit of the Prince of Wales in 1905 it embraces the Indo-Sarasenic architectural style found in many Indian palaces plus some British elements.

This is the foyer to the museum. In addition to Indian items, it has art and historical artifacts from all over the world. On the floor above are intricately carved arches from an Indian palace.

The pride of place is given to the beautifully carved ancient religious statuary tastefully displayed.

This is the Dharavi slum where 1.5 million people squeeze into an area slightly more than 200 hectares. On one edge are the train tracks which take people out to work elsewhere in the city and bring in waste for sorting, cleaning and processing either to be recycled here or outside. Almost all the tiny buildings on the main streets double as factories or stores and as living quarters. Everyone is busy. All the children were in school at the time of my visit. I didn’t see any child loitering on the street.

By contrast to the cramped conditions of the Dharavi slum, I stayed in an elegantly decorated modern apartment in a high rise building which came equipped with swimming pool and gym facilities. The owner must be the hospitable host in the Air B&B world. Along with my private room came full board, laundry and an open bar! He was an extrovert who had recently separated from his wife and just wanted to have company.

Barely 100 meters from my luxurious accommodations is the world’s largest outdoor laundry at Jacob Circle. The clothes are brought in from all over the city. The biggest customers are hotels, hospitals and hospitality caterers. A train station is conveniently next door. How all the laundry gets back to their rightful owner is a marvel of logistics and organization.

Most of the laundry is still done by hand by small family enterprises. The stall also serves as family accommodation. Not much privacy here!

This is the house where Mahatma Gandhi would stay wherever he was in Bombay as it was called then. The house was owned by a wealthy merchant supporter of the Free India movement. The area is quiet and leafy by Mumbai standards not far from the colonial Fort section of the city.

This spacious room on the second floor is where Gandhi would stay with his few possessions. There was no other furniture in the room.

At the opposite end of the scale of conspicuous consumption is this 27 floor mansion belonging to Mumbai’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani. He is reportedly worth $22 billion. His “house” towers over everything in that upscale residential area.

The Gateway of India is Mumbai’s competition to the Taj Mahal. Built to commemorate the 1911 visit of the King-Emperor George V, he and the Queen Empress stepped through a wooden precursor. The final product built in an Indo-Saracenic style wasn’t finished until 1924.

Behind the Gate, is the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel build in the Saracenic style in 1903 by the founder of the Tata business empire. If you have at least USD 500 to spend per night for a hotel room and want to celebrity-watch, this is the place to stay. By far the most memorable visitors are the Pakistani terrorists who attacked the hotel in 2008 killing 167 people.