Losing Bearings in Mumbai

Chaos proportional to size and population

Mumbai is the perfect embodiment of utter confusion. Its roads are filled with buses, taxis, private cars, auto rickshaws, cyclists, pedestrians, stray cats and dogs. There are occasional lanes marked on the roads, but nobody pays attention to those. Continuous honking does not cease until late in the night when traffic jams finally subside. The only way to cross a road as a pedestrian is to extend your open palm of an extended arm towards the passing car, which will then, surprisingly often, stop for you to cross. Once you reach half-way across the street, you have to do the same with the opposite palm and hope for the best. Taxis and rickshaws typically abide by these unwritten rules, but if you are trying to make a high end car with tinted windows stop for you to cross, just forget about it!

Driving in India takes place on the left side, a legacy of the British who were in control of the area until independence in 1947. During their almost two-hundred-year rule in India, the British constructed a huge railway network, which reaches Mumbai at the Victoria Terminus, or VT for short. The building has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site, but the sheer number of passengers (about three million daily) is what truly captivated me. As a train pulls into the station at one of the eighteen platforms, people rush towards the door in order to secure a seat. The first and the last cabin are reserved for women, but the crowd is no smaller there. Within a few minutes all passengers are aboard, some barely as they are half-hanging from the door, and the train leaves the station. There is not much time as over 1,200 trains need to be accommodated by the station every day!

One of the most memorable points of my trip to Mumbai was a visit to the Haji Ali mosque, which is located on a tiny island off the coast of south Mumbai. There is a 400-meter walkway that leads from the shore to the mosque, but the journey there is anything but joyful. The pathway is lined with beggars, some children, some single mothers, some limbless, some blind. It is a horrifying line of miserable people asking for the mercy of passersby. At the beginning of the trail, there is a public kitchen, which serves hot meals in plastic bags to the poorest. The crowd heading to the mosque is so dense, that unless you are walking on the very right side, you will struggle to even pass to the beggars and give them money or food. It seems as if all of the city is heading to the mosque at the same time. But this is not the kind of a mosque you might see in the Middle East: people do not take off their shoes and women do not veil unless they enter the dargah (the tomb of Haji Ali), and worshipers of all religions are welcome. You are likely to see some Muslim women in black gowns covering their entire body and even more women dressed in colorful saris, who are not necessarily Muslim. People simply visit to give offerings and receive blessings from the saint the mosque is named after.

A strip of nature at Lonavala

To escape the hustle and bustle of the city, locals like to take a ride to Lonavala, a small city in the mountains just two hours south-east of Mumbai. The area is rich in greenery and waterfalls, particularly during the monsoon season from June to August. At the time of my visit in January, the vegetation was sort of in decline, but the vistas from the Lion’s Point were still stunning. The visit was crowned, however, by the playful monkeys, which patrol the area and sometimes pose for photos right by the best view points. They are extraordinarily grateful for any food leftovers and may even try to snatch items from your hands if they suspect something edible is hiding inside. For example, I was holding a packet of refreshing wipes, which the monkey mistook for a bag of edible contents and started reaching out its hands toward it with a rather zealous look in its eyes. Monkeys are supplemented by dogs, most of which are too busy sleeping in the sun to notice any visitors. The cubs, on the contrary, are cheerful and eager to explore the surroundings, which includes occasionally playing with baby monkeys, or fighting with them for food.

Ostentatious wealth and extreme poverty

As much as Mumbai is characterized by chaos, it is also epitomized by a huge gap between the rich and the poor. One of the world’s most expensive apartments, namely a sea-facing triplex penthouse on Napean Sea Road, is located in south Mumbai. This is the biggest residential apartment in the country. Not far away is Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan Road, which is lined with palaces of Indian politicians, tycoons and Bollywood movie stars. Ironically, the same street also houses the Indian Anti-Corruption Bureau. Just a corner away, I notice groups of homeless people who are just about to light their fires on sidewalks to prepare their evening meals before taking rest on the street, underneath cloths clipped onto trees on one side and fences or walls on the other. A rich man may see such a scene from his flamboyant bedroom every evening and morning – how does he have a peaceful sleep?