I spent my first two weeks in Mumbai, taking two small side trips during this time to close by cities. My experiences the first day sum up my time spent in Bombay pretty well-hectic and exhilarating. My friend Eddie and I were talking and describing it as the city of trying to
survive. Everybody here is doing anything possible to get by and doing what is good for them. People cross the street whenever they want, cab drivers cut whoever they want off, and even the tiny creatures of the cities, from dogs to rats, have their own way to maintain their life. Here, time really is money. For me it is chaos, but for locals it's the way of Mumbai: either act or be stepped on. It is an organized chaos as there are systems in place that are invisible to myself as an outsider. The whole first day included slum visits (including Dharavi, the largest slum in Asia) as I went with
Haath Mein Sehat to their home visits and met with local officials, barganining on Linking Road for birthday gifts, Hindu temple visits, racing auto-rickshaw rides, getting hassled by street children, taking the crazy packed Mumbai local trains, and having dinner in the home of some new friends house in Reclamation, a slum near Bandra. It was the most intense day of my life, and also one of the most unforgettable.
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| HMS Hand Washing Session at Dharavi |
There are so many differences from my other travel experiences here. Like for one, it is HOT! The hottest and most humid place I have ever been perhaps. Also, it is hectic. The traffic here does not compare to anywhere in South America. The drivers are way crazier than Buenos Aires drivers, people follow traffic laws even less than in Peru and Brazil, and no one wears seat belts (they don't even exist in many vehicles). Also, the diversity of religion here is something that even impresses an American. It seems more diverse than anywhere in the States, even NYC. Temples, mosques, sikh gurdwaras, churches and cathedrals can all be found in Mumbai, and many other places, sometimes even on the same street! The diversity in languages is also impressive, about 415. Yep, 415. Each state has their own language(s), most people speak the official languages of Hindi and English, and then there are hundreds of others. India is probably the most colorful place I have ever been as well. With colorful Hindu shrines, painted trucks and saris all littering the streets - it all appears as confetti from afar. Along with the beauty, it is also hard to witness a lot of the ugly that I have never seen before - like trash heaps piled high and rotting in the sun, and mass amount of poverty that fill the public spaces. The fact that there is poverty is no different than anywhere else, only that in a country of 1 billion plus where it already has a high amount of poverty proportionally as compared to most places, the actual number is overwheling.
Since I have left the airport, my social rules have completely had to adjust. For one, personal space is a totally different. Like, there is none! Trains are packed to the brim with faces crammed up against yours. Lines consist of people stacked back to back, even holding each others hips at times. Women and men have different dynamics here than back home. It is nothing too extreme, but it just feels different. Women have greater risks for harassment here, which motivates them to cover up more and ride in separate train compartments. There are many other things as well, like only eating with your right hand, greeting others with "namaste" and prayer hands to some people, nodding your head sideways or around in circles to say yes and being a little more direct with people. It is complicated though, India is like visiting 10 countries in one. You have to adjust-not only to one kind of culture, a certain religion, one language, or one kind of tradition and history-but what feels like dozens instead. For me, it is a place that is hard to describe. My trip is pretty limiting to as to how to interpret this place. I am here for only 5 weeks, of which I spent three in two big cities and the other remaining two have been running around to a few places for only a couple of days.
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| Lines at a temple in Kolkata |
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| Kolkata |
There are sights for the timid westerner, the safe routes, then there are the small off the beaten track places. Even the bigger cities provides you with this traveling feeling of hiking through so many different places. I have had some rough routes and easy ones. After spending time in the largest slums and the nicest night clubs of Mumbai, I flew to Calcutta to check out the former British colony. I loved it - West Bengal has great sweets, awesome street food and great people. I love Calcutta as it felt a little smaller and a little slower than Mumbai. It is a really cool city. The temples, the Howrah bridge, the parks, the markets. . . then Darjeeling. I took a 20 hour train to the very north of West Bengal to hide in the clouds near Tibet and drink hot tea. The weather was waaay cooler. I actually needed a sweater at one point. After Eddie met me here, we headed to Nepal. This was a trip. We took a bus to Siliguri, then another bus to the border (actually we say on the roof of this packed bus as it raced through the rainy darkness of the night to the border). We followed up this unforgettable ride with a really uncomfortable bicycle rickshaw ride to the actual border, and then finally exited India and woke up some Nepali officials to get a 15 day Nepal visa. After a really uncomfortable 3 hour night sleep and eating with some nice Nepali family, we headed by bus, a 17 hour bus ride, to Kathmandu. That city is dope. Swayambhunath Temple (the monkey temple), motor cycle rides (we rented motorcycles), Pashupatinath Temple (temple of the living beings), yoga with swamis, awesome food, funky Nepali shrines, Buddhism, plush green jungle crawling into the hectic city center. . I must return. Benares was the next stop: another 15 hour bus and a 6 hour train journey. Unreal. Varanasi is unreal. We roamed the old rotted alleyways and through the old temples to the ghats where we witnessed a few funerals, people bathing upon the holy river spot, and men preparing for the cremations. We were able to the early morning 5 am boat ride on the River Ganges, as well the sunset ride to see the fire and dance rituals. It was pretty touristy, way more than I anticipated, but still special. Our trip ended as we took a very long 24 hour train ride in the general class compartment to Agra, to catch a glimpse of the Taj Mahal before I left India. Now this place I knew would be touristy, but it was way more special than I anticipated. It is gorgeous in fact!
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| Kathmandu |
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| Varanasi |
By the end, as I raced to Dehli to fly to Mumbai and say goodbye to the Maximum City before heading to Italy, I was overwhelmed with new sights and experiences. Now here I am, my last day in Mumbai before I head out. I almost feel the exhaustion that Siddhartha describes as he hangs with the Samanas and loses the Self to realize true reality in Herman Hesse's novel. A little dramatic of a comparison, but I don't really know how else to describe my mind. I have seen things I never thought I would see, and I can not think of anything else besides this moment - not pleasure, not excitement, not sadness, not even judgement. I have also become pretty sick and think I've lost about 10 pounds. I don't know how to sum it all up, but my India trip is over now.
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| Kathmandu |
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| Agra |
