Also, my apologies for the delay in between posts.
When I last left off, we were about to explore the city and explore the city we did! We decided to follow the Mumbai Moos' version of The Amazing Race in order see as much as we could in one day. I will spare you guys the descriptions of all the places that we saw since Avi and Aaron blogged about most of it already.
Suffice it to say that all in all, we saw the Dhobi Ghat even if we didn't realize it until later, the University of Mumbai (beautiful library!), the high courts, Colada, the slums, the Gateway to India, the Taj Mahal Palace hotel, and just Mumbai in general. We also planned to check out Chowpatty beach, but a sudden downpour ruined our plans.
Judging from the taxi ride to the Victoria Terminus (train station) alone, Alim was right: plan on plenty of extra time to get wherever you are going. The city is so polluted that its amazing, really. Just sitting in the taxi and driving with all the windows down due to not having AC left us all feeling not so hot from breathing in the air. Walking around the city alone coated us from head to toe in sweat, dirt, and grime. Let's not forget the trash, most of it ends up on the streets or in the water. Public trash receptacles are a commodity. At the Gateway to India, a little girl saw Wyatte's empty bottle and picked it up to toss it into the water and seemed quite puzzled when we clamored for her not to do that.
On the 12 hour train ride that we took to Goa the next day, trash went out right in between the welded bars on the open windows, effectively littering the beautiful Indian countryside. The toilets had no tanks to them: three guesses as to where all of that waste went and the first two don't count. On the ride, we could see people patiently sitting along the side of the tracks, buttocks exposed, just waiting for nature to do its work, never mind that it was in full view of hundreds of people on the passing trains. While waiting for our Goa train, a boy walked to the edge of the platform and urinated onto the rails in front of everyone, not even 20 feet away from where I was sitting, and nobody even batted an eye. It is simply condoned.
That was a bit shocking to all of us, I think. Another surprising thing: the crowds. When we first walked into the Victoria Terminus, the best way that I can describe the crowds is to compare it to an ant colony. It was just an extremely busy scene of literally hundreds of people in a small space going in about a hundred different directions. We didn't even know where to start, really.
The local train that we took for our failed trip to the beach gave a new meaning to the expression of being packed like sardines in a can. While waiting for the Magadon train to take us to Goa, we observed how quickly the platform could fill with people and how it could empty just as quick whenever a train arrived. Despite the general collectivist nature of Indian society, when a train arrived, mayhem ensued and it was truly every man/woman/child for themselves! People would push, pull, crowd, run, etc just to get on the train first and presumably find a good seat.
I like the trains so far, even if they are hot and not AC'd, for we have met some very nice people on the trains. On a local train from Victoria Terminus to Chowpatty, a businessman took interest in us and wrote back and forth with us for awhile, helping us to find our stop, and recommending good places to eat for dinner that night. In our original seats on the Goa train, what appeared to be a family of three Indian women and a little girl chatted with us and helped faciliate communication with the porters as well. We offered to pay for their meals to show our gratitude at their kindness, they seemed touched, but vehemently refused. I hope that we didn't insult them by offering. Then when the guy that was checking tickets made us move to our correct seats (oops!), we met two more Indians, one who sat with us, but only wrote Hindi, and another who went to university in Goa. We corresponded a bit with the Goan student and he said something that really articulated what we had seen over the past day or so: "India is a land of happiness and sorrows. In country like India where states like Bombay, Goa, Delhi, Bangalore are rich, there are also some poor backward people who are always striving hard to survive. India is a country where the only law fits good is (survival for the fittest)....."
When asked what his views on America were, he stated that he couldn't give any comments on America because the only thing that he could say was, "America is one of the strongest country <sic> in the world where there is no poverty and the standard of living is much <sic> high."
I do have to remark that despite all the poverty we see, people seem happy. Most are friendly, welcoming, and helpful.
There is more to be said on all of the above, but I don't know how to summarize so many experiences in a concise manner, and this entry is long enough as it is, so I will close for now.
I will update soon about our adventures in Goa! I am trying to attach a picture to this email of the four of us in Mumbai under the clock tower of the university, hope it works!
-KT
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile
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