52 Hours in Mumbai

Our soft landing in Southern India where the streets were a bit less chaotic, the beaches were a touch cleaner and the people were a tad friendlier has come to an end. Our next stop: India's most populous city where we were expecting plenty of additional craziness. We found it right away when our 4pm flight to Mumbai was cancelled just two days before departure, leaving us no choice but to rebook for the 4am flight instead. Then, the prepaid airport taxi we arranged upon arrival turned into a 30-minute long farce of searching for absentee drivers among dozens of sitting taxis, making sure random helpers didn't walk off with our receipt, waiting for the taxi attendant to reschedule our taxi, along with a couple of threats from the armed airport guard letting us know that we could not re-enter the airport to have a chat with the guy who was working the prepaid taxi counter. Sadly, this actually was not a scam, just a mishap similar to other situations we've experienced in India. After 30 minutes of hanging out in the airport garage with a ton of curious cabbies waiting for business, we got a pretty sweet Indian version of a VW Bus with strawberry wallpaper, which made us happy again!

Fun fact: we had always thought Mumbai was just the Hindi name change from 'Bombay'. Like Calcutta-Kolkata or Bangalore-Bengaluru, Bombay-Mumbai. Nope. It's actually the local deity Mumba a sort of spiritual mother of us all and Bai a local word for city or place. Bom Baia was just Portuguese for 'Good Bay'. Funny coincidence.

Anyway, history lesson aside, after a quick nap at our homey AirBnB (Thanks Soraya and Fabi <3) and some much needed Chai we got busy sightseeing. We didn't have time to ease into the city, and went straight to Dharavi, reportedly the world's largest (one million people) slum. We met up with a student tour guide, Farrukhan, who grew up in Dharavi and was enthusiastic and proud to share his home with us. Farrukhan is a well dressed Masters student in tourism who hopes to run his own tourism business in the future. Part of the tour fee included a donation to a local NGO, as well as our guide's education expenses. The focus of the tour was to show visitors that life in the 'slum' is like life elsewhere. Right away, our guide wanted to know, "What do you think of when you think of a slum?".

Whatever the answer was, what we saw definitely changed our perceptions. There were numerous micro-industries at work inside. One of the main sources of income for many residents was based around collecting recyclable materials from other parts of the city and then, quite literally, physically recycling it. We saw old gas cans burned to remove the paint, pounded back to their original shape to be resold to paint companies. We saw plastics being smashed and ground to tiny bits that were then used to create textiles, rope, and furniture filling. We saw workers, wearing only flipflops, standing in huge piles of multi-colored glass, crushing it down further and further into a course-sand like product to be melted. We saw barefoot bakers hauling endless sheet pans of bread in and out of large stone ovens at an unbelievable, nonstop pace. We saw a man standing in front of a pile of raw tanned leather hides that went up to his chest, throwing the highest quality pieces to his left and the lowest quality pieces to his right towards a man sitting on the ground organizing them all. Dharavi has made such a name for itself that it has its own leather goods brand, as well as sari dying & printing and sewing industries that sell expensive clothing to chic neighborhoods in Mumbai. All of these industries operate out of windowless concrete rooms with little ventilation or safety precautions.

Of course, there are also food stalls, produce bazaars, pharmacies, clay products and home goods, and religious temples at every turn throughout Dharavi to serve the people working in these industries. Around 4 pm 'chai time' we enjoyed chai at one of the stalls where workers take well deserved breaks and catch up on the latest gossip, before wandering through narrow alleys just wide enough for us to squeeze through, passing the back steps of people's one room homes towards our exit. Taking photos during the tour was not allowed, so unfortunately we can't share any photos from the experience.

Mumbai is known for being a city of extremes and stark contrasts and we definitely found that to be the truth going from Dharavi to the Mumbai Royal Opera House, a classically beautiful performance stage that was just recently reopened after being closed for 28 years of renovations. The scene outside and in could not have been more different from Dharavi. We had tickets to 'The Devil Wears Bataa' a political comedy about the parallel situations of India and the U.S. (Singh and Modi vs Obama and Trump). The political class in both places, its seems, gets what they want and doesn't have to worry about how it affects anybody else. The play was mostly in English, with some Hindi slang and Indian jokes that went straight over our heads, but we were definitely among the few busting a gut during the American political jokes. Sadly we had to leave early because we had barely slept in 24 hours.

The next day we checked out the sights of the city on a "Mumbai Local" tour. The British left behind many beautiful buildings, gates, train stations, etc that usually blend European sensibility with Hindu and Muslim flair to make unique and striking architecture. Not to mention all the other cultural and social influences that exist all around Mumbai- cricket is considered a religion here. It was quite striking to see the diverse mix of old, modern, British, Indian, and other Asian cultures all infused together within the sprawling city.

Getting there, though, is easier said than done. Mumbai lacks a subway system and the streets suffer for it. From the yoked oxen, bicycles, and rickshaws to the enormous city buses, 22 million people are trying to get somewhere. There is a sort of regional train system that has 3 lines and runs frequently, but the density of people in the cars clearly says "this is not enough". On the flipside, in about an hour we saw India's most expensive hotel where room rates are in the thousands, the world's most expensive 'house' where just one family lives (the skyscraper on the left in the photo below), and an old British five-star hotel that was once elegant and now houses ratty Tata offices (India's billionaire richer than Gates).

Later that night, we continued to do what the locals do (and love)- go to the movies! We saw "Gully Boy" a Bollywood film funded by Nas about the developing hip hop scene in Mumbai, and specifically in Dharavi, where we had just been the day before. It was opening weekend, so The Liberty, a beautiful, single Art Deco style theatre like one you could find at home, was buzzing with excitement from morning til night.

The audience, however, you would not find at home. Nearly everybody was talking the whole time, hooting for the kissing scenes, clapping for the dopest flows, and catching up with loved ones down the aisle. At one point, the little girl sitting in front of us threw some trash our way. After a short intermission (surprise!), the sounds of spicy popcorn being feverishly munched filled the theatre. We enjoyed taking it all in. Even though the Hindi movie didn't have English subtitles, the picture still told the story well enough for us. And this time, we made it all the way to the end of the show!

To give you one last insight into how massive Mumbai is, we have included this short 17 second video (which was originally 3 minutes) of sprawling city.