Mayhem In Mumbai

Feb 28, 2010

Sweet, sweet, bitter sweet Mumbai. City of paradox, city of riddle, city of imbalance. Imagine a place in which the wealthy are so rich some choose to show their abundance by gold plating their front door, or perhaps they adorn their wives in 24karat jewels that are so heavily crusted with diamonds they just ooze with Bling. 

Imagine a world where with one blink you can see a three hundred thousand dollar Bentley and the next a legless man so poor that he pulls himself along the road not caring about the road chafing away at his tender skin.

Walking into some
hotels, floors and walls are soaked in Carrera marble from Italy as if to say
the Indian brands just won't do. To look up in these properties, you would see
a chandelier so grand, even those placed in the symphony rooms of Vienna
come a distant second. The restaurants in this city, of which there are so
many excellent and delicious choices, are not hungry for your business. In
fact in some cases they are so overfed with clients that you are given a
time limit to enjoy your meal. Come Saturday night if you have not planned
well ahead and booked your favorite spot...you may be eating from a roadside
vendor and wishing the next morning that you had not. 

Walking in the
streets of Mumbai is a treat, a horror and an education. As cars whiz by
tooting, and zigzagging between each other as if they are in some horribly
choreographed routine, you cant help but wonder how none of them are
actually hitting you. To cross the road (a true Leap of faith) you are privy to
the universal fact that we are all connected.

Imagine being a part of a bloodstream where so many microorganisms are moving so fast all with their own purpose but all somehow flowing with and respecting the others.  Waiting for the tiniest opening in the traffic (3feet if you’re especially lucky) you jump in and join with the existing stream and you start your journey of faith across the road. 

Step by step you see cars and rickshaws tooting at each other and sometimes at you all swishing and maneuvering not to touch you or each other. Diagonally you are pushed with the pulse of the traffic as if there was a strong current to this gushing stream of energy. Before you know it, you have crossed in one piece; you have reached the other side! I am told the rule of trust is very apparent in the driving here. You see the main and only real rule is to watch your front end...trust that behind you all is that it should be... Trust...it works! 

Walking the small and usually overcrowded streets you see the harsh
realities of being in a city with a population density of 30 thousand people
every square Km leaving the ever growing population at over (and please excuse
my passive humor) 18 million wonderful and delightfully pleasant souls, each of
one with their own opinion and view on how things should be, each one trying to
follow or beat the system. You see India is the planets largest democracy, and that does
not always help gets things done as so many differing views can also lead to a
slow paced struggle forward. Riding through the city on a rickshaw (a definite
MUST)... Yu are zoomed in and out of traffic putting around, all the while
spitting out fumes and black smoke from a modified 2 stroke engine and
doing your very own little bit to add to global warming. As you travel from
area to area, place to place... you are delighted with so many scents from the
beautiful aroma of pure jasmine incense to the foul stench of month old
garbage...so bad you almost wonder how long you can hold your breath on
this stretch of your adventure. It's sometimes so potent, your brain sends
you a signal and you can almost taste it...  Blaghhh.

But it is not until you find yourself arguing and
I mean arguing to the point where you feel a dryness filling the back of
your throat, and the surge of your heart beat is making you flush
with fiery cheeks and you realize your voice is elevated beyond the
point of polite, it is not until you reach this very point (and you
have all been there) that you have truly experienced the joys of
Mumbai.  Realizing it was all over 50 rupees (the equivalent of $1.25) I
told myself " it was the point not the money" and politely
excused myself in an embarrassed state... I also decided that Perhaps it was
time to leave this maddening metropolis of the east...Mumbai!