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Published: February 15th 2008
Satish met us at Mumbai airport at 1-00am! It took only a few minutes to clear customs after the long SAA flight. He had Girish’s car and a driver (Santosh) and by 5-30am we were arriving at his home in Satara, waking up his dad - Kaka!
A who’s who of who’s to come!!:
Satish - a great friend from London, originally from Satara and who spends 3 months a year back home (lucky devil).
Kaka - his dad - known to all as Kaka which means uncle
Girish - his family friend and neighbour. Married to Prajakta - they have a son, Soham, aged 16 months (so cute)
Shaila - Girish’s mum and supreme cook, and Ravi, her husband
Vishram & Shobha - Satish’s uncle & aunt (another formidable cook & full time teacher) in Pune
Shubhangi, Maanasi & Anupam - Satish’s sister in law, niece and nephew who also live in Pune. Sadly, Satish’s brother, Shirish who was a colonel in the Indian army, passed a way a few years ago .
Kaka has a lovely house (which was built by a co-operative formed among people working for the Life Insurance Corporation of India, a pioneering move
30 years ago) with coconut and banana and chikoo trees in the garden, a roof terrace with views to the fort and hills around, and a great garden swing; perfect for the odd snooze as C soon discovers.
After a catch up sleep we relax and then head across to Girish’s place for lunch. Wow! Home cooked vegetarian food knocks the socks off what we can get in UK restaurants - and even restaurants in India! Diwana’s food will never be the same again! (For those that don’t know - this is a veg Indian restaurant in Drummond St, London which was C’s favourite). Chapati’s with cauliflower masala, daal, carrot halwa, buttermilk and rice. Cauliflower was so good - got the recipe!
Have an afternoon stroll up to the fort overlooking Satara - 4.5 miles and don’t we feel it the next day, then down into town to stock up on nuts, snacks, mossie repellent and beer!
Satara is a district town and very bustly with lots of tuk -tuks (called rickshaws - now that person driven rickshaws don’t operate in most towns & cities in India), motorbikes, cars, colourful goods carriers and throngs of people.
Satish says it has expanded significantly in the last 10 years. When their house was built 30 years ago it was way out of town; now it’s pretty close to the expanded centre.
After a few very cold beers (a le Satish - chilled with glasses in the freezer before opening) we head back to Girish’s for dinner; yet more fantastic chapatti’s, aubergine in coconut, palak (spinach), rice & peas and buttermilk. Shaila and Prajakta will only eat when all the chaps and guests have finished. And won’t accept any offers to help. C feels a bit difficult about this but is assured that the best thing to do is to enjoy the food which will please the hosts - no problem!
The next two days are spent enjoying yet more lovely food and getting out to see the sights around Satara. We go to Mahabaleshwar - a hill station with views across the Deccan Plateau. The riverbed at the bottom of the valley is dry now but in monsoon will fill again. The sides of the hills are very parched and barren, except where terraced for crops. This is strawberry, raspberry & gooseberry producing countryside! Not something
M has come across before. Lunch for four of us (masala dosa‘s, idli, utthapam and vada), including soft drinks, comes to £1.25! We visit a temple where 5 rivers converge - a holy place for the hindus.
We stock up on snacks (nuts and sev and chikki - nuts in toffee) and head on to Panchgani, another hill station. Here there is a plateau at the top - vast - on which horses, some with carriages and camels provide rides, and there are lots of fair ground rides and stalls. It’s clearly a very popular destination for local families. Monkeys provide some entertainment trying to nick people’s food.
Satish came to the UK as a 12 year old sponsored by a trust. As part of his prep for being away from family he had gone to stay with an uncle in Wai. We called in there on our way back to meet up with his aunt who still lives there. The house has a temple in the gardens which they look after. It also has a big well which Satish swam in as a kid - amazing that he didn’t contract some awful disease - very green and
stagnant water!
Too soon our time in Satara ends and we catch the local bus to Pune for a couple of days. Here we stay with Vishram and Shobha and enjoy yet more lovely home cooked food. Have the most amazing kichdi with lentils and buttermilk amongst other things. We spend our time visiting different areas of the city - which is huge and sprawling but has a great feel. We’re fortunate to have Vishram’s foreman, Sunil, who has a 3wheeler rickshaw to take us around. He also registers for a local SIM card for us for the phone - a huge palaver to try and get as a visitor. C has a haircut - almost a number 4 but very hard to persuade the hairdresser to cut it at all short; women in India largely have long luxuriant hair and she can’t quite get the logic of short hair.
M’s says it’s best described as a rough short back & sides jobs !!!
On the wall in the house was a rather inspiring poster which we’d like to share with family & our friends:
“Never be content with someone else’s definition of you. Instead define yourself
by your own beliefs, your own truths, your own understanding of who you are and how you came to be.
And never be content until you are happy with the unique person you are”
One disappointing thing for M and somewhat upsetting was the number of people with leprosy begging - not a pleasant site. It reminds M of his early days in India when they were everywhere - however they now generally have better care.
We also get to meet up with Satish’s brother’s family. We met them in Goa two years ago (and saw Anupam in England when he visited in summer). They have a lovely apartment with a great garden terrace and we enjoy catching up with them over a few snacks - freshly home cooked onion bhajia - and a freezing cold beer or 2. Maanasi works as a Radio Jockey (as they call them here) and has the late night programme - Dr Love!!! We went with her to her station - “Radio Mirch - it’s hot!” (mirch is chilli!). She took us through all that is involved in putting her programme together and the controls and systems for switching between adverts, songs,
jingles and speaking bits - all pre-recorded to ensure no reference to sex or politics from those phoning in! Hadn’t realised there was so much involved.
Next day, Kaka arrives in Pune and we say good bye to him and Vishram (Shobha is at Saturday school teaching) before heading off to Mumbai for a couple of days in Girish‘s car with a driver who is either brilliant or a maniac - depending on your perspective. He terrifies C weaving in and around cars, bikes, people the inside of buses but no one gets hurt and no scrapes.
Mumbai is mad & crowded! Traffic is horrendous and the only rule seems to be there is no rule! M says it’s who has the nerve wins - this includes pedestrians. The central area has some beautiful Victorian buildings such as the main railway station (Victoria terminus), the Gateway of India and the old Taj Hotel (where we have 3 beers for £10!! And gave up on lunch with big free bowls of peanuts!!) and some very imposing houses but there are also many cramped blocks of apartments and street dwellers homes along most of the roads - some quite well
constructed others barely having proper walls or roof. As in all towns and cities we’ve seen, colourful and elaborate temples are everywhere and provide great contrast to some very decrepit areas.
The issue of street dwellers is a huge political issue for the govt as they wish to relocate them in newer housing away from the city which is being fiercely resisted by the dweller who have lived here for years - a lot of the homes have electricity, TV & satellite dishes!!
M’s observations are that India has changed a lot & for the better - most things are available & cheap, anything that is available in the west can be got here including good health care etc - however, it’s largely the private sector that has to deliver even though some central govt controls and subsidies still exist e.g. for transport. The place is cleaner than how he recollects it. Whilst poverty is prevalent it’s better than when he left for the UK 36 years ago - there are much fewer beggars about & some of those that are seem to be professional ones targeting tourists.
Following various attempts to arrange vol. work in India,
we meet up with Mrinalini Rao, Country Director for the Railway Children charity. We hope to do some work with a local group called Ehsaas later in Lucknow via her organisation. The role of NGOs is important in India and we are impressed by the work of the charity which helps run away children all over the developing world where there is a thriving railway industry - where kids end up on main stations scraping a living and often being abused. For various reasons it is actually based in London.
Then we head to Chowpatty Beach for snacks in the evening. We’re surprised by how few stalls there are (probably only 20 or so in one small area) - its’ reputation is for being a place packed with stalls and places to eat. But it’s nice to experience anyhow. S & C enjoy bhel puri - a Mumbai favourite & M has a kulfi malai with Rabdi ( the latter a milky sweet which was his dad’s favourite & now is his as well).
The highlight of Mumbai for us is a concert arranged by Satish’s cousin Jyoti and her husband Shashi. It features the classical tubla player
Zakir Hussain and a host of other musicians from India and overseas. The drummers who play with him are excellent and the sitar player - Neeladri Kumar - is superb. An experience we would recommend to anyone who likes music.
Unfortunately while we are here some politicians in Mumbai stir up regional conflict against the people from Bihar & Uttar Pradesh - northern states, saying that these folks are depriving local Maharashtrians of work etc - this leads to violence in various towns & in Mumbai against north Indian shop keepers, taxi drivers & labourers. Sad really - but the situation is soon under control.
Next stop Kerala - travelling by Air Conditioned sleeper train to Kochi overnight passing through Goa and down the coast.
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maria
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We have just read your blog and it sounds fascinating. We are also in the process of booking our train travel from Kerela to Goa and have a question to ask. We want to go in 2AC like yourselves but wondered if the glass in the windows was transparent as we have read that it is opaque.