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Dhobi Ghat
View from up above the bridge. See the separation of whites from other anomalies. Hey World,
Mumbai is on the agenda today. Fret not, I shall make this short and sweet, unlike my previous entries, which I have to admit, is a bit on the long-ish side.
Mumbai. The first thing that came to mind would be the Bollywood celebrities. I've read that many Bollywood stars were born in Maharashtra. Perhaps Mumbai is the place where they make these movies. I didn't have the chance to rub shoulders with any celebrity cos we were only in Mumbai for a day. I think we were on transit, hmm yes. Nevertheless, Mumbai is wonderful, with its own offerings unlike the other states that I've been to.
Mumbai is industrialized. You get a sense of it being an industrialized city just by looking at its buildings. It's a bit like Singapore, minus the traffic. It can get pretty bizarre there, by the way. The most amazing thing about Mumbai is that slums can exist beside high-rise apartments and buildings. It's truly a contrast at its best, I have to admit. Seeing these slums made me realize just how fortunate I am to be who I am today. Watching children on the street having to beg
Dhobi Ghat
To get to the dhobi ghat, you have to climb the stairs down for money and doing all sorts of acrobat acts just to get our attention is enough to bring a tear to my eye. The worst part is that there still are children (very young ones, about one to two years of age) sleeping on the streets, with all the traffic going on around them. I fear that one day, an unsuspecting vehicle might run over his legs and he may not even have the money to get himself a prosthetic leg. What is even more amazing is how they all seem to accept life as it is. They do not seem to want to move on (perhaps it is not shown on the outside), because they are contented with whatever they have. It's a bit sad, but well, in life, we make choices and we have to live with it, no?
Enough about sappy stories. Let's talk about something else.
In Mumbai, I made a visit to the Dhobi Ghat. HAHA Mumbai's Dhobi Ghat is priceless, I tell you. It is essentially a mass laundry service. By the way, you need to have a lot of courage to walk through the Dhobi Ghat. First of all, it seems
that the entire Mumbai population runs a laundry centre. Secondly, there are puddles of water all over the place, and it is a kind of like an ancient laundry centre, so to speak. You never know what the water mixes with. So yeah, you kinda have to be oblivious to all these when you walk through the areas. There are, however, interesting things which you can see inside. They use the really old iron where they have to burn charcoal to produce steam, the antique washing machine which is not used today, and everything is being washed by hand. They separate the whites from the other anomalies, which means the probability of your white shirt becoming pink after a wash is rather low. And of course, not to mention the countless number of good-looking people working inside the dhobi. Feast for your eyes, perhaps? It took me 2 hours to walk through every single area (there are people living in there).
After which, we had our prayers at the Haji Ali Mosque located at an islet off the coast of Worli in Southern Mumbai. This means that in order to get to the mosque, you would need to walk
Along the dhobi streets
They bundle up the clean clothes like that. through a bridge surrounded by water on each side of the bridge. If there is a high tide, chances are you cannot visit the dargah, which is this tomb of Haji Ali himself. The walk on the bridge is also truly another miserable experience. I saw a group of old men lying down in a circle, reciting verses and the worst thing is that they had amputated their left legs. I don't know if that is a deliberate act, but it pains me to see them in that state. Also, I came really close to children who were naked from the bottom half downwards, and I saw people of extreme poverty, begging for money. It was a long walk across the bridge, I think it was about 30 minutes walk (if you walk fast). There were lots of people, of different sizes, age, etc.
Upon entering the mosque, I am personally quite appalled at the hygiene conditions. No offense, but mosques are supposed to be a sacred place, and it being a mosque (a place of worship for Muslims), it should be clean. After all, cleanliness is part of faith. It makes simple sense. However, I was instantly turned
Inside the dhobi
See, chances are your white clothes won't turn pink. off by the toilets. I had badly wanted to clear my bowels, but because the toilets were dark and not hygienic, I had to reject them and hold them in. At the dargah, I saw Muslims (I have no idea which sect they belong to) were asking the tomb for their wishes. They were rather engrossed in their recitation of the verses. As far as I am aware, it is considered haram (forbidden) for a Muslim to ask for something from a dead person. It was by far an interesting experience in a mosque.
Saw the Victoria Terminus, which is this grand train station that was targeted by the terrorists simply because it enjoys very high human traffic flow. However, because we did not have enough time, we could not go in and take a look at the inside of the train station. I heard that they shot a music video in VT for the movie Slumdog Millionaire. There were many drug addict kids inside VT who refused to seek help for recovery. Why not? I have no idea why.
After which, we went to walk around Mumbai as the locals would do. We walked through the underpass,
Oooh, look, sarees!
Pretty colourful sarees put together! Amazing how the colours won't run! crossed the streets, walked along the pavement, and went for a stroll along the Taj Hotel, which was targeted by the terrorists. It was still in construction, though. There was the Gate of India opposite it, and there were many tourists.
Lunch was at this upmarket restaurant at Delhi Darbar. It was originally from Mumbai. They serve THE BEST briyani rice! Awesome stuff! I couldn't stop eating, and mind you, I am not a fan of briyani. In any case, it was spicy and tangy. You can definitely taste all the spices in there. If I know how to cook briyani, I would most definitely try to cook something like that. It's been a while since I had eaten a plate of awesome briyani rice. The reason being is because during weddings over here in Singapore, people do very bland briyani rice. Nothing like eating briyani from where it came from, that much I can tell you.
After which, we walked around, with no destination in mind. We had to hasten to go to the airport to catch our flight home. Dinner was a simple affair at one of the restaurants located near the airport. We didn't see
Haji Ali Mosque
Together with the dargah. many people there, reason being was because it was already 8pm, and things were starting to wind down. Had dinner, and said our goodbyes, and adieu India!
The highlight of the day? Seeing the sun set from the expressway overlooking the horizon. MasyaAllah. I plan to return to India one day. Perhaps three Decembers down the road, who knows?
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garryriky
garry riky
Mumbai , A city of dream in India
We heard a lot about indian culture and its heritage , mumbai is no exception there Mumbai City after incident of taj hotel recovered a lot and came hardly back to track Vivid colors of India in Mumbai http://www.airticket.co.uk/india/mumbai.aspx