Still loving that Mumbai vibe!

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Namaste!

As usual, I feel like I could take one day here and fill an entire blog with the minute details, the people I met and the things I saw, the food I ate and the sounds I heard, but in the interest of time (and in the interest of people ACTUALLY reading my blog and not falling asleep), I will try to provide a big overview of everything that happened while in Mumbai, another city that is on my “Favourites” list.

Mumbai began with a 24-hour train ride from Bangalore in Sleeper class, which is my personal favourite train class because you get to see so much more – and, obviously, we were a bit of a curiosity for some leering men, especially when we busted out the travel Scrabble board, but it was worth it as that ate up some of the time! We arrived first thing in the morning and grabbed a taxi who said he would use his meter to take us from the train station to the Salvation Army hostel (more on that later!) where we were staying, but we noticed after a while that the price wasn't increasing on the meter and we suspected that he was going to pull some excuses when we arrived to try to get us to pay a higher price – but magically, after we explained that we were only going to pay what the meter showed, the numbers began to change and we arrived for the right price – although he still whined at us that the money we had given him was torn and was trying to get us to pay more for our luggage. We left him complaining in the street and went up to the lunch room in the hostel where we waited for a room to vacate before we crashed out on beds that were, literally, crawling with baby cockroaches (babies, so it wasn't so bad!). I had convinced Mom that if we scrimped a little on accommodation in Mumbai (which is notoriously expensive) that we could spend more on really good food (which we love).

I later got hit by a taxi, which is of course not at all surprising, but not very hard and since I didn't have dengue this time it hurt an awful lot less! Really it was just a bump but the driver seemed to think it was hysterical (I did NOT think this), and later that day I met a man who had really been hit badly by a cab and then had been left for dead (he had a couple broken bones), so it could have been a lot worse and I am grateful it wasn't! We spent the first day just wandering around and looking at all the beautiful, Gothic, ageing and weathered buildings in Colaba and Fort, the area of the city where we were staying, visiting art galleries and people-watching which is so easy to do there! Mumbai is an amazing place, I don't know why it gets such a bad rap – it's got this amazing combination of the hectic traffic, the delicious street food, the hawkers selling useless trinkets (really, really useless – what am I supposed to do with an enormous phallic-shaped balloon? Actually don't answer that...), the people scrambling to take our photos (the highlight was two business men who took a photo with each of us, giving us a two-handed handshake as if meeting dignitaries), the classy people walking in and out of the Taj Hotel... I mean I could go on, but I feel like there is always, always something to look at, as there is in every city in this country, but Mumbai just has this different energy about it – hard to explain!

The next day was a really, really amazing one – for no other reason than that we went for high tea at the Taj Hotel. The Taj was built when J.N. Tata, a big name in Indian business, was refused entry to what was at that time the most opulent and prestigious hotel in the city, Watson's, because he was not white. He decided to build his own luxury hotel, and it has become as much a symbol of the city as the Gateway of India right next to it. So being able to visit the hotel (which I did not do last time, due to being a REALLY grimy backpacker) with Mom was something pretty cool, and sitting in the sea lounge, wearing a dress that bared my knees (which I had not done yet in India – I pretty much felt naked!) sipping the house blend of Darjeeling tea and eating scones (hahahaha) was pretty cool – of course there was a part of me that felt completely out of place, being waited on and eating with fancy china and cutlery, but I also felt really lucky to be able to do something so special and once-in-a-lifetime with Mom – that is pretty much what this whole trip is about, is being able to do things that at home we never would and being able to do it together, strengthening the relationship we have with each other, and I cannot even begin to express how much it means to me that we can share things like this.

So, with tea over, and stuffed to the brim with delicious tea goodies (yes, I was wearing a fancy dress, but that did not stop me from indulging myself at the buffet – you can take the backpack OFF the girl, but when it comes to eating out and making the most of my dollars you cannot take the backpacker OUT of the girl!), we returned to the hotel where I was reminded that even though we're more friends than mother/daughter now, Mom is still Mom! I met some guys who invited me to go grab a beer with them and got the usual “Where are you going, who are you going with, when will you be back?” that I have been getting my entire life – definitely different from travelling by myself where I don't have to tell anyone anything! Not that I am complaining, at all, it is nice to know she cares 😊

The following day I got to go back to Bollywood, and yes I am aware of both how absurd and how fortunate I am that I am able to say “back” to Bollywood, but unfortunately this experience wasn't as positive as the last one. A group of us got picked up by a really small van, driven up to the far north of Mumbai to this old sort of crumbling house and packed into a really tiny trailer (this isn't the bad part yet). We got fed a bit of lunch and then the wardrobe department arrived to give us our clothes for the shoot. We'd been told at our hostel to wear Western clothes because we were going to be extras in a party scene in the background, so we did, but when we arrived apparently there had been a “miscommunication” and what they brought out for us to wear covered a little less than what my bathing suit covers – seriously. We were now supposed to be a bunch of girls hanging around a gangster and his buddies, fawning over them and flirting with them, which was still ok at this point even though it wasn't exactly what I signed up for and some alarm bells were starting to go off. So we put on the outfits and went to meet the director, who after seeing us apparently changed his mind again, and decided that he wanted us to be lap dancing and kissing the actors. I don't think there was any miscommunication at all – I'm pretty sure if someone went wandering around Mumbai asking girls to put on lingerie and mack a bunch of guys on camera, the answer would be a big huge NO, so they need to make it sound better than it actually is.

It was here that I (and the other 3 girls I was with) drew the line. I have been fighting the image of the Western girl as a slut since I started coming to India, because unfortunately due to cultural differences and due to the way Bollywood uses Western women, Indians (and many Indian men specifically) have this idea that we are all easy and all go around having sex with whoever crosses our path and that obviously we don't mind being groped, fondled and grabbed whenever we go out, because that is just how we are. I get where it comes from, and I am certainly not ok with it, and have no problem punching or slapping any man who touches me in an inappropriate way (which I have had to do more than once), but I get it. But to be asked to perpetuate this stereotype was NOT something I was going to be doing, and I let the production team know that, and when I (and the other girls) refused the director started to get really condescending, saying that it was no big deal, that he knows that we do stuff like this all the time, etc... and trying to guilt us into doing what he wanted. When we started talking about walking out (or getting paid much more than 500 rupees for our time), they magically found more clothes for us to wear and other things for us to be doing, like working at a casino and selling guns to the gangsters.

So it ended on a better note than it began, and you can now officially catch me in Sanjay Dutt's next movie (I forget what it's called, but it starts with a “D”), but it really highlighted to me the main (and pretty much only) struggle that I have faced since coming here. I don't want to whine or complain, because I certainly am very privileged and blessed to be travelling here, and to have been travelling here by myself, since it has opened doors for me that I wouldn't have if I were with a partner, but it has left me a bit vulnerable at times to that small minority of people who disrespect women and who pick on me because I am a Western woman, which to them represents someone with loose morals. I am happy though that I took a stand and refused to be cast into the stereotype of the “Western slut” and hopefully this will serve as an example in the future for the misogynistic director. Hopefully.

The next day we decided to be tourists and go out to Elephanta Island, which is about an hour's boat ride out of Mumbai harbour and holds ancient Hindu temple carvings from the 8^th century (or thereabouts). It was pretty similar to the cave temples at Ellora that I got to see last time I was here, carved out of solid rock and incredibly intricate, and we had a great guide (it is nice having a guide at places like this, but I swear, if I hear the story one more time about how Ganesh got his head I will be able to give the tour myself!) who explained all the different panels. After the tour I wandered down to a tiny cave by myself where there was a single Shiva lingam in the centre, with a few yellow flowers placed around it and no one else around, and that thing happened to me again that I get sometimes here where I just started to cry, being really overwhelmed by this feeling of being (for lack of a better word) homesick for a time, not a place, and not something that I have a conscious awareness of, just something inside of me that yearns for something past. It's hard to describe, but it happens often when I hear live tabla music, it happened in Udaipur last time I was here when the elderly devotees invited me to sit with them while they were chanting in worship, and it happened on Elephanta Island so that all I could do was just drop to my knees in front of this shrine and sob, not in a sad way, but in a very peaceful, joyful and overwhelming way; that's the only way I can describe it.

As I left I noticed an old man sitting in a corner, wearing glasses and barefoot, who smiled at me as I collected myself, a little embarrassed that I wasn't alone after all and had been caught having a really emotional and personal moment. He nodded at me and said “It is peaceful, no?” and I nodded back at him and said that yes, it was. His smile grew wider and he said “God bless you”.



And that was all.



As usual, much much love and peace from Hindustan!



Xoxoxo

Shannon

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Photos

Lunchtime!
Tiffin carriers!

WTF?!
This is officially the most pointless thing I have ever seen sold on the streets, ever - plus they were having some sort of turf dispute!

Tea at the Taj!
A highlight, for certain :)

Stealing bread
Mom re-packing the leftover bread from the breadbasket we snuck out of the restaurant at breakfast!

Mumbai harbour view
Props to J.N. Tata!

Elephanta
Stunning cave temple carvings

Bollywood, again
One of the perks - you get to play with unloaded, but still functional, lethal weapons!

Straight chilling
I think we all feel like this from time to time :)

More caves
Tears were just sort of constantly running down my face at this point - so lame!