Mumbai Part II: A Little Colonialism, a Little Nationalism

On second consideration I managed to bring Mumbai down to four posts. That's fortunate since I couldn't post as often as I wanted, because I was sick yesterday. One of my less charming souvienirs from Mumbai.

One evening I visited the Gateway to India, and found a commemoration of the terrorist attacks on the Taj Mahal Hotel on November 26 last year. The Gateway was completely blocked off and they had also removed all the ships from the harbour. I found the event a mix of Western and Indian notes which seemed somewhat surreal. First a marching band came down the street, playing what sounded to me like a solid European march. Then came a demonstration of Indian military might in the face of terrorism, which included teams dropping from helicopters into the sea, and onto the plaza in front of the Gateway to India, where they pointed rifles at the Taj Mahal. That part was exceptionally eerie, since one of the soldiers seemed to be aiming directly at me. It made me smile to see the construction workers on the Taj Mahal take a seat on the scaffolding to watch.

The Gateway to India was built to commemorate the visit of King Edward and Queen Mary, and was completed in 1924, but they ceremoniously showed the British the gateway out only 24 years later. The Colaba area is largely Victorian architecture, since Bombay was the British outpost back in the days of empire. When the Shiv Sena, a Hindu nationalist party was in power in Maharashtra in the 1990s, they changed many of the names to discard the colonial history. This included changing Bombay's name to Mumbai, and the international airport, Victoria Terminal, and the Prince of Wales Museum were renamed after the Maratha ruler Chhatrapati Shivaji. The museum is a beautiful building surrounded by greenery. Palm trees make everything look luxurious here.

Elphinstone College, where the Maharashtrian Dalit leader Dr. Ambedkar went to school, has some wonderful carvings on it. I found this face rather quirky, and he has a wonderful moustache. Along this road many local artists display their artwork for sale. I walked this way too early in the morning to see much, but I did buy a lovely watercolour of the Hindu god Ganesh from another early riser.

Trains seem a fitting image to cross the divide between colonial and national, from the image of the palatial Maharaj to the image of the second class car with travellers on every available surface. This toy train saves you a whole ten minute walk from the ferry landing to the foot of the stairs on Elephanta Island. I took a ride on it just for the experience!

Finally, I took a side trip to London England. Just kidding. It really felt like I had wandered somehow into Europe when I arrived at Flora Fountain, though. Fortunately the women wearing saris across the street dispelled this image, and the FILA signs brought me right into the modern day. Since I don't see many foreigners in Pune, I found myself looking at white people at the tourists sites in Mumbai the way a lot of Indians must perceive them. I saw a mix of underdressed, plump, sunburnt people, and "dirty hippies". With some horror, since I'm not plump, underdressed, and sunburnt, I suspected that I must look like a dirty hippy. I've been assured since that I look like a "decent" foreigner. I hope that's true!