Goodbye Mumbai, you made us laugh, you made us cry

I know, I said I was finished writing about India, but apparently India was not finished with us. We’ve returned to Mumbai with new eyes and ears, being here again, we see it differently. At first it was so different, loud and daunting. Now, it’s a place we know, can find the way to our favourite spots without a map and we know what to say to taxi drivers to get a fair deal. Its decrepit state is less shocking and more charming, the smells have dulled and become usual. Once the streets appeared to be lined with flimsy shacks of unknown dirt and fragility. Now they are friendly, highly efficient, useful stalls full of necessities, and pleasures, exuding heaps of charisma ,where you could find anything and anyone to help you. Its better than any sterile disconnected fake shopping mall void of connection to reality.
Not just all this, but Mumbai had a few last experiences to work us through a roll of emotions:




ANGER, FRUSTRATION, COMPLACENCY
While arguing with an internet provider about why we don’t want him to keep our photo on record, in a noisy road-side, internet stall, we were accosted by a street family who were asking for money. They aggressively drumming and danced and I think not for entertainment, more to annoy you until you paid for them to stop. We don’t make a habit of giving to aggressive beggars. The children all of 3 and 7 had to be peeled off me and scolded until the internet owner gave in for us, and handed over some rupees. The next time I saw them I decided I would go for the mom to get her to call the kids off….but no, not a flinch, I guess my worse look is not so scary. This continued as I walked down the street, until a friendly Indian knew what to do, he gave her rupees! Ahha! Finally, the third time, we had figured them out, since the kids seemed to enjoy the game of aggravation, the best thing was to completely ignore them, no reaction at all, no eye contact, no nothing. This worked and was the unfortunate only way out. Not looking at people sucks, especially since I never want to go blind. But I learned a valuable lesson, anger is only useful in few situations.




A girl on the way home from school












One boy begging between the traffic








HUMBLED and MYSTIFIED
Finding a bike box was more of a challenge then anticipated. In a un-wasteful country like India, they do not use vast amounts of paper resources to ship bikes around. We called every bike shop in the yellow pages when we happened upon a company that explained that was not their usual business, but that they would go out of their way to help us out at no cost. Wow. This kind of thing has happened a few times in Mumbai. So the next day they had found us some boxes and we went to pick them up. We arrived at their office, in and interesting industrial part of Mumbai, bordering some Mangroves which, through a gap between the gallapiated industrial buildings you could barely see a far-off flock of migratory flamingos. The boss took us to his office to await the arrival of the boxes. He gave us food and tea and had us chat with most of the employees and his cousins and co-businessmen. They chatted with us on various topics while intermittently taking business calls by yelling and rolling many fast r‘s. This gave Lisa a serious case of the always inappropriate church giggles. We brought them fancy expensive sweets, they gave us their company calendars and took our pictures. The boss man was just tickled to be able to help us out, without payment, only to be a good person, make friends, improve his Karma and please his Gods. It was really ridiculously nice.
His cousins drove us home since he lived near our hotel. We were unable to refuse an offer for dinner and drinks (given a no hanky-panky clause). Turns out these dudes were the big men on campus. They were loaded and loved to order everyone around. Everybody in the neighbourhood knew them, and were afraid of them or enslaved to their wealth and power. They fed their egos by entertaining some tourists for the evening. It was quite a ridiculous show of snapping fingers and waiters tripping over us. This guy loved to make himself feel better than others and got ruder and more self-important as the night went on and our respect for his generosity waned. It was truly a strange experience. The doorman at our hotel was agape when we got out of this guy’s car, though the service has been measurably better at our hotel since then. He also offered us the aid of any person in his hood as we required, they would have to comply. Weird, weird, weird.



The businessmen

LAUGHTER
We’ve been staying near the airport, an expensive cab ride into town, where we had to go retrieve some things we left in storage. So we ventured for the local train, notoriously busy, sometimes impossible to get onto so we tried for non-peak hours. We navigated the ticket lines and got help finding our platform. We boarded the women’s only car, feeling quite at home of course. The trip into town was uneventful, the trip back was something to write home about. Firstly, a man walking past the car door roughly grabbed Lisa’s shoulder and spun her about, thinking she was a guy who had got on the women‘s car. She pointed out two of her most feminine features as he blushed and took off. The girls on the car had lots to chat and giggle about with us after that. We road packed into the car like chickens with a few hanging out the doors, ablaze with full of colourful saris. At the stops women would run and push for a seat like I’ve never seen before, rodeo style, sometimes they pulled each others pony tails. It made us laugh and laugh.
After sometime riding along we heard screams and commotion. A rat! Now and then it would run over someone’s feet, its position indicated by the jostling and screaming in different sections of the car.


A new bunch of ladies boarded, one calling Lisa sir again and again even after she had explained, they were being a bit annoying so Lisa decided to give out some medicine. Like an expert actress she screamed, pointed down, and shrieked ‘rat!’. The ladies almost jumped into each others arms! They completely forgot about Lisa’s hair. Its was PRESCIOUS. If you’re ever in Mumbai, you’ve GOT to try the local train!

The best of urban argiculture, lettuce growing along the train tracks.

We left India, Lisa sad and Michelle a little relieved we made it to Ho Chi Minh (Saigon), Vietnam with ease. We reminisced while watching Slum Dog millionaire on the plane, about all the places we had just been.

The next adventure begins and we are excited to be here!