Bombay Behind the Scenes...

Mumbai (Bombay), India

August 20, 2007
N 18°57.250
E 072°48.667

Even though our friend Abbas was very busy with last minute party preparations, he still found time to drive us around and show us his city. He guided us around the Queen’s Necklace, the waterfront drive along the Arabian Sea. We strolled by the Gateway of India, enjoyed a glass of refreshing sugar cane juice at a famous location and browsed the many shops along the Colaba Causeway. However, on Monday, when Abbas had to return to work, we found ourselves on our own and plenty of Bombay left to see.

We planned to take a walking tour through the Colaba area and catch a few of the remaining sites; however, when we were approached by a man claiming to be a city guide offering a tour we thought we would take advantage of it. We jumped in a cab near the Gateway of India with a promise from our guide—to get us back by 2:00 PM for lunch with Zainab.

Our guide started the tour by taking us to see the Jain Temple which provided some excellent photo opportunities for Marc with its silver doors and intricate paintings. From there we headed to the Hanging Gardens where the majority of the city’s water is collected during the monsoon season. Next, we stopped at the Dhobi Ghat public laundry basins where over 200 people work to wash, dry, iron and fold laundry every day for smaller hotels, laundry shops and restaurants. The colorful hotel and restaurant uniforms blew in the wind as they hung to dry in the hot Bombay sun.

We then took a ride through the back alleys of Bombay; our guide explained that it’s an unfortunate but very real part of the city. It’s rumored over 3 million men, women and children, most unaccounted for by the government, live in shanties with tin roofs and tarpaulin canopies for protection from the sun and rain. Young girls with babies in their arms came up to our window, touching their fingers to their mouths, with a forlorn look on their faces. As always during our travels, we wanted to help, but know simply giving money will likely only sustain a lifetime of begging.

Before heading back to the ritzy Colaba area, we ventured through one of Bombay’s Red Light Districts. Several working ladies stood in doorways that led to make-shift rooms with probably little more than a bed based on their size. Our guide told us there are over 100,000 prostitutes in Mumbai. The shocking stat he shared with us is that 35-40% of the women are HIV positive.

We asked what India is doing about the HIV rate, but didn’t get a straight answer. However, he did confirm Bill Gates recently spent time in Mumbai and donated at least $100M to help with AIDS prevention. We hope more measures are put in place to reduce the rate of HIV and, more importantly, help protect the young ladies forced into the sex trade.

We thought about this sobering fact as we headed to Victoria Train Station to admire the beautiful architecture—it’s nearly a mirror image of the Victoria Station in London and helped move our thoughts away from the poor women and children in the streets.

After a three hour tour our guide returned us at exactly 2:00 to the Merchant’s for lunch— a tasty prawn curry, rice and salad. Making us realize how blessed we are for not only having food and shelter, but to have wonder friends to share a meal with.

We managed fine on our own for the day, but it is really great to have friends to show you around their city!