Day 1 in Mumbai: Shopzilla and Chowpatty Beach

I LOVED MUMBAI!!!!!!!

LOVED IT! LOVED IT! LOVED IT!
The city girl in me came out in full glory!

We arrived in the late afternoon and met a young man (our age) in the airport who was in India studying. We shared a taxi into the city discussing theoretical physics. The adventure began there!

Our arrival in Mumbai marked the day a long suspension bridge opened. It was famously marketed in the metropolis for decreasing the commute to Colaba from about 1 hour to 7 minutes. 45 minutes later we joined the crowd as they leaned out the windows of their cars taking pictures of the new bridge. Families of 7-8 people were packed into small vehicles, all so they could take the journey across the half completed bridge on its inaugural day. Our taxi driver grimaced, we enjoyed the people watching and related to the traffic described in our books.

We found our hotel and headed to Leopold’s Café, a famous and infamous jaunt among expats. The Café plays a prominent role in both of the Mumbai books we were reading at the time (Shantaram and Maximum City). It was also a victim in the Nov 26th shootings, killing 70. Bullet marks and cracked windows were an unsettling reminder of one’s own vulnerability in such a diverse, vast city. I swallowed the magnitude of what happened right where we sat. Leopold’s famous beer and tandoori chicken soon arrived and we joined the rest of the patrons in the festive mood.

After two long travel days to get to Mumbai, and with only two short days to see everything – we dove in, full speed ahead. The city girl in me took over and I dragged Paul around for approximately 48 hours until we collapsed back on the airplane en route to Nepal.
Specifically, the Shopzilla in me, dormant for 3 weeks in the countryside, took over the morning of Day 1. I window shopped and browsed like a champion, while Paul patiently read his book. Many of you know that there is an inner-shopper in me that peaks its bargaining, irrational head at times. The fabrics and colors of Mumbai egged me on.

But a new urge in me is developing – one far more zealous and powerful than sparkly treats for myself and friends: BUYING TREATS FOR MY EXPECTED NEICE! If I knew Katie wouldn’t kill me, I would have packed a suitcase with adorable Indian fabrics and saris for our little lady. Not even the monsoon rain coming down could stop me from browsing!

‘Twas not all shopping – we also walked around different markets, visited the Taj and Victoria Station , ran into some Wharton students and people watched. Later in the afternoon we headed to the Bangana Tanks – worlds away from the commercial district that we exhausted ourselves in during the morning. We walked the 9km back to our hotel along Chowpatty Beach and Marine Drive. The Drive is considered to be a prime people watching spot as courting couples take a romantic stroll and young professionals blow off steam from the work day. The waves would periodically smash against the stone wall of the Drive sending crowds squealing and giggling away. (From the looks of it - you do NOT want this water to touch you!)

The beach was a microcosm of what Mumbai represents. On one end of the beach/drive pavement dwellers rested, taking in the waves before they would be forced to move their scraps of cardboard and few plastic bags from the area. Small children, naked but for an oversized Western shirt, jumped in puddles left from the rain, seemingly oblivious to their circumstances. Next to the skipping children we saw a woman start to get beaten by her husband. A man violently pulled her by her hair and slapped her face as she screamed for him to stop. I was frozen only a few meters away, not sure whether I should or could make it stop. I have heard and read about this – but to see it with my own eyes created a vile knot of hate in my stomach for this man. Luckily, I did not have to contemplate my move for long as a friend of the woman’s intervened and swatted the raging man away. I can not get that image out of my head.

Farther down the beach, women in burkhas sat catching up with children on their laps, children continued to play around us as children do, and men and woman in Western clothing sat in large crowds socializing. Men approached us selling ridiculously large balloons and other useless items to a traveler. Joy, lightheartedness, survival, entrepreneurialism, anger and toughness were all before our eyes. It was everything to love and hate in a city, right before our eyes, and I sided towards loving it.