INDIA
This winter I finally found myself in India. My mother has been
wanting to take me to India with her for a number of years now but
somehow grad school, exams or work always got in the way. This year we
made it happen. Though it was a short trip my mother had packed into
two weeks what many could only manage in 2 months! In short I was
immersed in the history of 18th century Eurasion trade for the entire
two weeks and it was fascinating… and yes a subject distant from my own
studies. While I was travelling I kept a travel log of sorts, my mother
and our friend Sue are keen to see what I wrote so I thought I would
re-write it here for them. But I hope you will enjoy it to, and
perhaps, even learn a thing or two…..
Mumbai
29 - 31 December 2010
Horns! so many horns.
People! from every walk of life and colour everywhere.
Chaos, smells, smog and dust, but despite it all there was always colour somewhere, whether it be the saris of the women or the flowers at shrines and temples. These were the experiences that Mumbai gave me on my first day in India.
The day was filled with horns and winding our way through the streets of Mumbai with the aid of our gentle taxi driver to see the great train station (built by the British and modelled on St. Pancreas in London. The Gateway to India, the Taj hotel, again built by the British. Lunch at a quite little fish restaurant with an odd blue hue to it, that very quickly filled with groups of ladies and office men in their crisp white shirts. The afternoon was for meeting a fine Indian historian, recently retired from the University of Mumbai. We drank chai at a little cafe in the art gallery (which reminded me of my friend Peter at home in Vancouver). This cafe, tucked away at the back of the gallery was a hub for the arts and people of the arts. Over the years it had seen many writers, artists, musicians. Intellectuals, students and professors. Known as the bohemian hub of Mumbai, and in many ways our little group added to this history as history, ideas and research proposals were discussed over chai. The evening found us at the Bombay Yacht club, another one of those old colonial establishments. It was once a place where only the British could be members, this has now, thankfully, changed and anyone can be a member. Another good restaurant, tucked away down a back street that to find, you had to be in the know; and here, in the company of another Indian historian we ended our first day in India.
Horns! so many horns.
People! from every walk of life and colour everywhere.
Chaos, smells, smog and dust, but despite it all there was always colour somewhere, whether it be the saris of the women or the flowers at shrines and temples. These were the experiences that Mumbai gave me on my first day in India.
The day was filled with horns and winding our way through the streets of Mumbai with the aid of our gentle taxi driver to see the great train station (built by the British and modelled on St. Pancreas in London. The Gateway to India, the Taj hotel, again built by the British. Lunch at a quite little fish restaurant with an odd blue hue to it, that very quickly filled with groups of ladies and office men in their crisp white shirts. The afternoon was for meeting a fine Indian historian, recently retired from the University of Mumbai. We drank chai at a little cafe in the art gallery (which reminded me of my friend Peter at home in Vancouver). This cafe, tucked away at the back of the gallery was a hub for the arts and people of the arts. Over the years it had seen many writers, artists, musicians. Intellectuals, students and professors. Known as the bohemian hub of Mumbai, and in many ways our little group added to this history as history, ideas and research proposals were discussed over chai. The evening found us at the Bombay Yacht club, another one of those old colonial establishments. It was once a place where only the British could be members, this has now, thankfully, changed and anyone can be a member. Another good restaurant, tucked away down a back street that to find, you had to be in the know; and here, in the company of another Indian historian we ended our first day in India.
Day two in Mumbai was even more crammed than the first but also involved
a couple of important missions. One for a camera and the other for a
cricket shirt. But before I dive into these stories I think I should at
least mention some of the others things we saw and experienced. Our
first stop was at a beautiful Jain temple, the temple was filled with
colour, flowers, intricate statues and frescoes. The inside of the main
temple was coated in silver. the Jain belief in all life and will kill
no living creature. I wish a few more people of this world would hold
similar values! The temple is obviously one of the sights to see in
Mumbai; not only were there many other tourists visiting the temple but
it is also in the running to be voted one of the seven wonders of
Mumbai.... according to the Mumbai papers. Our next stop were the
hanging gardens, these gardens were not exactly what I was expecting,
though I am not sure what I was expecting but it turns out that the
gardens have been built atop a water storage tank. However, I did find
this one monument to friendship and good health. "Experience confirms that friends who regularly meet and walk in the garden have remained healthy and fit for the day. Spread the message of good health through friendship for generations." On the drive back into old Mumbai we passed the Tower of Silence, this is where the Parsi bring their dead. And then we arrived at the place that I think is probably my favourite in Mumbai, you enter the house and there is instant relief from the chaos of outside, the horns, the smog, the everyday hustle and bustle of the city. The place of peace was the Ghandi House. Ghandi had a base in Mumbai for 17 years and many important events took place at this house, or where planned from the house. The house has been kept, with his room and few material belongings have been carefully kept. There is a wonderful library and the walls are covered with extracts from his writings and photographs from throughout his life. This is a man who's thinking was beyond his time and I now must read more on this man who was so integral to the making of modern India. Ghandi, was without doubt, one of the greats of the 20th Century.
But then I was taking the photo of the Ghandi statue (above, far right) my camera collapsed! So it was back to the camera shop. We had been there a couple of days before to pick up spare memory cards. This camera shop -Central Cameras- was about to become our most visited place in Mumbai! On arrival one of the many workers in the tiny shop whisked my camera away to the little workshop above the shop. I was asked to follow, though a back door, up some rickety stairs, through a couple of doorways tall enough only a child and into a small, whitewashed workroom. I was faced with two workbenches with a couple of men sat at them surrounded by camera parts, solder irons, toothbrushes and various other implements. This was where the cameras were fixed?? The diagnosis, a collapsed shutter block. Could they fix it? we would find out in a couple of hours. So all I could do was wait for their call. On leaving my camera we began our next big quest of the day. A Mumbai Cricket Club cricket shirt. My dad is an avid cricket player and my mum had decided that a Mumbai cricket shirt would make his year. Little did we know how much of a mission this would turn into. Needless to say, our taxi driver, Ram Singh was a little bemused, but eventually we managed to find our way to the Mumbai Cricket Club grounds... or rather massive stadium... it obviously hadn't dawned on us how important cricket was in India... how that had escaped us I have no idea. We eventually found ourselves at a door, a rather official looking sign on the door read "Offices of the Mumbai Cricket Club". The guard inside the door was even more confused that Ram Singh by my mum's request and sent us up in the elevator, we weren't entirely sure where to. But then we found ourselves walking into what can only be described as the executive offices... I was pretty sure at this point that no merchandise would be found here and just to confirm it a very well dressed man walks out (at this point I am pretty convinced that he was the club executive dude himself) and calmly informed us that Mumbai Cricket Club shirts were not available and in fact the club insignia was absolutely banned from appearing on other clothing! so this mission was brought to an abrupt end. But wow these clubs are missing out on a huge source of revenue... I wonder if they really have any idea about how much money they could be making from selling club merchandise! Needless to say, I was very thankful that my dad was not with us, he would of been totally mortified by our antics!
The rest of the day was taken with multiple trips to Central Cameras (yes they could fix my camera, it would cost 8300 Rupees... ~$75 and yes we could pick it up by the end of the day! ONLY in India!!), St Thomas Church, built by the British but sadly full of monuments to men and ships that had been lost at sea. We also found the "Oxford Bookshop" not too surprising given that I was in the company of my mum -a historian and book collector-. In the end we did find my dad a cricket shirt and though it did not have the Mumbai Cricket Club insignia on it, the shirt did come all the way from India... and after all there is a pretty good story behind it for my dad.
So by the end of the day we had successfully completed our two missions with mostly good results... a fixed camera and a cricket shirt.
So by the end of the day we had successfully completed our two missions with mostly good results... a fixed camera and a cricket shirt.
Bhuj
31 December - 2 January
The morning of the 31st saw us arriving at the airport in Mumbai. This airport is an odd contrast to much of Mumbai, it is vast, bright and calm. We found some seats and settled down for a few hours of postcard writing, journal writing and research. Mum had pulled out another swath of articles and books for me and Sue to look over before we arrived in Bhuj, our next destination. At this point we had only been in India for 3 days but already I had been totally overwelmed and was struggling to take everything in. But at the same time it felt as if we had been in the country for a couple of months! Bhuj was going to be entirely different again from Mumbai, but I was looking forward to it. Not just because of the artisans and friends that we would meet again but partly because it was away from the normal toursit path. Our plane was a mixture of Indians and forign travelers, and surprisingly we had a female captain, or perhaps 1st officer, which ever it was I thought this was great. I have flown a lot but I have never come accross a female pilot in a commercial airline.
We touched down in Bhuj in the late afternoon, we were met by Mochmed Hussain Katri and his youngest son, and our friend Jabbar Katri. I had first met Jabbar in London in 2007 when I was helping my mum out with a conference at the V & A museum. Mum had brought over two textile artisans from India to be part of this conference. But back in Bhuj, Jabbar took us to our hotel and mum was warmly welcomed by the proprioter Mr. Jetti. He is a very funny character but so warm and welcoming.
The morning of the 31st saw us arriving at the airport in Mumbai. This airport is an odd contrast to much of Mumbai, it is vast, bright and calm. We found some seats and settled down for a few hours of postcard writing, journal writing and research. Mum had pulled out another swath of articles and books for me and Sue to look over before we arrived in Bhuj, our next destination. At this point we had only been in India for 3 days but already I had been totally overwelmed and was struggling to take everything in. But at the same time it felt as if we had been in the country for a couple of months! Bhuj was going to be entirely different again from Mumbai, but I was looking forward to it. Not just because of the artisans and friends that we would meet again but partly because it was away from the normal toursit path. Our plane was a mixture of Indians and forign travelers, and surprisingly we had a female captain, or perhaps 1st officer, which ever it was I thought this was great. I have flown a lot but I have never come accross a female pilot in a commercial airline.
We touched down in Bhuj in the late afternoon, we were met by Mochmed Hussain Katri and his youngest son, and our friend Jabbar Katri. I had first met Jabbar in London in 2007 when I was helping my mum out with a conference at the V & A museum. Mum had brought over two textile artisans from India to be part of this conference. But back in Bhuj, Jabbar took us to our hotel and mum was warmly welcomed by the proprioter Mr. Jetti. He is a very funny character but so warm and welcoming.
Chennai
2 - 4 January
Pondicherry
4-5 January
Tranquebar
5-8 January