Guest Blogger - Momma Croom

Mom is here visiting for three weeks. Last week, she wrote up a long email for her friends about her trip here. Since I'm admittedly lax on writing about life in India (as opposed to life with Luis), I thought I'd share her story.

Greetings from India! It’s early morning and I am sitting in MC’s office with the sun coming up and a nice breeze coming from the patio- 67 lovely degrees outside. I certainly did pick the right time to come!

We arrived in the wee hours of Tuesday morning. Diego was at the gate to meet us with two helpers. The first was a lovely young lady who worked for the airport who expedited our way through immigration control and baggage collection and inspection. The second was a man to carry our carry-ons and Luis’ car seat. Once we collected all the luggage- and there was a lot of it- Anwar, Diego’s driver and another driver he had arranged for took all our stuff to the cars. Yes, it took two cars to carry all of us and all our bags. We arrived at the apartment, took showers to rid ourselves of the grime of 24 hours of travel and off to bed. It has taken us several days to shake off East Coast time and acclimate to India time, but I think we are now all set.
The apartment is the only apartment on the seventh and top floor of the building. It was cleverly designed so that all the rooms except this study and the kitchen have ocean views, for the only thing between the building and the ocean is a street and a jogger’s park. Lovely. The Indian Ocean here seems quite mild, no surf and only a few gentle waves over the rocks. The land slides off gently into the ocean, so the tide covers a lot of territory. Not much sand, just rocks and some low bushes with what looked like big white flowers on them. I asked MC if she knew the name of the flowers and she said yes: white plastic bags! They are prolific, and do look lovely from a distance.

The apartment itself is large: about 2800 square feet. All the floors are cool, smooth marble that feels wonderful on bare feet. The walls are brick covered with plaster painted creamy white. All the rooms have built-in chests, desks and wardrobes that somehow remind me of Mackie’s apartment in Daytona… it must be a 50’s Florida look that makes the connection for me. The living/dining room is large and the wall facing the ocean is all windows. You could spend all day watching from them. One of my favorite times is sunset, when the huge orange/red sun points a golden/red path across the water towards the beach. Diego had a dining room table and chairs made before MC got here and they are beautiful. The leather couches they had in Falls Church fit right in and look as tho they were chosen for this very room.

In front of the building, besides the parking area, is a small yard with a slide and a swing waiting for Luis to get a little bigger, and a bit of garden. There are always two or three “guards” by the elevator or gate to assist or just to greet you when you arrive or leave. The gate is securely locked at night. Abbas, the owner of the building lives on the floor just beneath MC and Diego and he is very nice.

Just up from the building is a promenade stretching north quite a long way, maybe a mile or so. Four lanes of busy traffic hem it in close to the ocean and it is a busy, busy, busy place. We usually take Ashley and Luis for a long walk there after breakfast. I skipped this am so I could write this letter. Along the promenade one sees a bit of everything. I will try to describe what I saw one day. First of all, people, all kinds of people. People in running shorts, people in saris, in salwar camizes, in business clothes, in rags, in various and sundry uniforms, in just about everything you can imagine. Many are exercising, walking slowly or fast, doing normal and weird exercises, chatting with friends, watching the ocean or working at a variety of things, like street repair, fish drying. Parts of the promenade are lovely, others not so. Sewage is a problem in Mumbai, and you note it in some stretches more than others. Also many use the ocean to do their morning business and are not shy in the least, if you get my gist. You also see lots of dogs, most strays, but curiously they are not at all aggressive. There are also many dogs on leash, mostly cocker spaniels and other medium-sized dogs, although I have seen a German shepherd and 2 Irish shepherds. Towards the end of our walk is an open air crematorium! It is a busy place and makes you pick up your step and perk up for the day.

The other day MC and I went down to South Mumbai, the center of shopping, and monuments and such. Anwar the driver took us down, and it was an hour and a half EACH WAY! Going we went what I call the industrial route, past literally thousands of tiny shops and businesses, with pipes and fittings and engines and lumber and rags and parts and everything else you could imagine. Besides all the people in each of these places there were people on the street, and I do mean people. There is a series of children’s books called Where’s Waldo? Each page is full of a zillion people doing things with a theme for each page and the reader is to find Waldo among all the busy-ness. That is what I thought of as we drove that morning. Another comparison would be with an ant colony. Creatures everywhere, working,working. There is a vibrancy, and energy that really peps you up.

We did a good bit of shopping at the government-run shop for Indian handicrafts, which was enormous and enticing. Afterwards we went to lunch at a very spiffy rooftop restaurant overlooking the Gateway to India, a colossus of a monumental arch built by the British, and part of the harbor area.

On the way home, Anwar took a more scenic route and gave a wonderful running commentary on the places we passed. Among the most interesting were the following: an enormous museum built in the British neo-Gothic/Arabic style, lovely old apartments, Hindu temples, churches and mosques galore. One is a tomb of a revered Muslim saint, built out in the ocean. When the tide is in, you cannot get there, as the causeway is completely covered. I was surprised at the hilliness of part of the way. On top of one of the hills is a Parsi Tower of Silence, where they leave the dead to the elements. Because of pollution, there are many fewer vultures in Mumbai to take care of the bodies. They have installed solar panels to help expedite the process.

I have not talked about the transport in the streets. In MC’s neighborhood there are zillions of auto rickshaws that run on natural gas. The engines are tiny and make much noise, but they are a wonderful and cheap way to get places: a ride is about 10 rupees, about 25 cents. These cannot go downtown. There are also many, many taxis, all tiny and everywhere. Cars of all makes and models, many Hyundai and Honda and Indian made Mahindra. Trucks are of all sorts and sizes, often gaily painted with a guy on top to keep people away from the goods they are carrying. In addition you see oxcarts drawn usually by only one ox, horses and horse carts, cows and goats wandering about and there is an elephant in this neighborhood, although I haven’t seen it yet!

On Wednesday we are off to Rajasthan to visit, Ranthambore, a national park WITH TIGERS, and to Jaipur, the pink city of rajahs. When we get back, Suzanne is coming from Kenya and she and I will have an adventure to Goa, a former Portuguese colony and currently a favorite beach place.