We have seen many places in India already, but I still have a few on my list that I would love to visit. Adriaan and the boys have told me they have seen enough forts and temples and don't want to come along anymore. Luckily there are enough people around who do want to travel, so this Thursday and Friday I was in Mumbai with 3 other Dutch ladies from Bangalore.
We went for a tour through Dharavi straight from the airport. Dharavi is the largest slum in India. The first part that we saw was the industrial area. People work 10 hours a day recycling plastic, glass or aluminum, cleaning olive oil drum or drums that contained paint or glue. There are also a lot of workshops where they make jeans, school uniforms and other clothes. Most workshop are dark and poorly ventilated. The men do not only work there, but also live at the workshops.
It was very impressive to see, hear and smell.
We then crossed the road to walk through the residential part of Dharavi. The people that live there have jobs in the city. We came though some very narrow alleys and could sometimes sneak a peek into the 'houses'.
Unfortunately we were not allowed to take photographs inside the slum, but I took these photos of the outside of the slum from the bus.
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| The workshops |
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| Living quarters |
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| Plastic garbage stacked on the roof, waiting to be recycled |
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| Waste water is being dumped into the waterway |
Next we stopped to have a look at a dhobi ghat, a washer men's village. I have visited a big one in Bangalore too and am always amazed at how white and bright their wash is drying in the sun.
After this we went to visit the house where Gandhi used to stay when he was in Mumbai.
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| Gandhi's room |
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| A letter he wrote to Hitler |
The house is now a museum with a collection of books from and about Gandhi, a lot of photographs and an elaborate display about his live made with dolls.
It was interesting to see, but by this time we were all VERY tired and in need of some food, so we decided to cut the tour short and go for lunch.
I had been up since 3:30 am and we finally sat down for a meal about 11 hours later...
After lunch we went to our hotel, the famous Taj Mahal hotel. Unfortunately our rooms did not have the grandeur you would expect, but they were nice enough an had a great view.
We went out for a coffee and a stroll around the neighbourhood and were back in the hotel for a tour of the building. The hotel has been build in 1903 by Mr. Tata, as a revenge for the fact that he was not allowed to enter the hotels owned by the British. In November 2008 there was a terrorist attack and security has been stepped up all over India since then.
On Friday we went to Victoria station (also featured in Slum Dog Millionaire) to see the hustle and bustle of the morning rush hour.
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| The main entrance |
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| Busy! |
After Victoria station we drove around to see some more of Mumbai, before we went to the next station to see the Dabbawallahs at work.
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| Dabbawallahs at Churchgate station |
The Dabbawallahs/tiffin carriers deliver home cooked meals from the outskirts of Mumbai to the offices for lunch. Most Dabbawallahs are illiterate, but somehow these men have found a system that works so well that only 1 in six million deliveries goes wrong.
The meals are picked up from the houses and are sent to Mumbai on the trains. At Churchgate station the tiffins get sorted and are delivered to the office buildings.
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| A big crate with tiffins just unloaded from the train. The sign in the back is a coincidence, but the Dabbawallahs have become a tourist attraction, specially after the movie 'Lunchbox'. |
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| and this is what happens at a tourist spot |
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| Sorting out the tiffins |
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| What goes where? |
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| The codes on the tiffins |
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| The system of the codes |
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| Decorations on a delivery bike |
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| Hooks to hang the tiffins from |
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| I guess his mother never told him not to cycle with something dangling from the handlebars |
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| Deliveries go by bike or by hand cart |
We had two more things on our list and the first one was to have a drink at Leopold's. Leopold's is a bar that has been around since 1871 and it features in the book Shantaram. It doesn't look like much, but it is a very popular place and it is always full. We managed to get a table and once you sit there is not much room to move around.
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| This is it! |
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| Proost! |
And then there was only one last thing to do: high tea at the Taj Mahal hotel!
So we started at the slum and we ended with high tea. It was a wonderful trip!!!
