Cairo, the 12th April, 2010

Bombaim - India PART II

Remembering experiences will never get close to the actual feeling of LIVING those experiences. That's why we speak - and almost never understand and act upon - the greatness of NOW. Enjoying the moment.


Well, that's what I did as soon as I got to Bombaim, my first city as I got into India.


I quickly understood why India is under the astrological sign of Capricorn.
Burocracy, lines, requests, paperwork and more nagging at checking your bags, hair, cloths and etc says a lot about indian character. Entering India and getting through the several gates and check-ups of Bombaim airport is enough to get why they're capricorn sons and daughters.
This is also an old country with a heavy, fully charged past and that can also be qualified as Saturnin, Capricorn like...


BOMBAIM:

I could feel the weight of India over my shoulders as I got to know Bombaim and even quicker did I feel the dark sensuality of the country.

It all smelled like cave like sexuality. Don't ask me exactly what that means cause I don't know it myself but that's what it felt like: dark, velvety, scorpionic, dangerously alluring sensuality!


Bombaim was part of the portuguese empire, in the past, so there are still remains of my country in this city (as well as in the South which I didn't visit yet).
It's a city looking at the arabic sea and from all the things I saw, the thing that impressed me the most was the house of Mahatma Ghandi!

Is it because it seems no men like this are born anymore?
Is it because I always had a crush on heroic men?

The - embarassing - truth is that I cried as I moved around his house and got acquainted with further details about his life. It was not possible to keep a straight face after knowing about a man who gave up his comfort, privacy, well being, his whole life for the sake of the ones who could not fight for themselves and for the sake of India's dignity and freedom.


There were letters directed to the United States President at the time, some directed to Herr Hitler (asking him - so politely, in such a gentleman's manner - to stop the Holocaust) as well as documentary photos, some few personal belongings and Ghandi's room with the famous spinning gear that symbolized the Indian revolution towards British exploitation and domination.


The house was peaceful as heaven and I could have easily stayed there forever.
Was I alive at the time of Ghandi and I would become a crazy groopie chasing him off limits until he made me his wife!

That's how much I adore and admire this man. What a remarkable person (check out Mahatma Ghandi's Autobiography - Experiences with the Truth).
I also visited the Elephantine islands with the famous caves representing several of the many, many, many colourful Hindu deities and another touristic places but none filled me as much as Ghandi's home.



Chai - famous masala tea with milk - shops mixed with some posh Starbuck's style coffe-shops gave the city a domestic flavour punctuated with a nouveau riche inffluence that bugged me. Indian richest people tend to be, as in any other part of the world but with an extra bit in that country, arrogant, ignorant and petulant in the way they treat another people they consider under their level.


Near by the hotel, we found christian churches, synagogues and even some mosques. India is, indeed, the country of all religions and mentalities. No wonder India has become an impossible puzzle to solve. So many interests and different comunities at stake...very hard to unite so many differences in such an enormous country!


WHAT STROKE ME THE MOST:

1. A world wide famous food delivery system known for its eficacy and internal organization.
Every day, there are millions of house wives all over Bombaim who cook their husband's lunch which is transported and delivered in hands by men in bicycles.
This seems to be one of the best organized, efficient domestic enterprises of the world and it surely proves Indian impeccable sense of hard work and efficiency in all they put their mind into.

2. There is a specific exclusively male laundry service in Bombaim which employs thousands of men. You can watch how they wash, iron and dry the cloths of the rich people standing in a slum like kind of hole improper for human breathing.
The poverty in India is a permanent issue in the world press and in all traveller's accounts. Such a complicated matter, actually.

I learnt not to avaliate and judge such situations easily. Poverty is everywhere in all shapes and forms but it surely shows itself a LOT in India due to the geographical dimension of the country and the over population subject.