‘Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.’ Gandhi
I look out onto the streets: I see beggars in beautifully dressed saris on streets filled with rubbish and businessmen in expensive suits. This city has so many people, alive with smiling faces. We are now actually learning our way around Mumbai by walking, auto-rickshaw, taxi and train. We feel a little more comfortable around the confronting masses of people but have been realising the contrasts of Mumbai.
Saturday
On the weekend the Antipodeans took the opportunity to explore the sights of Mumbai. After a week of hearing traffic noises, looking at seas of people and working hard; we thought would see if there were any trees in Mumbai! It seems strange that a city so large would have room for a national park however with low expectations we were granted with grand results.
Sanjay Gandhi National Park is a large protected area in the northern part of suburban Mumbai. It encompasses an area of 104 km2 and is surrounded on three sides by India's most populous city. It is noted as one of the major national parks existing within a metropolis limit in Asia and is one of the most visited national parks in the world, attracting more than 2 million visitors each year.
The National park contains 2400 year old Kanheri caves which are sculpted out of the rocky cliffs within the park. Most of the caves are the Buddhist viharas meant for living, study, and meditation. The larger caves, chaityas or halls for congregational worship, are lined with intricately carved Buddhist sculptures, reliefs and pillars, and contain rock-cut stupas.
Within the National Park there is a Lion and Tiger Reserve that is only seen by bus. In addition to seeing lions and tigers we also saw monkeys and deer. 
At Night we went on a tour of Mumbai, with a knowledgeable guide with the best English I have heard in Mumbai so far!
Before the tour we sat down and watched the cloudy sunset over the murky water on the Marine drive (also known as the Queens Necklace or Miami of Mumbai). As we drove along Marine we saw the Saifee Hospital, which is the most spectacular hospital I have ever seen (from the outside at least!). It serves the Dawoodi Bohra community. The Antipodeans have very much found that generally in Mumbai there are a great discrepancies between the hospitals and how they treat ‘rich’ patients compared with the poor.
As we began the tour we were driven to Chowpatty Beach, which is a busy vibrant place were people sit on mats with family and friends, to eat and have a good time. Chowpatty beach is unable to be swum in due to pollution.
We then drove through Kamathipura, which is Asia’s largest red light district. It got its new name from the Kamathis (workers) of Andhra Pradesh state. In recent times the number of sex workers in the area has dwindled. This is due to police crackdown, the rise of AIDS and the government's redevelopment policy that helped sex workers to move out of the profession and subsequently out of Kamathipura. In 1992, according to Bombay Municipal Corporation records, there were 70,000 sex workers here, this has reduced to 1,600 in 2009, with many sex workers migrating to other areas in Maharashtra. Our tour guide explained that although prostitution is illegal it is still common for corrupt businessmen to go to the villages and promise families to take their daughter/s to the city to get a reputable, high paying job. The girls are usually around the age of 10 and are taken to Kamathipura and put in a cage like room, where they have to earn their freedom rights. This can take up to six years and even then due to poor education they generally go back to prostitution. The police have attempted to crackdown on this however there is difficulty as some policemen are often customers. Non-government organisations have tried to combat the issues through education and supplying protection to minimize the spread of HIV.
We then went to Chor Bazaar and the Bangle markets, which were absolutely filled to the brim with bangles!! Sparkly, colourful bangles!
Our journey ended at the Hanging Gardens which overlook Marine Drive and give a great view of the city.
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| Marine Drive |
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| Chowpatty Beach |
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| Hanging Gardens |
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| Hanging Gardens lookout |
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Sunday
We explored The Gateway of India and Taj Mahal Palace Hotel Resort. The Gateway of India was built to commemorate the visit of King George V and Queen Mary to Bombay. The foundation stone was laid on 31 March 1911, by the Governor of Bombay Sir George Sydenham Clarke, with the final design of George Wittet sanctioned in August 1914.
The Taj Mahal Palace Hotel Resort first opened it’s doors to guests on 16 December 1903. On 26 November 2008, in a series of terrorist attacks in Mumbai, the hotel was targeted, during which material damage occurred including the destruction of the roof of the hotel in the hours afterwards. Hostages were taken during the attacks. At least 167 people were killed, including many foreigners. The casualties were mostly Indian citizens, although westerners carrying foreign passports were singled out. Indian commandos killed the gunmen barricaded in the hotel to end the three-day battle. It took several months to rebuild the popular heritage section of the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel.
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| The Gateway of India |
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| Taj Mahal Palace Hotel Resort |
We had a huge lunch at Leopold’s Café ,which is well-known from the novel Shantaram written by the Australian author Gregory David Roberts. The cafe was an early site of gunfire and grenade explosions during the 2008 Mumbai attacks by terrorists and was extensively damaged during the attacks. Gunmen sprayed the restaurant with bullets and there were bloodstains on the floor and shoes left behind by fleeing customers. The building is now fully repaired and back to having masses of customers on a daily basis. This was followed by some shopping in the Colaba Markets.
On Monday evening one of Jyoti’s friends came over and did henna on our arm. It was very interesting to see how she was able to do such an intricate design on each of our arms. We had to put lemon and sugar on our arms and then keep it on all night and in the morning we were able to take off the thick layer and it left us with a lighter brown design.
Volunteering during the Week
As Emily continued with her work at Datar Nursing Home; Lizzy, Laura and I have started at the Society of Education of the Crippled (which is a school with those with disabilities, largely Cerebral Palsy). As we walked in for the first time we saw colourful walls with lively decorations, followed by the smiling Chhaya, the Assistant Principal. Throughout the week we have been given the opportunity to meet the teachers, the schools physiotherapist, the children and other staff. The Speech Pathology students (Laura and Lizzy) have been allocated a group of kids, who the teachers have identified as having speech problems, to assess and do therapy with, and a different group has been allocated to me, for assessment and intervention in the coming weeks. We have found that the school has been very open for us to walk in and work with the kids and the kids have been absolutely joyful and lovely. We all look forward to going to school each day and can’t wait to see the progress of the students.
Emily and the team at Datar Hospital
Namaste for now
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