First, Second, and Third Impressions

This entry was initially intended to be my first impressions, but because it has taken me so long to finish writing that it has become much more. For those of you who I haven’t had a chance to tell personally, I am living in Mumbai for the summer. I apologize that I haven’t had a chance to tell everyone I would have liked to tell. I found out rather late in the game that I would be going to India and thereafter my life was a whirlwind of finishing up school and preparing to leave. I am just now getting settled enough to write about my experiences thus far.

I am working with EMBARQ, an NGO with offices in major developing cities around the world that advocates for and helps local governments plan sustainable urban transportation. In India, EMBARQ is working on initiatives like planning bus rapid transit in a few cities, reforming the auto rickshaw sector, and generally helping to prevent Indian cities from being completely given over to cars. I would have been excited to take this position simply because I think EMBARQ does such important work; the fact that I get to live in India for a summer was a fantastic bonus. More about exactly what I’m doing in a bit.

I arrived on May 27, a little over a week ago. I spent my first few days exploring the city and searching (not very actively) for a place to live for the summer. Finding housing for two months is tricky: most realtors want an entire month’s rent as a move-in fee (not worth it for a two month lease) and sublets are harder to come by here. I bounced around between a few different places before eventually settling in a housing situation that, I think, is where I will be for the summer. I was originally in the YMCA international house, which is really more of a hotel, and was nice but a bit too expensive for the whole summer. I did stay in an interesting neighborhood as a result of being in the YMCA that I might not otherwise have seen.

I then moved to a backpackers’ hostel which was dirt cheap and in a state of repair to match its price. The combination of complete disrepair (in particular the plumbing never worked), lack of a/c, and some obnoxious travelers (the type who are disrespectful of the country they are traveling, who want to be in a place but spend most of their time partying in a hostel rather than going and experiencing the country) made me quickly realize that the hostel also would not do. I hate to feel needy of luxuries like a/c and a shower, but I think since I am mostly staying in one city and working here for the summer I am in a different mind frame than if I were traveling around for the summer.

I finally found a hotel where I negotiated a special rate to stay for the summer. The manager initially wanted 1200 Rs per night for the room, but I got him to come down to 700 Rs per night since I am staying for two months. I have heard and it has been my experience thus far that India is a face-to-face society, and that most deals are reached through some haggling. I think it was a good experience to have to negotiate my housing situation. It catapulted me along towards greater acculturation.

My housing search took me through a couple neighborhoods. I was initially in a neighborhood that is on the periphery of a very Muslim district. One of my co-workers has since told me that this district is often referred to as Little Pakistan. I spent much of my first couple of days walking around this part of town. I had already begun to suspect that this was a more Muslim neighborhood based on the number of animals kept, the number of vendors selling meat, and the amount of Arabic writing. If I wasn’t convinced, I became absolutely certain when at midday on Friday loudspeakers from a mosque started blaring and hundreds upon hundreds of Muslim men began to flock to the mosque for midday prayer. I was caught walking countercurrent to this wave of men and made my way to the side of the road for refuge. It was really quite a sight to watch. The faithful spilled out of the mosque and into the street in front of it, all on their knees in the center of their prayer mat. I walked around the town some during this hour (there was little else to do because all of the shops were closed) and realized that there were at least 10 mosques within about a 5 square block section, all of which were filled beyond capacity.

I’ve since moved from this neighborhood to Colaba, or South Bombay. Colaba is just south of the part of the town that contains most of the historic buildings. Compared to the first neighborhood I stayed in, Colaba is more “developed.” By developed I mean there are more traffic signals, paved roads, and fewer animals kept in the street. This makes it a hub for tourists. The street I live on is called the Colaba Causeway and has a number of high-end boutiques, jewelry stores, and U.S. fast food chains on it. My hotel is tucked away above one such boutique and I actually walked by it at least a dozen times before realizing it was there. I live right near a train station, several large parks (open space is severely lacking in this city!), many of the museums, and a couple blocks from the harbor. If I walk for a few minutes I can quickly get out of the more touristy stretch. I do this quite a bit because I get sick of the attention from street vendors who mistake me for a rich white tourist (rather than a poor college student NGO volunteer!). Many of the tourists in this neighborhood are wealthy Indians, but there are also a sizable number of European, East Asian, and African tourists. My first couple days I did not see any foreigners; now in Colaba I see at least a dozen each day.

I guess this has been mostly a discussion of where I've been...now for some impressions.

Being in Mumbai is truly non-stop sensory overload. Unceasing stimulus. The combination of a super dense mega city and culture that is anything but subtle is really quite potent. Initially the sounds of the city stood out to me, but these have actually started to fade into the background. I can always hear honking, noisy vehicles without mufflers, sales pitches and trains in the background. The vehicles and sales pitches are constant enough that I hardly notice them. The honking is at this point a nice, rhythmic sound. I wonder if I will start to miss it when its gone. The smells of Mumbai, in contrast, I don't think I will ever fail to notice. These are also ever-present and are both good and bad. They range from standing water in a street gutter, to incense, to garbage piles, to ripe fruit, to the exhaust of a 30 year old vehicle, to samosas or puri being cooked by a street vendor that smell delicious initially until you get close and the amount of butter and oil being used starts to make the good turn bad.

This city is very, very, very crowded. I had heard from everyone I had talked to about India to be prepared for crowds. Its not so much that they caught me off guard - its just that even after adjusting to the human density of Mumbai its still beyond comprehension. One of my coworkers who is a scholar of megacity development and politics told me that Mumbai has more than doubled in population between 1990 and today. A city of 8 million has become a city of 18 million in just 20 years, primarily through migrations from other cities and rural areas in India. The infrastructure and housing stock are simply not adequate for the current population of Mumbai. And even if there were resources, there simply wouldn't be space. Every time I leave the house, no matter the time of day or what block of the city I walk down, I encounter people. I suppose it makes the city safe. At the same time, it is occasionally frustrating that I can't go for a walk without bumping into people. I've taken to going to the park just to have a bubble of personal space. The park nearest to my home (in picture) is also a hub for cricket playing and is near Mumbai University, an example of the architecture left over from when the British were here.

The heat here was initially overwhelming, but is already starting to fade as monsoon season sets in. The first week I was here it was probably over 100 degrees and 85% humidity every day. I've certainly experienced weather like this in Texas before, but the lack of air conditioning (really a luxury here) was something new. This week has been cooler though, and we are starting to get a preview of monsoon rains. Each day this week there has been a quick, intense span of rain. They are getting longer each day and I know soon they will start and not stop. My coworkers told me that during severe rain days, we typically get a call telling us whether to come into work or not. There are lots of storm drains that are blocked with garbage so that many parts of the city flood and its unsafe to try and go into the office. Rain days here can be like snow days.

I really love how much of life takes place out in the streets here. The height of activity is from 7 pm to 10 pm, when all sorts of vendors come out and many streets convert into a bazaar. Most people here grab some sort of snack on their way home and then eat a later dinner. Traffic is so bad here that most people's commute doesn't end until around 8 pm (hence the snack and later dinner). I've definitely pieced together dinners of street food on a few occasions.

Well, this has gotten long, so I should sign off. I'll post again soon on my work, on a couple of sights in the city that I've seen, and on my favorite street food. By the way, the first picture in this posting is the city lit up at night (obviously). The lights are called the Queen's Necklace. My neighborhood (South Bombay) is off to the far right.