As I sit here to start this blog the evening call to prayers is ringing out around me, there is a light breeze and hot sun. Every time I hear that sound it brings my senses to the edge of an always spine tingling place. A place where some sort of God weaves in and out of the buildings and the people that live and breathe there, before sliding in and out of me on the exhalation of my own breathe to a far flung place beyond. I hope I have done it justice. [Connor says I am no Kaziguro but it'll do......Kaziwho?]
Today we took to the streets of Worli to find Dhobi Ghat, the worlds largest outdoor laundry, and Haji Ali's Floating Mosque. We found them both - but what we discovered was streets awash with a whole set of new memories for the Dad and Lad on this magical tour that we have been taking for the last 6 years.
"Is it officially the most foreign place you've ever been Dad?" - Connor asked me standing by the mosque looking out over the Indian Ocean and the skyscrapers on the Mumbai island being built in front of us as we talked.
Mumbai streets are busy, busy, busy. All tooting horns, dusty broken pavements, full of food stalls and street sellers of all kinds. Every body Jay Walks - people mingle with the yellow cabs, trucks, buses and general traffic at junctions and along the side of the surprisingly very wide, very good roads. Dogs sleep under parked buses where people appear to live? Cows, bullocks?, goats and the odd hen - some tethered some free roaming - mingle too. Mostly ram shackled old buildings and mini shanty towns, the odd golf course (Willingdon Sports Club) and race course (yes race course) dotted in between! But most of all there are the people. This is the Olympics of people staring - not just for me and Con, but also for all the little brown faces that stared back at us, the little girl selling silk cloth and the one legged beggars that took up strategic spots on the path to the floating mosque. But of course as Connor concluded - we were the strangest people in town, the weirdest looking, the ones to be gawped at, my stupid hat aside, fair play. The odd thing for us was rather than making us feel foreign that made us feel at home, more relaxed about really looking at and taking in the sights and the sounds of our walk. We felt settled in and ready for a Wednesday night out......where over a curry we discussed amongst other things Jaywalking in Mumbai.
Laters.
#MumbaiBanter
Note to reader. I know I have misspelt the heading of my blog. Blogger I might now be - but I am not yet sufficiently qualified to edit titles. Another time perhaps.
Today we took to the streets of Worli to find Dhobi Ghat, the worlds largest outdoor laundry, and Haji Ali's Floating Mosque. We found them both - but what we discovered was streets awash with a whole set of new memories for the Dad and Lad on this magical tour that we have been taking for the last 6 years.
"Is it officially the most foreign place you've ever been Dad?" - Connor asked me standing by the mosque looking out over the Indian Ocean and the skyscrapers on the Mumbai island being built in front of us as we talked.
Mumbai streets are busy, busy, busy. All tooting horns, dusty broken pavements, full of food stalls and street sellers of all kinds. Every body Jay Walks - people mingle with the yellow cabs, trucks, buses and general traffic at junctions and along the side of the surprisingly very wide, very good roads. Dogs sleep under parked buses where people appear to live? Cows, bullocks?, goats and the odd hen - some tethered some free roaming - mingle too. Mostly ram shackled old buildings and mini shanty towns, the odd golf course (Willingdon Sports Club) and race course (yes race course) dotted in between! But most of all there are the people. This is the Olympics of people staring - not just for me and Con, but also for all the little brown faces that stared back at us, the little girl selling silk cloth and the one legged beggars that took up strategic spots on the path to the floating mosque. But of course as Connor concluded - we were the strangest people in town, the weirdest looking, the ones to be gawped at, my stupid hat aside, fair play. The odd thing for us was rather than making us feel foreign that made us feel at home, more relaxed about really looking at and taking in the sights and the sounds of our walk. We felt settled in and ready for a Wednesday night out......where over a curry we discussed amongst other things Jaywalking in Mumbai.
Laters.
#MumbaiBanter
Note to reader. I know I have misspelt the heading of my blog. Blogger I might now be - but I am not yet sufficiently qualified to edit titles. Another time perhaps.
So many lolz
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