First Week in Mumbai!

I arrived in Mumbai, India a little more than a week ago, and I am blown away. This first blog post is going to include a lot of my recent activities within the last week, but usually I am going to try to blog a little every other day… so keep coming back!

First, a little background. I received a scholarship from my university, University of Michigan, to travel to India to volunteer at an NGO while conducting my own research project. The scholarship is very open ended, and left all the decisions up to me. Originally I had planned to work in Kolkata, but the NGO that I was planning to work with wasn’t very reliable and I changed my plans a month before my departure. Instead, I asked all the Indian people I knew at my University for advice, and ended up landing an intern position at Pratham, an NGO for child education in Mumbai. I will work for them until June 20^th after which I’m planning on traveling to Rajasthan and to the surrounding areas of New Delhi for about 10 days.

Sounds so organized and concrete, right? Well it wouldn’t have sounded like that if I had started this blog a week ago when I arrived.  Most of my plans had to be worked out once I got to Mumbai, a risk I don’t usually take when traveling. When I first arrived in Mumbai I had no long-term housing set-up, and only a tentative yes from Pratham (my NGO). As much as I had tried calling and emailing before I arrived, talking to someone in person is still highly valued in Indian culture, and I found that it was almost impossible to find adequate housing without looking around myself. We had family friends living in Mumbai who were generous enough to let me stay with them for a week before they left for their family vacation.  I had one week to get everything organized, or I was off to the live on the streets. I called brokers from online housing sites and began looking at flats in Colaba, a very nice area where our family friends live and about 10min taxi ride away from my work. I went through a pretty sketchy broker and found a flat that I liked that I am sharing with about 5 other Indian girls who are working in Mumbai but are from different parts of India. I am sharing a room… and a bed… with a very nice girl, Taniya, from West Bengal, but I didn’t know that when I signed for the room. As far as the room and roommate, I got pretty lucky and I can’t wait to get to know the rest of the girls living in my flat.

While I was living with the Malpanis (our family friends) I slept a lot but woke up very early while I was adjusting to the time change. I also got pretty nauseous from the malaria pills and the new spices from the food, so I tried to sleep it off. The nausea got so bad that I decided to just stop the pills, and instead I spray the bug spray like perfume everyday before leaving the house… I just wish it smelled a little better. Since I could only work on the NGO and housing issues during the day, I went out with Sanjna, the 20-year-old daughter at night. One night we went to a karaoke bar in a suburb of Mumbai called Bandra that was a good 40 min drive.  Below was me singing at the karaoke bar with a girl who actually had a good voice… I am pretty sure my mic was off or turned really low on purpose.

Some of Sanjna's friends at the karaoke bar in Bandra!

Sanjna and I also took a half day to visit the Haji Ali mosque and dargah (tomb). It was constructed in 1431 on behalf of Sayed Peer Haji Ali Shah Buhari who legend has it fell ill and instructed that his coffin be thrown into the Arabian sea after his death. When the coffin floated back to the Indian shores is got stuck in the rocks off the shore of Worli, now a part of Mumbai. The dargah was erected where his coffin landed, and is visited by over 40,000 pilgrims on Thursdays and Fridays… which is why I was grateful that we visited on a Sunday. A few pictures below of our visit to the Haji Ali dargah.

Later in the week, after meeting with Pratham in the morning and securing an intern position with them, I walked around Mumbai to look at some of the heritage buildings that were built by the British. They have such gorgeous architecture, and are still in pretty good shape. Some of Sanjna’s friends I have talked to have said that the British buildings are the only ones that have been built “properly” or in a fashion that has withstood the test of time. They said that the buildings were built with stone that keeps the buildings cool in the summer and in a direction that allows the breeze rush through the open corridors and courtyards.  Who know if this is true, but in a country where quantity is preferred to quality, many Indian buildings often come under criticism when compared to the old British architecture.

On Thursday I traveled by train for the first time with Sanjna. The train ride in itself was an experience… one that is difficult to capture with pictures. The shear number of people that try to stuff themselves into the trains is ridiculous, and we weren’t even traveling during peak hours! All the doors are open and because the trains don’t move very quickly, people leave half their body hanging out of the doorway either because there is just not enough space, or because they prefer the breeze as a welcomed relief in the sweltering heat. We were on our way to Astitva at kokan Nagar in Jogeshwari where Sanjna and her friends were demonstrating their low-cost lighting system for slum area in India. She is part of a student lead initiative called Jal Jyoti that uses water bottles filled with light and bleach to light houses with no cost. Of course this lighting system would only work at night since it uses refraction from the sun to light the interior, but it is a great option for homes that are so tightly packed that there is no space for windows. The water bulb provides the equivalent of a 55 watt bulb and never dies! I watched sanjna and her team give a brief introduction to a group of women from this community and present an informational video about their work. These women are leaders in their community, and have the capability to influence the decisions of many other families in their village area.  You can read more about their work on their website.

Ashna covering the bottle for demonstration

Ashna uncovering the bottle to show the difference

While I was there, I took a few pictures of the children playing in a small park, or climbing on fences. I always feel a little uncomfortable taking pictures of children that I don't know, especially children who live in such poor conditions, but it would be a shame to miss an opportunity to capture such pure curiosity or confusion on their faces... especially when they see a white, blonde girl.