Exploring Mumbai

Thank you, Google, for declaring today World Tuberculosis Day. Hopefully I'll be able to avoid hyperventilating about this particular illness for at least a few weeks (my current terror is malaria, but tomorrow might be TB's turn. Let us be clear - although TB exists in India, I do not know a single person who has ever had it.)

In 1887, the British built the much-buttressed, rosy-colored Victoria Terminus, a Gothic mansion that stands towards the south end of Mumbai proper. VT, as it's commonly known, is one of the British Raj's most enduring landmarks. India's first steam engine rolled out of VT in 1887, and in 2004, UNESCO listed the Station as a World Heritage Site. The British architects who designed it partnered with Indians, adopting Indian-style turrets, domes and filigreed arches into Europe's Gothic pattern.

Today, VT looks somewhat the worse for wear. More than 2 million Mumbai communters pass through the gates each day, and the building itself has stood through several centuries of Mumbai's famous dust and depradation. When the British left, VT was reborn as Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, tribute to a famous Maharashtran warrior. That's the name UNESCO lists it under, but to residents of the city it's still VT. On November 26, 2008, two terrorists entered the station and threw grenades at passers-by, killing more than 50 commuters.

I went down to VT the other day, to a tourist area known as Kala Ghoda ("Black Horse.") I wandered through the multiple rooms and levels of Kala Ghoda's most famous art gallery, the Jehangir Art Gallery. Some of the artists manned tables in front of their work. I managed to talk with one, a shy-seeming lady who's had more than 15 solo shows in her career.

Some of the work was obviously Indian. A few famous photographers had printed black-and-white pictures of Indian village life on large canvases. Painters depicted yoga poses and mystic portraits.

I visited some of the other galleries in the area. In one a beautiful portrait by Bangladesh artist Jamal Ahmed. A foreign couple who was in the store with me asked the price of one of the artworks, and the owner quoted it in dollars. I asked the price for one of Ahmed's pieces, a flowing earth-toned picture of a woman in a lengha. "90,000 rupees," said the owner.

At least he didn't convert it to dollars.

So much for getting a bargain. I wandered on to the gelato shop next door, where I asked the guy for pista gelato and received a negative response. (Why, in a country that consumes pistachio by the pound, does no one eat pistachio gelato?)

I went into the Chetna bookstore next door in hopes of replenishing my book collection. The titles were all "spirituality"-based. I did go into the neighboring cloth store and find some beautiful silk scarves, but the price was wildly inflated. The massive music store next door, Rhythm House, had all the major magazines and CD's by local and international artists. I bought my cousin a copy of Enrique's new CD (She asked for it!)

By then my driver had gotten antsy, and I headed home. It was a good day's exploration. I recommend the area to any tourists. VT stands across from the old Prince of Wales Museum, now also renamed. The Museum is closed on Mondays, but I'll probably go back some other time.