One of the places in Mumbai that I found very interesting to explore was Banganga Tank, a freshwater pond next to the sea with an ancient history. In the middle of the water is a tall, wooden pole that is symbolic of the centre of the earth that Lord Rama’s arrow has pierced, according […]
Tango in Mumbai
Wherever I go in the world, I check out before I travel if there is any Argentine Tango there and if so: who, what, when and where. The internet and especially FaceBook is great for that. Due to this, I already had some contacts and two scheduled tango-DJ-gigs before I even arrived in Mumbai, […]
Transportation in Mumbai
There is all sorts of transportation in Mumbai. Traffic is crazy and during rush hours you can be in a traffic jam for ages. There are e.g. the goods carriers aka trucks. Often very festively decorated. During the night our street is lined with these trucks while their drivers sleep on top of it. […]
Slums and streetlife
Millions of people in Mumbai live in slums. There are also people who live on the streets; I have no idea of the numbers or percentages of those. What I see and read is that in a slum, most people earn a living, one way or another. And they have some sort of roof […]
Mumbai: history, facts and numbers
Anja in Wonderland Just so that you know:….. Mumbai is the capital of Maharashtra. It is an island connected by bridges to the mainland. Originally Mumbai consisted of 7 islands and was first inhabited by Koli fisherfolk. Maharashtra used to be dominantly Hindu and that tendency is politically still strong in the city. Therefor Mumbai’s […]
Holi turns tragic
In my previous posts about Holi I already mentioned the dangers, particularly the safety of the used color powders. The week before the festival the newspapers wrote articles about that every day. Educational, informative entertaining and preventive: About schoolexams coinciding with the Festival… About the dangers About the bonfires the night before Holi. We only […]
Holi Festival 2012, part 2
A few days ago I wrote about the number one Hindu Festival of the year: Holi. Yesterday was ‘the’ day. As I mentioned in my first post about Holi, we bought some colors ourselves in a slum near the railway. Just for fun; we gave them away on the day of Holi. Chemical colors, […]
Places of worship in Mumbai
In a previous post I mentioned visiting a church that is known for its unusual wax figurines to burn for sickness and health. And that I bought some myself. Well, here they are, along with some other religious paraphernalia that I bought. The heart is for my mum, who has heart problems, the jaw with […]
Holi Festival 2012
This week it is gonna be the festival of Holi, a religious Hindu festival. Festival of colors, welcoming spring. The idea is that it is one big crazy, happy day where everyone makes fun with everyone. By throwing colored powders onto each other. Or, even better, mixing those powders with water, e.g. in megahuge […]
Crumbling buildings
Since the people in Mumbai vary from extremely poor to extremely rich, the housing situation varies as much. From no home (living on the street) via living in a slum to owning an entire private skyscraper and everything in between. Also there is the heritage of the colonial era when the British ruled, which […]
