World Cruise - Day 86 - Apr 7 - Mumbai, India, Part 1

Mumbai used to be known as Bombay until 1996, when there was a push to eradicate all British names in India.  However, many people from Mumbai still refer to it as Bombay.  And, ironically, those who speak Hindi use the name Bambai (official language of Mumbai is Marathi).  Mumbai is known as “Bollywood” due to a combination of Bombay and Hollywood, since it is the film capital of India (so maybe it should now be “Mollywood”?).  Mumbai is the largest city in India with about 15 million in the city and 20 million in the metro area (and 4^th largest city in the world).

We did a Bible study this morning on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Later, we went out to see parts of the city, visiting the Dharavi slums in the morning.  You may remember the Dharavi slums from the opening scenes of Slumdog Millionaire, which depicted the Hindu-Muslim riots of 1992-93 in the slums.  No photographs were allowed in the slums, so I hope these photos (from photo sharing sites) will suffice.  This is an aerial view of the slums from above with the city in the background:

This is a view of the edge of the slum, where vehicle traffic can get through (most places in the slums are foot traffic only):

Another main street in the slum:

View of one of the back streets:

Sanitation is a real problem in the slums, this is what the river looks like between the commercial district and residential district:

We were taken to the slums by Reality Tours, which does a very sensitive tour of the slum.  They also sponsor a community center in the slum, which we were able to visit.  It was very humbling to visit the slum and makes one pray all the more fervently, Thy kingdom come.

The pics above simply cannot do justice to what we saw.  While there is poverty, there is also industry.  The unemployment rate in the slums is about 10%.  There are many cottage industries in the slums, including recycling (of almost everything and everything) as well as several small manufacturing facilities.  Amazing what they are able to do in such a crowded area.

Although pics were generally not allowed to be taken in the slums, here were a few pics I took of the outside of the slums before we entered:

Most of the buildings are two stories, often with manufacturing or retail on the first floor and sleeping quarters on the second floor, although this building had three stores (or perhaps two and a half):

What appeared at first to be bags of garbage lines up on the streets were actually loads of recycling materials being brought in for processing:

This is one of my few pics taken inside the slums as we were moving from the commercial side to the residential side, our guide said it was OK to take a pic of this tricked out truck:

Our guide took us to a room that Reality Travel had rented within the slums to show people the living conditions.  This room was about 8x10 and would typically house anywhere from five to eight people:

Behind our guide (Ganesh) is a very small storage area:

Above the door is another small storage area.  The little boy in the doorway was curious of the light skinned people in the slums and was watching Krissie:

I got a closer shot of him, although you typically could not photograph in the slums, I got the OK to take this pic because we were in private property and he was peeking inside:

There was a small stove in one corner which was used for cooking:

Another of my few photos taken from within the slums, this one shows a hospital (the building on the left with “SAI” on the front) as well as some of the new buildings going up as part of the slum rehabilitation project:

We also got to visit the Reality Travel community center in the slums, where they teach work skills and computer classes to the residents.  They give back 80% of their profits to helping the residents of the slums.  Ganesh was known by many of the residents and they all seemed genuinely happy to see him.

It’s late, so I will post more Mumbai photos tomorrow. 

Our entertainment tonight back onboard was Tom Briscoe:

Very funny guy.  You may know him from his “So…I got fired from that job!” line.

We have a sea day tomorrow, #1 of 3 on our way to Manama, Bahrain.  Will post more Mumbai pics tomorrow.