TRAVEL BLOG
Saturday, March 03, 2007
Slums of Mumbai
At every book stall on the streets of Mumbai you will find a copy of the best seller Shantaram
, by Gregory David Roberts. The book retells the authors escape from an Australian prison and flight to Bombay, where he ends up living in a slum.
I was looking for information about the slums of Mumbai after reading this book and I happened upon a link to Reality Tours, which run tours to the Dharavi slum in Mumbai.
Reality tours was set up by an Indian and Englishman. The tour office is in Colaba, just around the corner from Leopolds Cafe, which features so prominently in Shantaram.
I met the owner Chris Way, from Worcester England, at his office. Chris left the everyday life in Worcestershire to live in Mumbai, where he now runs this tour.
We started the tour at 1.45, meeting our guide for the day, Krishna, at Churchgate station. From there we got a local train to Mahim train station. The short tour they offer starts at 2.30 and goes until 5pm. I was wondering how we were going to fill in two and a half hours in a slum. It turns out that the time passes quite easily.
Dharavi is the biggest slum in Asia. It occupies an area of 430 acres and is home to over one million people. The slum is a working city in its own right, with an annual turnover of over US $660 Million Dollars.
My concept of a slum was of huts made of plastic sheeting, bamboo and roofing iron with people sitting around begging. Upon arrival at the train station exit we come to a high street of brick and concrete buildings with shops and even an elaborate Hindu temple.
From the main street we went down a narrow side street and visited various factories. First up was a plastic recycling plant, where plastic is collected from all over the city, crushed, dyed, then melted into pellets for re-use. Pretty much any thing that can be recycled is recycled here, from paper, fabric, to 44 gallon fuel drums. There are numerous other industries going on as well. Shoes, clothing and suitcase factories, and leather tanneries to name but a few.
The guide is a local and he has a good rapport with the people we meet on the way, stopping regularly to chat.
I thought I would be hassled the whole time like you are in the rest of the city, but no one in there was begging. You will get kids following you everywhere, saying hi cheerily and asking where you are from, as they do in India. The kids are inquisitive, a few asked for our autograph on their hand, and if you say you are from a Commonwealth nation you may get dragged into a game of cricket.
Within Dharavi there are industrial, retail and residential areas. Within the residential areas there are Muslim, Hindu, and a Christian area. In the muslim area we stopped for a drink at one of those shops that sells just about everything. We met three schools teachers covered in head to toe by the veil. My mind imagined three little Mother Theresa-esque looking ladies sent to do good in the slums of Mumbai.
We went to the school where they taught and once inside the classroom they unveiled to reveal three beautiful young women who would not be out of place in a Bollywood dance scene. It was a pre-school, and the kids put on a dance show for us.
Many of the buildings are permanent structures with running water and plumbing. The laneways become quite narrow, at many points only a metre wide, with a drain running down the middle. The doorways are usually curtains, and sometimes you see a shop deep within these alleys. I saw a couple of video arcades with classic 1980's games in here as well.
Some people criticize the tour as voyeuristic. The tour though runs at cost and 80% of the proceeds go to a local NGO (charity). Photography is prohibited on the tour. For me tour dispells the assumption that slum dwellers are just sitting around doing nothing, and adds a human face to the statistics that are so easily quoted.
realitytoursandtravel.com
Chris - Reality Tours
, by Gregory David Roberts. The book retells the authors escape from an Australian prison and flight to Bombay, where he ends up living in a slum.I was looking for information about the slums of Mumbai after reading this book and I happened upon a link to Reality Tours, which run tours to the Dharavi slum in Mumbai.
Reality tours was set up by an Indian and Englishman. The tour office is in Colaba, just around the corner from Leopolds Cafe, which features so prominently in Shantaram.
I met the owner Chris Way, from Worcester England, at his office. Chris left the everyday life in Worcestershire to live in Mumbai, where he now runs this tour.
We started the tour at 1.45, meeting our guide for the day, Krishna, at Churchgate station. From there we got a local train to Mahim train station. The short tour they offer starts at 2.30 and goes until 5pm. I was wondering how we were going to fill in two and a half hours in a slum. It turns out that the time passes quite easily.
Dharavi is the biggest slum in Asia. It occupies an area of 430 acres and is home to over one million people. The slum is a working city in its own right, with an annual turnover of over US $660 Million Dollars.
My concept of a slum was of huts made of plastic sheeting, bamboo and roofing iron with people sitting around begging. Upon arrival at the train station exit we come to a high street of brick and concrete buildings with shops and even an elaborate Hindu temple.
From the main street we went down a narrow side street and visited various factories. First up was a plastic recycling plant, where plastic is collected from all over the city, crushed, dyed, then melted into pellets for re-use. Pretty much any thing that can be recycled is recycled here, from paper, fabric, to 44 gallon fuel drums. There are numerous other industries going on as well. Shoes, clothing and suitcase factories, and leather tanneries to name but a few.
The guide is a local and he has a good rapport with the people we meet on the way, stopping regularly to chat.
I thought I would be hassled the whole time like you are in the rest of the city, but no one in there was begging. You will get kids following you everywhere, saying hi cheerily and asking where you are from, as they do in India. The kids are inquisitive, a few asked for our autograph on their hand, and if you say you are from a Commonwealth nation you may get dragged into a game of cricket.
Within Dharavi there are industrial, retail and residential areas. Within the residential areas there are Muslim, Hindu, and a Christian area. In the muslim area we stopped for a drink at one of those shops that sells just about everything. We met three schools teachers covered in head to toe by the veil. My mind imagined three little Mother Theresa-esque looking ladies sent to do good in the slums of Mumbai.
We went to the school where they taught and once inside the classroom they unveiled to reveal three beautiful young women who would not be out of place in a Bollywood dance scene. It was a pre-school, and the kids put on a dance show for us.
Many of the buildings are permanent structures with running water and plumbing. The laneways become quite narrow, at many points only a metre wide, with a drain running down the middle. The doorways are usually curtains, and sometimes you see a shop deep within these alleys. I saw a couple of video arcades with classic 1980's games in here as well.
Some people criticize the tour as voyeuristic. The tour though runs at cost and 80% of the proceeds go to a local NGO (charity). Photography is prohibited on the tour. For me tour dispells the assumption that slum dwellers are just sitting around doing nothing, and adds a human face to the statistics that are so easily quoted.
realitytoursandtravel.com
Chris - Reality Tours
Labels: bombay, gregory david roberts, india, mumbai, reality tours, shantaram, slum tour, slums
Posted by James Clark - editor of itravelnet.com
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Monday, February 26, 2007
Welcome to Bombay Sir
India has a reputation that preceeds itself. I have heard so many travel stories of the overwhelming poverty and crush of population. More recently everything I read about India is about it as the future co-superpower with China (Chindia as they call it).
Arriving at Mumbai International the terminal looked like it hadn't changed since the 1950's. I love it. It's like a glimpse back in time which you are not afforded in todays modern hub airports of Southeast Asia.
I turned on my mobile phone and I received a welcome message from a local mobile network. They tell me I have a free coffee waiting for me at an Indian cafe chain in Mumbai. Then the power went out and we were left in pitch darkness at the baggage carousel. This moment pretty much summed up the new and old India, trying to work together.
When I eventually stepped out of the airport a porter greeted me with "Welcome to Bombay Sir" and lead me to my waiting taxi. I couldn't help but let him port my luggage after hearing that (not that I had a choice). Bombay has such an exotic ring to it. The heat, the tropical trees and the funky little taxis tell you that you are somewhere special.
The taxis in Mumbai are black and yellow Fiats. If you are over 6 foot you will need to crouch to see the view and keep your head off the roof. Getting a taxi from the airport is hassle free as there is a prepaid taxi stand in the arrivals hall.
The cab ride into the city encapsulated India in one ride. Traffic three cars wide sharing a two lane road. Cars, trucks, auto rickshaws, motorbikes, bicycles, pedestrians walking down the middle of the road, holy cows, mangy dogs, feral cats, stray children and piles of rubbish everywhere. Breathtaking lane changes and the never ending honking of horns. All the trucks have painted on the back "Horn OK Please", as if it needs to be encouraged anymore.
Mumbai (known as Bombay until 1996) is home to over 18 million people. The city is an Island peninsula connected to the mainland by bridges. Most visitors stay in the Colaba area, which is at the bottom of the peninsula. For a city that has nearly the same population of Australia I was expecting chaos, but it is a relatively orderly city, in the historic area at least. I went for many wanders outside this area to find the chaos I was expecting.
At some point between the airport and Colaba you cross a river, and autorickshaws are not allowed past this point. This makes a huge difference to the amount of air and noise pollution, compared to the Mumbai you see upon arrival, where the autorickshaws are permitted.
Mumbai has an impressive legacy of British colonial architecture. Grand public and civic buildings such as Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (formerly Victoria Terminus) train station, modelled on St Pancras Station in London.
The Fort area, Churchgate and Colaba is full of run down old mansions and apartment buildings which just scream potential. As India grows economically one hopes they are restored rather than knocked down.
CST Victoria Terminus
Arriving at Mumbai International the terminal looked like it hadn't changed since the 1950's. I love it. It's like a glimpse back in time which you are not afforded in todays modern hub airports of Southeast Asia.
I turned on my mobile phone and I received a welcome message from a local mobile network. They tell me I have a free coffee waiting for me at an Indian cafe chain in Mumbai. Then the power went out and we were left in pitch darkness at the baggage carousel. This moment pretty much summed up the new and old India, trying to work together.
When I eventually stepped out of the airport a porter greeted me with "Welcome to Bombay Sir" and lead me to my waiting taxi. I couldn't help but let him port my luggage after hearing that (not that I had a choice). Bombay has such an exotic ring to it. The heat, the tropical trees and the funky little taxis tell you that you are somewhere special.
The taxis in Mumbai are black and yellow Fiats. If you are over 6 foot you will need to crouch to see the view and keep your head off the roof. Getting a taxi from the airport is hassle free as there is a prepaid taxi stand in the arrivals hall.
The cab ride into the city encapsulated India in one ride. Traffic three cars wide sharing a two lane road. Cars, trucks, auto rickshaws, motorbikes, bicycles, pedestrians walking down the middle of the road, holy cows, mangy dogs, feral cats, stray children and piles of rubbish everywhere. Breathtaking lane changes and the never ending honking of horns. All the trucks have painted on the back "Horn OK Please", as if it needs to be encouraged anymore.
Mumbai (known as Bombay until 1996) is home to over 18 million people. The city is an Island peninsula connected to the mainland by bridges. Most visitors stay in the Colaba area, which is at the bottom of the peninsula. For a city that has nearly the same population of Australia I was expecting chaos, but it is a relatively orderly city, in the historic area at least. I went for many wanders outside this area to find the chaos I was expecting.
At some point between the airport and Colaba you cross a river, and autorickshaws are not allowed past this point. This makes a huge difference to the amount of air and noise pollution, compared to the Mumbai you see upon arrival, where the autorickshaws are permitted.
Mumbai has an impressive legacy of British colonial architecture. Grand public and civic buildings such as Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (formerly Victoria Terminus) train station, modelled on St Pancras Station in London.
The Fort area, Churchgate and Colaba is full of run down old mansions and apartment buildings which just scream potential. As India grows economically one hopes they are restored rather than knocked down.
CST Victoria Terminus
Labels: asia, bombay, colaba, india, mumbai, victoria terminus
Posted by James Clark - editor of itravelnet.com
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