Trade As One

Before we began our organization visits, our gracious host took Mum, Amy, and I sight-seeing around Mumbai. Though prepared for another frustratingly-traffic-clogged Mumbai drive, we enjoyed the ride into downtown, which took us across a magnificent string bridge surprisingly reminiscent of one in Charleston, South Carolina.

A highlight was the “Dhobi Ghat,” stop number one of the visit. The Dhobi Ghat is an enormous open-air Laundromat where “dhobis” (washers) clean the clothes from Mumbai’s hotels and hospitals. There are rows of open-air concrete wash pens, each fitted with its own flogging stone, and lines upon lines of drying laundry. The ghat hosts many young kids trying to earn a living off the hundreds of tourists who pass through to glimpse the unique sight. I had a moment of sobering clarity here, seeing the discrepancy between the tourists who used those very hotel towels and the severely underpaid dhobis hanging them out to dry in front of us.

Walking and riding around downtown Mumbai with the sole purpose of seeing enabled me to intentionally open my eyes and absorb the new sights. Crippled people asleep on the roadside. A gaunt mother staring unseeingly into traffic while her children play around her. Men walking purposefully to work. Auto-rickshaws driven by bare-footed rickwalas honking, braking, accelerating. Teenage boys working roadside stalls, selling coconuts and hacking off the top roughly with a rusty machete, or grinding down sugar cane to make a sweet juice. People everywhere talking loudly and laughing. Street vendors selling strong-smelling sweets and savories…

...Which brings us to a second highlight: the street food we sampled. We grabbed some “batata vada,” which is also known as the “hamburger of Bombay”.

It consists of a thickly deep-fried mash of potatoes, onions, a little chili, and various other spices surrounded by a bread bun.  Our Indian friend warned us, with some trepidation about our weak western mouths, that the little burger would be hot, but having grown up around Indian food in London, we found it manageable. As is often the case with things deep-fried, it was good, but one was certainly enough. I’m definitely a bigger fan of dahl and curry and Indian breads. And chai (regular black tea made with milk, ginger, spices, and lots of sugar), which we consumed in large quantities during our time in India!

Stay tuned to the blog for a post from Amy involving our impromptu “participation” in a Hindu wedding…