From Mumbai to Rome

Laundry service in Mumbai

Hard to sum up our final time and impressions of Mumbai. Madison was very busy with the Flat Classroom workshop at the American School of Bombay and I with the school, so we had less time for travel. We did do a city tour on Friday afternoon – all the high points of the city, including some history lessons, lessons in religion, a tour of Gandhi’s “home” in Mumbai (a friend’s house where Gandhi stayed when in Mumbai) – along with some explanations and justifications for the caste system and how it has made Indians so accepting (somehow that didn’t sound like Gandhi’s philosophy). Since we were staying in suburban Mumbai, it was good to really get into the city, walk on a few city streets, see something other than the huge office buildings of the Bandra Kurla Complex or the Dharavi slums.

We left Mumbai Saturday evening, and the ride to the airport and our experiences there really summed up in many ways how Mumbai is so different from our usual life experiences or cities in the West. First, traffic is insane. If there are 3 official lanes, drivers somehow create 5 lanes. The air is filled with a symphony of honking car horns – you can’t drive there if you don’t honk your horn every few minutes. (Must be some part of their driving test.) It’s even written on the back of trucks “Horn Please – OK” which meant the driver will honk to “warn” pedestrians to keep them safe. In other words, to warn them to keep out of their way.  This meant that the roads were incredibly noisy – drivers were like dogs – when one would honk, everyone would join in. LOUD!! In addition, there were lots of people on motorcycles and they all had passengers, including women sitting side-saddle with long saris blowing in the wind, babies in baby carriers, etc. All driving in and out of the 3 official, 2 unofficial lanes. I was happy we made it to the airport unscathed. And of course, we passed slums, and even outside the slums, places full of shelters you could barely call shacks and even people just sleeping on the sidewalks.

Crowds of people were outside all the entrances to the airport – some were waiting to get in (needed to have their ID’s checked and proof that they were traveling) and their families waving good-bye. It seemed everyone had his or her own farewell party going on. Once inside, it was a bit calmer, but still with a style all its own. As we walked to immigration, one employee had the role of telling people they could not bring trolleys any further – that’s all he did, “No trolley, no trolley, no trolley” every ten seconds – he said it so frequently that no one listened to him, so he would say it again….and again….and again. Some people sneaked past him with trolleys anyway. Security was very tight – everyone had to go through a body scan with the handheld scanning devices. There were about 12 scanning stations for men – and one for women! Once we were through all this, we had lots of time to sit and sit and sit, swatting mosquitoes and other bugs attacking us. Madison was thrilled (note the sarcasm). Finally, as we were beginning to doze (our flight was scheduled for 2:45 am) we realized that our gate was changed! We had been so busy watching everyone line up for a flight to Riyadh (all but one of the 50-60 passengers were men, they all rushed the gate when they thought boarding was starting, and someone at the desk said something to them and in a nanosecond they were all in a single file line – the most orderly thing I’ve ever seen at any airport anywhere!), that we didn’t realize there had been a gate change and we needed to get moving so we could get on our flight.

Even there we weren’t finished with security. More scans of randomly selected people, including Madison and me. We were really exhausted by the time we made it to our seats – but rather sorry to leave India so soon. There’s so much still there for us to see and try to understand.

Although we were tired, it was hard sleeping on the plane – especially for Madison. All night the little girl behind her kicked the seat and jabbered.  No assistance from the girl’s mother either – she asked her to stop and did nothing when she didn’t. Talk about no follow through. The mother apologized when we landed – big deal. We were happy to arrive at very efficient Heathrow once again – happy, yet cranky. Everything was so efficient there that we ended up having hours to kill. We know terminal 5 at Heathrow like the back of our hand. Good food at Wagamama, Pret has great miso soup, Starbuck’s has comfy seats, and so on..

Now we’re in Rome and staying in a great B&B – B&B Bibi e Romeo, near the Vatican. We walked, and walked and walked today. Wanted to follow the “money trail” from Jerusalem to Rome (after the Romans razed Jerusalem and looted the city, they took that loot and built the Colosseum). Like Israel, there are ruins and digs all over the place, but here there are dozens of ancient sites high above ground. We were happy to be walking, but overdid it completely and were totally ready to pass out by the time we found a restaurant that was open on Mondays. And it rained, was sunny and warm, got cool, rained some more, stopped raining just before the sun set casting a beautiful very golden glow over St. Peter’s Basilica. A very Hollywood effect.

I was glad Madison had a chance to work on the Flat Classroom project while in Mumbai. Three days (well almost 3 full days) of intensive work on one project (rather than a little time here, a little time there, dragging out for weeks or months) that emphasized the skills that are important: creativity, collaboration, communication, problem-solving, writing/public speaking and other communication skills. Although a bit like school, it was world’s different from what school today is. It was like what school could/should be.

We’ve discussed how each place we’ve been to has a unique quality. Some are more similar to each other, some more different than we anticipated. We’re sad that this trip is going to be over soon – we still have so many things to learn and places to see.

This is so much better than sitting in a classroom….

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