Portraits of a city

India Day 2

Please forgive the extended entry  - I just want to capture each day so I don’t forget just what happens! Apologies for being so far behind - it’s a very busy week combined with issues linked to recharging and internet strength -  up I do appreciate your responses as you follow our travels! 

It’s a 5.00 am start this morning for our Dawn Tour - though when we start from our hotel, sunrise is still some way off. 

Whilst the roads are quiet, life is certainly stirring within the city, and when we reach the fish market we are plunged into a world of frenetic activity. Overhead lights send pools of brightness into a still-dark world, illuminating groups of women sitting on the ground shelling mountains of prawns or wielding knives of various sizes to filet or dissect.  Others walk back and forth, full baskets or bowls carried expertly on their heads, taking fish from the boats to auction sites. 

Large wooden fishing vessels are lined up in the small harbour, fish brought up from holds lying in silver mounds on deck. We watch as the catch is placed into bowls before a skilful routine of throwing the bowls from one to another until a final flourish as a bowl is thrown up to waiting hands up on the harbour wall - all without losing a signal fish. 

It’s all fascinating and a joy to photograph, though every take has basically got to be a grab shot as there’s little time to carefully compose shots in this busy area. Bright lights enable photography in this pre- dawn hour, but photographing against them is challenging. Mostly, I take candid unposed shots, occasionally with the subjects catching my eye, but usually not. On occasions, out eyes meet and I ask their permission to photograph them. I love these interactions through smiles and hand gestures, but of course there’s the risk of obviously posed shots or a point blank refusal. 

From here we move to newspaper distribution, our  guide explaining the number of languages spoken - mostly from India itself / meant that there’s a huge number of different papers printed. In the typically Indian way of using the maximum number of people to do a job, we watched as men sat on pavements selecting newspapers for their areas of distribution better setting off on bikes to deliver. 

Then it’s on to the colour and vibrancy of fruit and vegetable markets - we give the meat market a miss deciding we don’t really want to watch chickens being slaughtered. Things are even busier here, huge sacks of vegetables or baskets of fruit being carried on the heads of porters who weave their way through the crowds. Interactions are wonderful: eyes caught, smiles given, photo taken - unless they object of course. 

Then there’s the flower market. The scent of jasmine hangs heavily in the air and we watch women sitting cross legged making bracelets and hair adornments, threading buds meticulously. Other garlands are more elaborate, incorporating marigolds and roses. Huge piles of yellow and orange marigold flower heads are everywhere. Roses seem to be the only flowers sold with stems. 

Finally, it’s on to two of Mumbai’s must see sites; the dhobiwalas or laundry workers,  and the Dabbawalas or tiffin deliverers. Both rely on meticulous systems to ensure laundry gets back to the right person and that tiffin lunches get to the corrrect recipient. 

The former we view from a platform watching a lone man thrashing laundry items in a stone trough. Now huge washing and drying machines are taking over, but we still look onto a patchwork of washing lines. 

The coffin carriers seem to work from distribution points where collected tiffin or lunch boxes are sorted to the assigned deliverers who we watch attaching bags to various parts of their bicycles, obviously mindful of the order of delivery. Fully laden bikes must be almost impossibly heavy, but one by one they head off into the road and cycle their loads through the nightmare traffic. 

After four hours of amazing sightseeing, we head back to the hotel for breakfast, setting out again 90 minutes later. Our afternoon tour is far more conventional, focusing on Mumbai’s main sites. 

G’s favourite has to be the  incredible Neogothic magnificence of the railway station, where local trains bring …. People into the city each day on crowded trains defying health and safety by being air conditioned by fully open double doors. 

There’s a quick diversion to a small photographic stall where I’m amazed that I can buy a UV filter for my new lens as stupidly I’d forgotten to buy one! 

We’re too tired to visit the museum, but pop into the Modern Art Gallery where we meet two young and talented artists setting up their shows. 

Finally, we glimpse through a tree-covered Malabar Hill the Pharsee prayer buildings linked to the tradition of ‘sky burial’ where bodies are placed on the Towers of Silence to be consumed by birds. 

Wearily, we return to the hotel and go straight to the pool bar for two well-deserved beers. Later, we enjoy a meal in the rooftop restaurant Souk, a drink in Mumbai’s oldest bar and head for bed where we discover that housekeeping have outdone yesterday’s beautiful patterns of rose and frangipani petals on the floor, and have left two copper foot baths full of petals for a pre-bed foot soak, even offering to come and fill them with hot water! After today, it’s certainly very welcome!