Towers of Silence & An Introduction to Bombay Nobility

I say this in the most loving way possible: the Parsis of Bombay are the city's most theatrical community. They remind of erstwhile nobles of other nations, a tiny educated, wealthy group that wields enormous amount of power and influence.

Parsis are essentially Iranian Zoroastrians who fled Persia 1,000 years ago and settled near Bombay. The historically trade-oriented community started 12 of India's 15 major industries and own some of the country's largest business houses: Tata, Godrej, Wadia etc. Bombay's CBD Nariman Point is named after a Parsi. Sadly, like many other blue-blood communities, Parsis have been on rapid demographic decline--falling ~10% a year since the 1940s with fewer than 100,000 of them today.

The amount of interesting information about the Parsis could fill a book and 3 movies, but I'm just picking up one topic today--the Towers of Silence--to illustrate that Parsis are just as epic in death as they are in life.

Zoroastrians believe that earth, fire, and water are sacred and should not polluted with the human remains and Humans should give back even in death. So, how do they dispose of the dead? Leave them for the vultures of course. Bodies are placed at the top of the Towers of Silence in Malabar Hill (tower in middle of pic above)--think Upper East Side of Mumbai--to be consumed. Recently, however, this has produced even more drama due to the decimation of the vulture population (99.9% drop) in India due to diclofenac poisoning leading to bodies decomposing for days instead of being consumed in minutes. The community is up in arms and even considering alternatives like large mirrors to accelerate decomposition of bodies. Did I mention they were theatric?

The missing dryer phenomenon

In a land where the rich are never wont for anything, I've visited many a well-to-do Mumbai household that lacks what would be considered a basic necessity in the West: the dryer. Not sure what drives this, maybe the ridiculous price of electricity (our apt monthly bill is ~$400)?

Most people have drying racks (including innovative ones suspended in air) or wires to hang clothes on. Many houses suspend their clothes to dry outside their windows and balconies. I used to consider this irritating and hideous. On a recent trip back from the airport, I noticed the charm these clothes provide--they add beautiful color to otherwise drab apartment buildings and chawls.

The above picture isn't doing justice to what I saw but still, perhaps not having a dryer isn't so bad.

Bombay vs Cairo - The Showdown

For once, I'm doing a travel wrap-up post relatively on time! As always, for funsies, we're going to do it in a VH1 celebrity show down format. For consistency, rounds have been kept similar to Bangkok and Singapore rounds. Quiz : guess which one's Bombay?

Round 1: The streets
Despite the 3rd world and the lack of public garbage cans, Cairo's streets win, albeit just barely, on higher prevalence of proper sidewalks and surprisingly small amount of street waste.

Round 2: The food
Egyptian food is delicious, even if the pigeon didn't quite live-up to my expectation of a quail-esque foul. Having too hard a time deciding on this one--I think I'll have to give it a tie for now.

Round 3: The traffic
Cairo traffic is very similar to Bombay traffic; despite the many fly-overs, the streets are as crowded as ever and the traffic snail-paced as always. This one is not even worth splitting hairs. They both suck in this regard, so let's just call it a tie.

Round 4: The taxis (wouldn't be a Repat journey urban competition without this round)
While Cairo taxis do have a higher incidence of A/C and pleasant, intriguing fragrances, Cairo loses this round handily because of the constant need to barter each fare. Trust me, it gets super frustrating and horrendously time consuming as soon as the novelty wears off.

Round 5: Being able to travel in piece
Egypt is notoriously difficult to travel in. You're constantly being hawked items that you don't need but have to bargain aggressively for the bare necessities (e.g. bottled water, sunblock, exotic arab headdress). While the fantastic monuments more than make up for the hassle, Cairo still loses this round of urban showdown.

Bombay wins this time around (2-1-2), but just by a nose. This is the most serious threat to Mumbai yet--the city better watch-out: Hong Kong is coming up next. Meanwhile, my friend Amelia has diligently compiled lots of pictures from Cairo that can be seen on facebook.

Reading in/about/around Mumbai

One of the perks of a loud, a/c-less 20-min cab ride everyday is my new-found ability to read for pleasure (impossible to take calls or enjoy music). I've finished 3 books in the last 2 months, while still a pathetic number, it's more than I've read in 2 years in New York.

Two of the books I've read are ones everyone has been recommending as soon I mentioned I was moving to India: Maximum City and The White Tiger. Today, I'll be literally taking a page from the literary blog of my good friend Andrew Seal and provide some reflections on recent readings.


Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found

Mehta's brutally realistic and extraordinary witty observations of India through the lens of repat made for truly entertaining and entirely relevant reading for me. I started reading the novel midway through my own online Maximum City-style chronicling and noticed often Mehta and I have made observations about similar topics (e.g. traffic, bureaucratic pace, food, housing, etc.) Perhaps even a Maximum City has a limited set of genuinely compelling topics to write about? As for criticisms of the novel, Mehta starts from an unusually negative viewpoint of the city but quickly romanticizes all the ills he sees--is he trying to convince the reader or himself? His personal writing style is extremely "wandery" and "rambly"; the novel could have been helped by a true flow of narrative instead of a random assortment of chapters and sections. Regardless, I think Maximum City is an essential read for anyone considering a move to Mumbai.


The White Tiger

The only aspect of the primitively written White Tiger that pulled me through was the enormous sense of tension--why did the driver kill his gentle, foreign educated, young Indian boss? Upon further reflection, I forgive Adiga's utter lack of subtlety as his novel draws attention to an issue taken for granted in places like India: the rigid class system that divides people into the service class and non-service class. The image of two overlapping worlds operating in parallel, oblivious of other's pleasures and plights reminds us of the existence of feudalistic mores in human society in the age of the iPhone. Perhaps, I should be afraid that my future driver hails from the same thinly veiled "Darkness" region of India as the novel's murderous protagonist.


Currently I'm reading English, August; I'm always looking for reading list recommendations, so please don't hesitate to suggest--as long as you don't say Shantaram.

Bombay vs Singapore - The Showdown

Here comes another long overdue post on some travel! Remember, for funsies, we're going to do it in a VH1 celebrity show down format. For consistency, rounds have been kept similar to the Bangkok showdown. Secret question: guess which one's Bombay?

Round 1: The streets
Singapore has the most immaculate sidewalks and roads I've ever seen in the world. Singy wins easily.

Round 2: The food
While Singapore does have excellent Asian restaurants to lead Bombay cuisine, it's shame that all of them are in malls. Bombay edges-up for a win on ambiance.

Round 3: The traffic
Singapore's amazing streets and people that follow traffic rules makes for a generally easy win--even if level of competence among drivers is often questionable.

Round 4: The taxis (wouldn't be a Repat journey urban competition without this round)
This should be an easy win for Singapore given standard taxis there have air conditioning and engine power greater than 10 hp except the problem is that it's impossible to find a cab in Singapore. You can generally only pick them at designated stations that are located far apart and come complete with long lines. Bombay FTW.

Round 5: Being able to chew gum
For all of it's government's hot accomplishments, there are many things that you might take for granted elsewhere that you just can't do in Singapore (e.g. gum, non-hardcore drugs, etc.) Bombay might have a little too much personal freedom but I'd take that any day over too little.

Bombay wins this time around (3 -2), but before we feel too bad for Singapore, I get the feeling that Singy really doesn't care what other people think of it. Residents are healthy, wealthy, and more or less happy even if they have to give up certain liberties to achieve it--a bargain they've come to accept.

I bought a car!

After months of melting in the Bombay sun, I finally sucked it up and bought a car. Except calling it a car might be an exaggeration--it's a Hyundai i10 (kidding, kidding, people with Hyundais/love for Hyundais relax...). Check it out:

Obviously, the important part of buying a car is having a fool-proof strategy of negotiation on price. I went with two other friends to buy the car. Our 4-step strategy was as follows:

1) We're here to buy a car on loan--give us your best price
2) Actually, we're here to buy 2 cars--now give us your best price.
3) Psych, we're actually here to buy 3 cars--seriously, give us your best price.
4) Guess what, we're gonna pay cash. Now give us your mom's best price.

Fortunately, one of my friends was an expert negotiator and we were able to get a decent price because our "fool-proof" strategy failed utterly (May be it was the mom joke on Mother's day?)

Overheard in Bombay

Ok, this is not so much conversation overheard as conversation had, but still worth sharing. Clue of what's about to come:

Scene: House party at someone's enormous, gorgeous pre-war penthouse apartment
Characters: Sri, Polish Dude, French Dude

****

Polish Dude
: People in India don't know how to drink. I miss the days when drinking meant drinking and not "socializing"
: For my friend's birthday last year in Poland, we drank for a day and half straight.
: We finished 20 litres of vodka between 5 people and then passed out.

Me
: How did you even stay awake that long? Not that I consume lots of vodka and have trouble staying awake.

Polish Dude
: We were on drugs.

Me
: Ok. Makes sense.

French Dude
: I heard Polish smaller pussy than Russians.

Me and Russian Dude:
: W. T. F.

****

In all seriousness, both guys were cool, although I did hear the French guy may have proposed to someone that night.

FYI, that image above is the Polish vodka recommendation from my new friend.

Strike Day!

I always knew India was more like Europe than America--just didn't want this to mean in the labor laws kind of way. My last 24 hrs have been filled with oodles of strikes.

Last night, I was stranded in Calcutta. Again. This time I had to miss the last flight out of town because disgruntled residents and employees decided to block one of the major roads to the airport. We unsuccessfully tried to get the flight to wait on the taramac for us (the fact that we even dared to attempt this is one of the many reasons I love India).

Kolkata (Calcutta Indianized) is nutty as well all know. But could this happen in my beloved Bombay? Even the blogosphere is shocked: "Is Calcutta Happening to Bombay?"

I landed in Bombay at 9am to find that the motormen of the Indian Railways' (the world's largest system) went on strike wreaking havoc across they city--the local transit system (also the world's largest) is run by the railways. Only 20% of trains were operational.

Consequences of the strike for me:

1) Wading traffic in South Bombay which went from bad to worse
2) Waiting 4x as long to find a cab
3) Ordering lunch from the only (and crappy) restaurant in area that delivers -- no pantry staff
4) Watching overflowing garbage in the bathroom -- no cleaning staff

See what I have to put up with. Seriously though, I feel bad for the millions (yes, millions) of travelers who may not have been able to do the things they wanted to do today. Fortunately, the strike ended by evening!