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Mumbai is a wonderful city. We 3 girls quickly perked up as we entered the great city. I must admit to feeling a bit nervous about my first Indian city stay having nightmare visions of overcrowded streets, overwhelming poverty and chaos. I was very pleasantly surprised with Mumbai being a very manageable modern city despite its 20 million population.
SLUM TOUR
The tour of the famous Dharavi slum was the highlight. It began on a sombre note, with the tour guide explaining how so many young come to Mumbai to make a life for themselves but quickly end up on drugs on the street. We were shown the red light district of Mumbai where the guide explained 8000 women operated as prostitutes, most of them having been forced into the situtation by con-men and traffickers. Even if they escape from these brothel operators, their families do not accept them back. And on reading the newspaper the other day, I discovered it's almost impossible to educate your child if you are a single mother without a father to the child. They have only THIS WEEK changed the law so that single mothers can use their own names to name their children.
It is with trepidation we started our walking tour of the slums however it very quickly turned into an uplifting experience. There is so much industry taking place within this tiny network of makeshift buildings, not more than 3 floors high. According to the guide there is approx. USD 700 million of annual turnover within the slum. And it's not hard to see why. Everywhere we went people were recycling plastic from China, making shoes, baking pastry, recycling cans, tanning hides, making pots etc. It was an amazing place. And the air did not hang heavy with despair and desperation - people were buoyant and industrious, the kids happy and smiling, and there were no beggars! Not one!
I recommend using Reality tours as most of their profit goes to a community centre and school in Dharavi slum. http://www.realitytoursandtravel.com/slumtours.html. Thanks Gig for recommending it to us!
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Noor Hi What an experience! Imagine the slums being a tourist experience! Sounds very like the slums I was taken through near the port in Jakarta. Keep safe and well and keep blogging!!! Mum.
Di Hi Clare I feel like I'm on the journey myself reading your blog, what with climbing mountains, horrendous train accommodation, nightclubbing with princes and experiencing the slums. (the setting for Shantaram). There's nothing straightforward in how things work in India. So many middlemen have their palms out ready to be greased before the right and proper things unfold. Australia's getting a right old drubbing at high levels in the aftermath of the murder of an Indian walking thru a park in Melbourne. Everybody including the Aust govt is upset & saddened. Julia Gillard offered the opinion that the motivation was criminal rather than racist. Indian TV then reported this in a news item with large banners of AUDACITY posted on the bottom of the screen. Also the Victorian Police have been depicted in a cartoon in a major paper as Ku Klux Klan. So Australia's stakes are low at the moment. Unfortunately India's a volatile country where allegiances can quickly lead to violence. Have you visited the old part of the Taj Hotel yet? Sue Gillespie would have some good contacts possibly in Bombay & Delhi. xxxDi
Tony Looks amazing - uplifting to see grinning faces where you'd expect the opposite. Though it's a bit rough the poorest are the ones doing the recycling for the richest but will regardless be hardest hit by climate change! Glass houses though I guess. Don't mention anything about Victorian Police or KFC ads and you should be fine!