here to be here: mumbai in pictures.
“That’s how we keep this crazy place together – with the heart…. India is the heart. It’s the heart that keeps us together. There’s no place with people, like my people, Lin. There’s no heart like the Indian heart.”
–Gregory David Roberts, Shantaram
Last week in Fort Kochi, I picked up Peter Matthiessen’s The Snow Leopard from a shelf in my hotel. It’s one of those travel books I vaguely remember being recommended once, as something that one should read, so I tucked it into my bag.
Much like reading Brideshead Revisited on the beach in Puri, at first there didn’t seem to be any obvious connection between Peter’s journey through remote Nepali mountains and my own arrival in the big city of Mumbai on Friday. But as so often happens with books, the two journeys–the author’s and your own–begin to complement each other.
On my last night in Goa, I read:
“I feel gratitude for being here, for being, rather, for there is no need to hie oneself to the snow mountains in order to feel free. I am not here to seek the “crazy wisdom”; if I am, I shall never find it. I am here to be here, like these rocks and sky and show, like this hail that is falling down out of the sun.”
That phrase–I am here to be here–instantly struck me, and I kept repeating it once I reached Mumbai. “I am here in Bombay to be here” became my excuse not to follow a checklist of sights, but simply to be in the city, whatever that might mean.
At times, it meant learning my way around Colaba, riding the harbour ferry at sunset, and seeing my first Bollywood film. It meant connecting with my lovely friend Bonsy from Kingston, as we caught up over cold coffee and tiramisu at Moshe’s Cafe. At other times it meant returning to the same restaurant twice because the pav bhaji was that good, or sitting in the lobby of the Taj in my torn flip-flops and pretending I totally fit in–totally, right?–and beginning to feel the soul of Bombay of which Gregory David Roberts writes in his much-beloved Shantaram, the life that pulses beneath the streets like a heart.
So rather than focus on a particular story for this first post on Mumbai, I thought I’d put together a photo essay instead, capturing some of my favorite shots from the weekend–the kind of images we hold onto as we pass through a city, and it passes through us.
and loving the pictures…
Wow, that’s a lot of smiles! Glad you liked the pics
yes definitely like the pics, captures THE moment brilliantly (making me nostalgic too) and the smiles are for the writeup in the blog
I am here in Suffolk to be here. Once again, the gentle reminder to “be here now.” What is God saying? Six days and counting. xoxoxo
Exactly! Isn’t it a wonderful thought–”I am here to be here.” Great for finding contentment no matter where we are, but I also love the pressure it takes off traveling to new places, too. Don’t always have to have a big reason or purpose…just to visit them because we can! Five days!! xoxo
Wow those photos are seriously impressive Candace!
Where is your photography tips post?
Thanks heaps, Wayne! And haha, I’ll see what I can do about that
This takes me back to my time in Mumbai.
I can’t say I visited all the great sights. It was more taking it all in – relishing in the reality that I was in India for the very first time. I would wake up before sunrise and wait till it was light enough to go walk along the Arabian Sea and then just wander around aimlessly… Enjoy ‘being’ there. 
Thanks for your comment, Audrey! Your time in Mumbai sounds divine, and I love what you said about just taking it in rather than checking off some list of sights you felt you had to see. I’ll have to go on my own sunrise wander along the Arabian sometime now, I bet that was lovely
“As we pass thru a city and it passes thru us”. I think that is an amazing sentence. My hat is off to you if that is original with you. You construct pictures with words. And the photos are absolutley resplendent. Miss you alot:)