Yesterday, with the help of my tour guide-friend Anita, I discovered a whole new Mumbai.  We went to three places and had lunch at a local hot spot.

The first location is what Anita calls the Varanasi of Mumbai with its steps leading to the holy pool, said to be a tributary of the Ganges. This sacred water tank, Banganga, dates back to 12th century, although destroyed by the Portuguese and rebuilt in 1715.  Like in Varanasi, the water is said to have healing powers and each house has a small temple.  Likewise, there are temples honoring many of the Hindu deities. Legend has it that Rama shot an arrow to give his wife water because she was thirsty, thus the name Banganga come from two words-Baan (arrow) and Ganga (River Ganges).  In February there is a two day music festival on the banks of this pool so I have made a note to see if I can return to enjoy that event!

In the pool were large fish and some interesting looking ducks.

Heading down to the pool and the ‘village’ one enters a new world. This might not look unique for India, but bear in mind this is in South Mumbai and Malabar Hill – the modern and wealthy enclave of Mumbai. You truly enter another world.

We were lucky to observe some rituals in one of the temple halls, built in 1858 and housing a temple for Shiva. Here, under the direction of a priest, worshippers were praying to ward off obstacles that have been put forth in their lives.  Part of the rituals include a snake made of whole wheat flour who is meant to protect from evils.  This sect, whose name I forgot, do not pray to one particular god or the cosmic God, but rather to all.

Everything getting ready for the next group of worshipper:

To ask for a wish to come true, one puts a finger on each of the vessel’s horns and whispers in its ear.

This is the Tulsi plant which has medicinal qualities and is a sacred plant as well.  Most homes will have their own and  parts of the plant are dried to make rosary beads.

This temple has a 400 year old monkey idol, beautifully preserved.  One is supposed to walk clockwise around a temple, which we did, affording me views of the stunning and colorful carvings and colors on all four sides.

The Walkeshwer temple has silver (or metal) ornaments and idols, which is unusual.

We entered a temple honoring Vishnu, called the Venkatesh Balaji Temple. As with all the bigger temples here, they were built in honor of relatives and maintained by trusts.

Vishnu’s vessel is a garudat (half man/half bird). 

We were blessed by this kind man while receiving auspiciously colored string around our wrists. 

Finally, we climbed to the top of the temple to view the pool and street from above.

Here are a few photos of the many temples dotting the compound.

Being a holy place, there was the requisite cow to touch for blessings or buy some grass to feed.  Always happy to interact with animals, we paid and fed this beautiful creature.

This is a Jain temple located outside the compound.  The man is covering his face so that microbes from his mouth do not defile the temple.

Life goes on in this holy place, moments I was happy to capture.

These are my favorite photos of life in this area.

Then it was time to climb back up out of this haven to the big city and our next destination, the famous Crawford Market.

Crawford market, established in 1868 by -you guessed it- Mr. Crawford, who was the Municipal Commissioner of Bombay. The two entry reliefs shown below were designed by Kipling‘s father (he was supposed to complete a third but left India before it was done).  This is the original covered market in Mumbai and is still functioning where prices are good and everything can be found.  Porters will follow you around with their baskets on their head as you do your shopping (much nicer than metal carts!) and everyone has their own vendor they return to, thus business is steady for all (even though there are many stalls selling the same items).  This is a massive market, open 6 days a week and always bustling.

We passed over the housewares aisle (who wants to look at that!) and the first aisle we visited was dried fruits and nuts where Anita bought us a treat.

Next was the fruit and vegetable section, although being mango season the selling of mangoes spilled out over several sections!

Porters at work.

We stopped at the spice vendor that Anita recommends as he has quality ingredients with spices well ground and fresh.  He has earned the title Spice King! I spent a lot of money buying spices for myself, friends and family – having a lot of fun – including meeting You Tubers from Brazil and Iraqi airline pilots!  Ahh, the moments of tourism where you see how small the world is and how humans are the same no matter where they come from.

Lunch was delicious at Hotel Sadanand, clearly a good venue as one always must wait 10 minutes to enter.  I was struck how this restaurant (called hotels by locals) mimics a US diner – with similar décor, a varied menu and fast service.  We ordered Puri Bhaaji (puffed dough with a sweet/spicy potato mix) and the ever delicious palak paneer.  Dessert was fresh mango juice.

While waiting our ten minutes outside the restaurant, I was struck yet again by the intense labor so many Indians endure.  It made me much more patient and tolerant of the heat while waiting to enter the air-conditioned restaurant.

Last on our list was the spice market.  Why didn’t I buy my spices here?  Because this is not where you BUY spices but have your family combination of spices ground into your personal masala.  Before I go into the process, the history of this area in Mumbai is connected to the US Civil war.  As the war raged and Britain’s cotton supply dwindled, the merchants switched to India for sourcing cotton.  As a result, mills opened all over Mumbai.  As the mill business moved elsewhere and became more industrial, these buildings took on new roles or were demolished for other purposes.

This street translates into Chili Lane and observing the process was AMAZING!  First, it is traditional for woman to come at the end of the dry season – right before the monsoon season begins.  As this is NOW, there were MANY women waiting for their turn.  People were everywhere. What I thought was peppers for sale turned out to be individuals’ spice mixes waiting in the sun for the processing to start. Anita has never been her at this time of year, so she too was enjoying the sight.  We met two young women with their masalas complete who told us the whole process took 5 hours: 4 to wait and one for the spice grinding!

Like with many cultural favorites (like Italian tomato sauce, and Eastern European, borscht, kulich and Pascha) each family has their own combination of spices for the masala.  One could see some with coconut, some without.  Some combinations had onions dominating, others did not.  It was amazing.  EVERYONE added chili peppers of one kind or another and in varied amounts.

Spices waiting their turn patiently.

We visited three ‘factories’, two on the main street and one around the corner.  At the first location, even though the signs said no photos, I was invited in to record the events.  The other two were clearly less friendly and on the main drag.  No smiling or stopping to wave, but a few timid lip smirks at the white lady doing her thing and breaking up the monotony of their day.

When it is your turn, your spice mix is briefly cooked and combined with the peppers.  Then it goes to the grinding machines.  No matter what the ingredients, the mixes all turn various shades of red due the chilis.  The mix is ground, then a sieve shakes out impurities, and the mixture is re-ground until it is a fine powder. I had to wear a mask (although many women used their dupattas to cover their face) as breathing in the dust caused me to cough.  Of course, the poor men doing the actual grinding breathed the air and were used to it.  I hope it is not toxic, but I imagine their tolerance for spice is high!

This first set of photographs are of the spices being cooked. On the video you can see how certain ingredients are added first, with the peppers always being last.

On these videos you seeing the pounding at work (I never got to see the spice mix being put in at the start of the process).  The process includes sweeping the powder around to ensure even distribution, as well as sifting the powder to remove irregularities and then re-pounding the powder so it is even finder.

Time to pay!

Peppers on sale everywhere – stores, floors and bags.  Who knew there were so many ways to dry and sell peppers.

These poor souls are removing the little beige stem – clearly for quality peppers as not all peppers on sale had them removed.  The women could care less a while woman was photographing them, the men – well behaving like true Indians.

Other spices were on sale in case you forgot a key ingredient.

Here you see the local temple, snacks for sale, and two happy women heading home.

Thus ended another wonderful day, which rejuvenated me as I felt I got away from the stresses of work (it is the end of the academic year), ready to face the next three weeks!

Here are some random photos:

True to form, all Indian men love to be photographed (Anita says by women) so here are two of our society guards and my vegetable men sorting the delivered herbs. Taken in the morning while waiting for Anita!

As always, I end with street art!