the Mumbai Darshan

January 6th :
We sought out a standard local tour, the Mumbai Darshan. After a taxi ride and long wait, some helpful doormen at the Sachin Tendulkar restaurant found our guide, and we joined the tour, in progress. We rode in front, in the driver's compartment -- the guide would tell us quickly about the sites in English, then turn to his microphone to inform the rest of the bus in Hindi. We went to the waterfront, for a brief but pleasant boat ride into the bay; then to the rather decrepit Toreporewa Aquarium, and a quick lunch at the nearby Canteen. And a nice stop at the Hanging Gardens and Nehru Park overlooking the city. Chris and Cole got their picture taken with the snake charmer there. And our last stop was at Mahalaxmi Temple, walking through back alleys to a crowded shrine to the main Hindu goddess of wealth -- a very important place in Bombay! The rubbish and dirt all around is unimportant -- just bring offerings to Lakshmi. [In the Muslim and Sikh shrines we've visited, taking off shoes seems appropriate -- the shrine is kept immaculate, to contrast with the outside world. But Hindu temples are not necessarily cleaner than their surroundings.]
After leaving the temple, we also left the tour bus, and got a taxi to Dr. Misra's clinic in north Bombay. Shivamkar Misra is a good friend and classmate of Coleman's. They welcomed us to their apartment atop the clinic, for snacks and chat. Then Dr.Misra drove us (with Shivamkar) to the nearby suburban movie theater, to see "Bluffmaster". Barb had long wanted to see a Bollywood movie in Bombay. This expensive tale of fraud and plot twists was especially fun, because most of the scenes were in Bombay, right where we had toured earlier that day!
After the movie, Shivamkar directed us to the nearby McDonald's, where we enjoyed the airconditioned sanitary surroundings along with much of Bombay's upper-middle class families (again, we were the only non-Indian faces evident). We took a taxi back, dropping Shivamkar off at his house.
January 7th: The next morning, a 4:30 taxi to Dadar Station -- the rattletrap taxi got a flat tire within sight of the station! No problem. The driver quickly switched tires, got us right there in plenty of time. We managed without any porters.