Love Your Elephanta

Although never India’s capital, "Bom Baia” as the Portuguese named the area in the 17th Century has always been the sub-continent’s commercial hub. The British acquired the islands that eventually became the city from the Portuguese in 1665 and the government leased what was now known as Bombay (the British never could cope with foreign tongues!) to the British East India Company. Over the next several centuries, Bombay grew as a major trading centre - growing both in area, as with land reclamation the original islands disappeared and in population. Today, this vast city now officially known as Mumbai is home to some 23 million people. Mumbai is the home of Bollywood as well as being India’s commercial and financial capital. Mumbai not only has some of India’s (and Asia’s) largest slums, but also boasts the world’s most expensive private home belonging to India’s richest man. In many cities, in many countries there is a large disparity between the poorest and the richest, but Mumbai likely tops that particular league table!

But harking back to the heyday of the British Raj, Mumbai still boasts of being the “Gateway to India”, no better symbolized than by the eponymous archway which dominates the waterfront of what used to be the city’s main harbour.

The Gateway was built to commemorate the 1911 visit of the Emperor of India and his missus, better known to the world King George V and Queen Mary! Although just one of many colonial-era buildings that dominate the central part of Mumbai, the Gateway is a powerful symbol of Indian pride. During our few days in the city, the Gateway and surrounding plaza were the backdrop for Navy Day celebrations, complete with displays of patriotism, not-too-veiled references to the threat posed by Pakistan, marching bands and even a visit by ships of the fraternal Russian Black Sea fleet! All much loved by the crowd - mostly as far as we could tell “out-of-towners”, rather than Mumbai’s wealthy sophisticates.

We stayed across the street from the Gateway at what is described as one of the world’s most iconic hotels, the Taj Mahal Palace. The hotel was built in the early 20th century by the industrialist J.N. Tata who was supposedly denied entry into nearby British hotels (“no dogs or natives allowed” was the attitude of the British colonialists). How ironic it is therefore, that the Tata empire now among many other enterprises, owns Jaguar and Land Rover! Tragically, the hotel was one of the several sites attacked in an horrendous terrorist attack in 2008. Ten people died in the hotel (many others at the city’s main railway station, a Jewish community centre and a famous restaurant) which itself was badly damaged by fire. 

British colonial architecture aside, Mumbai doesn’t offer much in the way of tourist attractions. There is Elephanta Island, a 45 minute ferry ride from the Gateway out into the Arabian Sea, a labyrinth of cave temples containing massive depictions of figures from Hindu mythology carved out of the rock between the 5th & 8th centuries AD. Named “Elephanta by the Portuguese because of an elephant carving on the shore that the British tried to move in the 19th century and dropped!

And then there is the house (now a museum)where Ghandi lived from 1917-1934 and from where he launched the civil disobedience campaign which eventually led to Indian Independence in 1947.

But what Mumbai does offer are the sights, sounds and atmosphere that are a vivid depiction of India today. Our stay in the city was relatively short, interrupted as it was by a couple of nights in Agra before we board the train, the Deccan Odyssey, our home for the next six nights and head south to Goa and beyond…..  

Rome of the East

On board the “Deccan Odyssey”, our home for the next few nights, we head south out of Mumbai and down the west coast of India towards the tiny state of Goa. India has one of the most extensive rail networks in the world (mostly a legacy of the British colonial era). New lines are still being constructed to cater to the millions of people who travel on the system each day and the west coast line is one of the newest. Even though we’re on board a luxury train and travelling down a relatively new line, our first night was to say the least rather bumpy! 

A little after sunrise, the train arrives at the station in Karmali, the nearest stop to our intended destination, Old Goa. Back in the ‘60’s, Goa was a favourite hippy destination but these days, most western tourists visit Goa (predominantly the northern end of the state) in the dry season for its long sandy beaches and warm Arabian Sea waters. Our local guide tells us that during the wet season, western tourists are replaced by wealthy Indian tourists from Mumbai and Delhi who aren’t looking for sun (they get plenty of that) but rather are looking to enjoy the heavy monsoonal rain at any of the state’s luxury hotels! We pass many grand-looking homes on our drive around Goa, many owned apparently by wealthy northerners who choose Goa as a place to retire - or just somewhere to escape to the heaviest monsoons (Goa receives 3 metres or more of rain during the monsoon, sometimes raining non stop for a week). We’re told that Stella McCartney has a grand villa here to, but we missed it among the heavy foliage! 

The Portuguese arrived in this part of the world at the beginning of the 16th century intent not only on setting up a trading post but also introducing as many as possible of the local heathens to the delights of Roman Catholicism, including the Inquisition for those still harboring any doubts. The Portuguese king of the time paid for the building of the first cathedral, the Se Cathedral which based on the number of altars at least, is still the largest cathedral in Asia. Over the next decades, the locals got in on the act apparently intent on impressing Rome and built altogether some 35 churches or religious buildings in an area of little more than a square mile - hence the descriptor of Old Goa as the “Rome of the East”. Some of the buildings are now more or less just ruins, but many are still intact and in use today by the 30% of Goans who are still practicing Catholics. The most prominent of Goa’s churches is the Basilica of Bom Jesus, a site of pilgrimage for Catholics the world over as it is the home of the “uncorrupted” relics of St Francis Xavier, one of the co-founders of the Jesuits. 

G&T&T

The train leaves Goa and the Arabian Sea coast and trundles southeast into the state of Tamil Nadu. Now we’re heading into “familiar” territory as it’s in Tamil Nadu that I spent almost three months between July and October of 1971. Our destination today is the city of Mettupalayam, the starting point of the Nilgiri Mountain Railway. The “toy train” railway, a UNESCO-listed cultural treasure was constructed by the British in the mid-19th century to allow the regional government bureaucrats based in Madras to reach the hill town of Ooty during the summer months and so escape the heat and humidity of the coast.

Recent heavy rains have damaged the first section of the rail line and the local authorities are a bit behind schedule with the repairs. So we start our rail journey part way up the mountain at the town of Coonoor. From here, a small steam locomotive pushes the carriages up the steep slopes towards Ooty. The inclines are so steep that the railway requires special cogwheels and a third “toothed” rail to stop the train from sliding backwards. We have to stop three times during the relatively short journey so that the steam locomotive’s water tank can be refilled

So briefly back to 1971. I still have a the letters I wrote home during my stay in India. In one dated August 10, 1971 I wrote that I had intended to spend a weekend in Ooty some 250 miles from where I was based in Vellore. I wrote “I would have to take the overnight train.....The fare I found out by first class sleeper is more than £5 return....” (around $6.50 at today’s rate of exchange) which was apparently more than I could afford! So rather than going 2nd or 3rd class, I passed up on goin to Ooty!

Back to today. Ooty, the “Queen of Hill Stations”, sits at around 8000 feet (so about two and a half thousand metres) in the mountain range known as the Western Ghats. The foothills of this mountain range are covered in tea plantations dotted with colourful villages. The weather was absolutely perfect so the journey up to Ooty by car and train and then back down to Coimbatore by car where meet up again with our train was quite stunning. The altitude and climate are perfect for growing tea and just about every spot on the hillsides, regardless of steepness it seems, is covered in tea bushes from which top quality, single origin tea is made. 

Lunch is at the historic Savoy Hotel which first opened its doors (although not under the same name) back in the 1820’s. We’re greeted by the hotel manager who plies us with generous helpings of gin and tonic while explaining to us that this is where it all began. In the early days of the British Raj, troops received a daily ration of gin accompanied by quinine-containing water to stave off malaria (and at the same time keep them happy). Well if nothing else, it was a good story and the G&T certainly kept us happy......