Bombay Mix

Having spent a week in largely the nucleus of Mumbai, Phileas does not claim to have seen and know India. That much is clear. However, Phileas has definitely been in India. The question is to what extent Mumbai really reflects its nation. Is it an urban concentration of Indian values, practices and services? Or is it a dissipation, a contortion of the true sub-continent? Phileas is intrigued.

It is unusual to view a sleeping population but during two late-night airport journeys, Phileas was shocked to view the innumerable unfortunates who found their slumber on the streets. Even the daytime betrays the masquerade of privacy as families coil up on scraps of cardboard in bustling porticos.

And what of Mumbai for a matress? The streets are filthy. Dirt, slime, vegetable scarps, loose excretions from hapless dogs smear gutters and pathways. Every so often a pungent smell rises through the nostrils - the faint hearted who cannot face the public toilets, and time-pressed taxi and tuk-tuk drivers do not all make it to restaurant or hotel facilities.

Cleanliness next to godliness? Then Phileas feels sorry for these souls. And yet, apart from the multitude of spitting incidents, it is not possible for these souls to be judged. There are no bins and so environmental malpractice is hardly discouraged. It seems to Phileas that the streets belong to the people who trade, walk and sleep on it. Unfortunately, with so great a community, individual responsibility is negligible and government action is avoided. The people in Britain are no more concerned about others but, thankfully, the government sees fit and is able to employ road sweepers, bin men, road workers and toilet attendants. It only remains for the Indian government to strike oil and then, Phileas hopes and imagines, all these problems would be solved.

Having said all this, Mumbai has been one of the greatest experiences of Phileas' life. Despite the hardships, people get on in the midst of it all. There may be criminally few safety regulations and certain social restrictions but there is also freedom from pressures placed on Western societies. Old men who have dyed their hair or beards ginger are not systematically ridiculed (except by Phileas!) and young heterosexual men who hold hands are not outcast. In many ways, this huge nation of tiny people (Phileas , being tall but not exceptionally so, could not find a single person to look up to, except one obscure transvestite) has a lot to teach us.

Mumbai itself, the place, may be the most unattractive and oppressive of places; it is a place you are happy to leave. That's the way it is and I challenge you to say different. And yet, with 6 million inhabitants, each with their friends and families, it is evident that relationships dominate all other considerations when choosing a home.

Phileas

BTW - they don't even sell Bombay Mix.