Kerala to Mumbai

September 24, 2009

Spend the morning relaxing after breakfast by having an ayurvedic massage (60 mins for a mere $25 Cdn). It was a great experience and I was forced by my own volition to tip generously. I tipped my friend (how could he not be my friend after he relieved me of not just my shirt and shorts and socks but also my underwear; He then tied a tiny cotton string around my waist and tucked a 3-inch wide piece of muslin cloth under the string at my belly button and pulled the other end between my legs and up the other side to be tucked at my lower back) a generous Rs 500. A 33% tip -- for it was well worth it!

Meanwhile, Sumo, my travelling companion, went out to complete another round of shopping in the, where else, shopping district. He came back with shiny metal ornaments for the wife and daughter. Inara, are you listening?

Now, as I write this, we are on a flight to Mumbai where we will be for three days. Our plan, so far, consists of taking a tour of the largest slum in Asia. That’s really saying something, because Asia consists of, at a guess, close to 3 billion people. China accounts for 1 billion, India for the second billion and the rest (especially Malaysia) must make up another billion.

I am reading the penguin edition of the collected poems of Vikram Seth. Strangely enough, the book is entitled, “The Collected Poems!” One of the poems in the book made me think of the slum tour:

A Morning Walk

...

To wander through the streets of Calcutta is

To force the whole world’s misery on the heart –

Children on broken stumps, staring with eyes

White and opaque, begging with hardened art.

Far from those eyes, blind in my stead, I wander

Among these affluent trees, and stop and ponder

How fine it is to share the world and not

Its need when there are those who weep for food.

Their children’s limbs will atrophy, brains rot

Swollen for lack of it, while ‘all things good’,

Food, shelter, health, are mine; interests; love;

The time to walk through avocado groves.

...

Nice.

In some ways I feel I should not be taking the tour as the t-shirt I am wearing cost me about $35, shoes were around $60, Shorts – at least $35 and socks, well, we’ll leave it at $3. That’s Rs 1575.00! The average mean annual income in India is $735 (US). While the numbe of people living under the poverty line is 42%...that's less than $1.25 (US) per day.