Today I started the day with breakfast at the famous Café Leopold, which has been open since 1871. I went at 9 am and it was very quiet, because folks around here aren’t big early risers, most of the shops are still closed and only start opening around 11 am.
Then I walked along Mumbai’s main streets, where the main buildings are, like the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya Museum, the University, the Rajabai Clock Tower, Mumbai’s court, and I went into the very beautiful Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus railway station.
Then I went on to Crawford Market, where I tried some Indian sweets made with honey, fig, chocolate and different types of grains.
I’d been looking for postcards for a few days now, but haven’t had any luck, everyone tells me it’s going to be difficult, we’re in the digital age now. But on the way I came across a post office and went in to ask if they had postcards and, after staff members went around trying to work out how to help me, they finally gave me a sort of blank postcard with just a space for the address.
With no other solution, I kept the postcard and asked how much it was to send. They said 1505 rupees (€15), because it was special mail, and I answered: “I’m not sending any parcel, I just want a stamp to put on the envelope.” The matter was finally settled with 3 strips of stamps and 180 rupees, but I had to draw the picture of Mumbai’s main monuments on the postcard myself, which I’m not going to post so as not to spoil the surprise for whoever is going to receive it, if it ever reaches its destination.
On the way out I even witnessed an express motorbike towing crew with 4 guys on board who, when they saw a scooter parked on the road next to the pavement, would stop for a few seconds, Formula 1 style, load the scooter onto the trailer and drive off. Here nothing can stop the traffic, not even traffic lights, it’s always moving.
Then I stopped by Mumba Devi, one of Mumbai’s most important temples, dedicated to the goddess Mumba, the city’s original patron deity, from whom Mumbai gets its name.
I finished the afternoon at the Dr. Bhau Daji Museum, where I found that very stone elephant that used to be on Elephanta Island.
In the evening I went to the cinema to see the film Krantijyoti Vidyalay, which is about a Marathi-language school at risk of closing for lack of students and the efforts of its headmaster and former pupils to save it.