Mumbai

Mumbai is hot. I know it will be slightly cooler than Kolkata, but it's still India and thus it's still hot. In the Mumbai Airport, I swerve around the baggage claim area to the exit flanked by throngs of drivers with signs,drivers without signs trying to convince you to take their cabs, and anxious family members waiting to see if you still look like you did when you were eight. I fall into the latter category and meet up with my Uncle and Aunty who repatriated India in the late 70s after completing their PhDs in physics the States. From West Bengal, I carry with me two large boxes of sitabog and mehidina, two famous sweets special to Burdwan, that are promptly handed over to my Aunty and Uncle.

My Aunty and Uncle have recently relocated from Colaba to Navi Mumbai to be closer to my Aunty's institute. Driving across Thane Creek Bridge from Mumbai to Navi Mumbai, I am strongly reminded of the feeling of crossing the Dumbarton Bridge in the San Francisco Bay Area: flashes of those Californian memories overlapping the current images of my drive over the brige. The ghats that partially frame the Mumbai metropolis with the rest outlined by the Arabian Sea on the opposing side are akin to the Pacific Ocean/San Francisco Bay and Santa Cruz mountains near San Francisco. I will later realize on my drive back from the Kolkata airport to Burdwan that the rural areas we pass through in Bengal bear many similarities to Wisconsin: flat fields of green that seem to stretch for miles, warmed by the setting sun.

Monsoon showers arrive one week early, although the news reports them as "pre-monsoon" showers. Floods ensue in basements of many major buildings, including the modern art museum I am longing to see. I am able to give my allegedly rain and wind proof jacket an official thumbs up. Unfortunately, the onset of the monsoon means that alphonsos, those silky, sweet, juicy mangoes, will be going out of season very quickly.

My last day in Mumbai approaches and I take a final tour of the city, complete with a stroll along Marine Drive. Of the numerous historical and architecturally beautiful sights Mumbai has to offer, Marine drive is among the most stunning. This stretch of walkways along the Arabian sea is lines with stone benches that allow one to stretch one's legs or stop and people watch at one's leisure. These breakers directly below the benches aid in preventing the waves, swollen from the surge in water levels from the early seasonal rains, from crashing onto the spectators and joggers above.

Unfortunately, I have to report that I experience no star sightings in Mumbai.