Bom-bye!

Bombay, India

So today is the last of 52 days in India, finishing where many people start.  Bombay is pretty much as expected, with some very nice parts and then some things that aren't, as well as insane traffic. As far as sights go it doesn't really have many aside from Elephanta Island, as it was of little historic significance until a few hundred  years ago.  It's more of a place to be than to see things, and it is really the place to be these days as it's the Ganapati festival in which groups of people from all over the city, rich and poor, lead loud, drum beating/chanting/fireworks exploding processions with bright neon pink and red effigies of Ganesh, and then toss them into the Arabian sea.

 

At this point you're saying "why doesn't he call it Mumbai like he's supposed to?"  Simple, really - way back when the name change first happened I caught on fast, and then haughtily informed everybody (mom) that it was now Mumbai.  So I figured it was a standard post-colonial name change (from the portuguese Bom Bahia/good bay) that I could go with.   But it's actually something more sinister than that.  The name change (in honor of Mumba devi, a Hindu goddess who's got a temple here) was precipitated almost  singlehandedly by the Hindu/Marati nationalist group Shiv Sena, a small minority of Bombayites led by the detestable Bal Thackeray with a disproportionate influence, as well as a record of religious massacres and general thuggery.  The name wasn't the restoration of any pre-colonial name (there was just a few villages here before), rather it was intentionally chosen in order to emphasize the Hindu connections of the city (despite that Bombay is home to millions of Muslims, Christians, Jains, and despite that most of the city institutions were built by the small but tremendously important Parsi (Zoroastrian) community.  So from now on its Bombay (which is what most Bombayites say anyway) or nothing for me.

 

I'd been working on some big long reflective general essay on the last 7 weeks on India but it has no substance, so I don't know if I'll put it up.  Briefly, I can say I will miss a lot about India, and there is also a lot I am glad to be done with.