Mumbai has been a land of extremes. I’m sure anyone looking at America from the outside might say the same – particularly in our large cities. Despite that, I find the disparity more amazing here.
Every night, we have any dinner leftovers packaged “to go” and give them to someone hungry on the street. We always have a choice of people who need it. Many find a place to lay down, wracked by hunger and disease. I have never seen people as greedy for food as some of the people we have handed our dinner leftovers. Our scraps are more than they usually get in a day. We walk no more than one block from either our restaurant or hotel to find someone who needs the food.
Last night it was a mother with several children – and the littlest was not looking well at all.
This woman and her children were less than a block from the mobile phone store where we had earlier in the day bought a prepaid SIM card for Emily’s cell phone and a CDMA wireless broadband modem. This small store is busy all day long and we had to wait to make our purchases.
The wireless USB modem cost us about $47 and we had to pay another $20 to get unlimited broadband for the rest of our stay. Walking into the small store, I figured we would be considered big spenders. I was sure they weren’t moving a modem like this everyday.
We waited behind a woman who was helping her 60-something year-old mother buy a mobile phone that cost about $250 – approximately one quarter of the average Mumbai resident’s annual salary. People walked in and out of the shop buying “top-ups” for their prepaid card plans – because pre-paid is the norm in India. Not only did they all have cell phones, but so many of them were nice cell phones – I saw at least one iPhone in the customer stream. iPhones in India cost up to $1000.
All of this was happening across the street from where we gave a man food two nights ago.
As I said, this happens on the streets of New York and Los Angeles too. Only the sheer numbers of indigent people and particularly children aren’t the same. They also aren’t on the streets because they were born into the wrong caste or have become in one way or another “untouchable”. Our society doesn’t say that a woman whose husband has died has little to no value or rights.
Here in Mumbai, I have never felt so middle class and white. We feel badly about the woman with the children on the street and give her food. We bring her food from the nicest restaurant on our street where we can order whatever we want. We also spent the afternoon working at The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf where a glass of iced tea costs more than the average sit-down restaurant meal and probably three times what a family would pay to make a meal to feed multiple people.
Because we like to get out of the hotel room, we have always made it our habit to go to cafes and restaurants to work – except in Kathmandu where the hotel was our Internet haven. Here in Mumbai, cafe couture has not fully caught on – although there are the beginnings with several coffee chains popping up around town. So, we go to malls which all seem to have WiFi.
The Coffee Bean at the Cross Roads 2 Mall has been a favorite because of the large, well-lit space and the free WiFi. It’s huge and seats perhaps 100 people. At 2pm, the place is packed – mostly with Indian businessmen and women who have their informal meetings, discussions and breaks there – just like home. Based on people’s dress, attitude, and attire – you could just as easily be at a Coffee Bean in West LA or Santa Monica.
In this little world in which we work, India looks no different than home. When we eat lunch at the mall food court – it’s nicer than any mall food court in Los Angeles. Look up at the giant flat-screen TVs in the corners of the Coffee Bean and they’re tuned to MSNBC Money. The cases at the order counter are filled with assorted muffins, croissants, cheesecake and brownies. Most people there speak in English while making clever quips or talking about important transactions.
On the way to the mall yesterday, we pulled up alongside a Bentley. In front of the mall, a Mercedes was dropping a woman off to do her shopping. On the beautiful tree-lined street where the mall is located, you could be imagine being in so many places.
It’s weird. Especially in a city with an average income of just under $1100 a year in a country that was still experiencing massive food shortages forty years ago.
In America, we are rightfully turning our attention to how our mass agricultural system works and many of the problems with our food industry. At the same time – in places like India, I am thankful for the dramatic advances that have allowed them to produce enough food. India even exports cash crops now. Imagine what Nehru would say if he could see it.
If our social and political issues include figuring out how to steer our massive food-growing capabilities to be healthier, more ethical and sustainable, then we live with blessings on our heads. These are the right problems to have.
Spending time in Mumbai slowly but surely bends one’s mind if you really take it in and think about it. I have no answers or conclusions about anything. I just ponder and find myself amazed that this is India. Where it leads, if it’s progress, if it’s fair – I don’t know.
Obviously, the Coffee Bean visiting, Bentley driving, movie-going crowd in Mumbai does not represent how most of India lives. We need to get out of this bubble and see some more of India. Tomorrow, we’re heading to Alleppey, Kerala where we’ll see still some very touristy and nice places, but probably a better sample of what the rest of India is like. At the very least, we might shake the Bentleys trailing our taxis.
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