Acting the Tourist

The Gate of India

We had a day off so we made a trip to South Mumbai (Old Bombay) with no agenda except a little touring and hoping to hook up with my college roomie who is India mentoring screenwriters as a part of program sponsored by Sundance.

Bandra/Worli Sealink

We took our car down across the Bandra/Worli Sealink, which sounds like a ferry but is actually a bridge. It's been open for a while now but like a lot of other things, still under construction. It was a very nice day, a little hot but after Hyderabad it didn't seem so bad. It takes a little while to get across town to Colaba which is the tourist center. We went straight to The Gate of India, which was built to commemorate the visit of King George V to India in 1911, the first such visit by the Emperor of India. The Gate was finished in 1924 and is most famous as the place where the last British soldiers left India in 1948. The plaza around the Gate is now barricaded which hurts the feel of the place quite a lot. Another one of those things that makes you go hmmm vis-a-vis anti-terrorism. When every landmark looks like a prison yard, who is the victor, the society or the terrorists? The famous Taj Mahal Palace Hotel is also next to the Gate of India. We didn't go in there but instead walked up to the University of Bombay which took us by most of the museums in the area. We didn't know where to start there so that will also be something for another day. 

Taj Mahal Palace Hotel

The Bombay Art Museum

Colaba

Rajabai Tower

Our destination was the Rajabai Tower which is the clock tower of the university and a potential location for a key moment in the film. Across from that is The Oval, a large park or Maiden which is primarily used for cricket. We watched a little of the action there before heading back to Colaba.

The Oval

The Leopold Cafe

We met up with José, my ex-roomate at the Leopold Cafe, which has been at least a tourist destination since the late 1800s. It was shot up by the terrorists who bombed the Taj Mahal Hotel and famously still has some bullet holes in the wall. Yikes. 

That dot above The Gateway is a souvenir of 26/11

Lunch was good and we all got to meet the Sundance group traveling with José. It's pretty weird to be so far from home and run into people you know, but I think it was weirder for José who was just here In A Distant Land for a few days. I think I've become a little used to the swirling culture of India where you never know what's going to happen next. José asked me, "What are the chances? (that we would meet in Bombay)" and my response was "What are the chances anyway?" Anyway you look at it's always great to see friends in far-away places.