Buck Creek Diary: January 2006

If anyone, I should blame Dr. Karen Ray, my Humanities professor at college. This was nearly 25 years ago but her course has stuck with me. It was on Asian cultures and specifically on China and India, then unbeknownst to us as future powerhouses. Because Dr. Ray was more of an Indiophile, the course skimmed over the Cultural Revolution in favour of her favourite esoteric subjects like the realities versus romantic views of the British Raj, the Hindu mythologies, the rituals at Varanasi, Gandhi’s non-violence philosophy and very long discussions on the book Jewel in the Crown and the mini TV series that coincidentally was aired on CBC that same semester. I can still see her in the slide show of her many visits to India – a short, stout blond woman in a bright violet sari smiling next to a stone lingam (phallic symbol of the Hindu God Siva). The course ended with a dinner at then Montreal’s few Tandoori places and my fate was sealed. I knew I had to get to India someday.

And finally I did go. Not on the grand tour I dreamed about – not on the Palace on Wheels to see Jaisalmer and the Taj Mahal nor to a tent village for the Pushkar camel fair, or not on a lazy boat ride through Kerala’s backwaters. I had four days in Mumbai by myself.

With P’s encouragement (Ok - it was a free ticket on air miles that would have otherwise expired), I jetted off last week for my abbreviated Grand Tour of Mumbai - only 2.5 hours away. I toured the city, visited museums and all the must see highlights, met with friends, shopped lots of course, ate great food and oddly- don’t ask why- visited 3 very different places of worship (A Jewish synagogue, a Jain temple and Mass at a Catholic church where a couple named Charles and Joanna were getting married – didn’t know them but the wedding was nice.) Here are the photos to prove that yes, I was there. Yes, I loved it and yes, that Grand Tour of India, the really Grand One will happen someday. Thanks Dr. Ray!