Kala Ghoda (Black Horse in Hindi)

Kala Ghoda Statue the Spirit of the Festival

Kala Ghoda made from pieces of characol

Woven Kala Ghoda

With Kashmera and Krushna

Indian Chinese Food

Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum

Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum 

Representation of the Towers of Silence

Corn remover Walla

After breakfast we took a taxi to visit a museum that we had never visited. Our guide, Rohit, in Udaipur recommended that we go to the Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum in the Byculla part of Mumbai. The museum is located in the middle of a park. Our taxi driver dropped us off and we walked to the museum. We were drenched with sweat by the time we reached it. The combination of Mumbai heat and humidity were overwhelming. The museum is in an old historic building that had been recently refurbished, without air conditioning, alas. The focus of the museum is Mumbai, in all of its aspects. It is the oldest museum in Mumbai.

It is a charming masala of miniature figures depicting the lifestyle of Mumbai, primarily in the late 19^th century. There are well marked exhibits depicting clothing, occupations, sports etc. of that time. In addition there are various Gods, statues, silver, weapons. It even had a miniature of The Towers of Silence, where Parsi bodies are placed to be eaten by vultures. The full depiction of Mumbai is in this museum.

There was a modern photographic exhibit by a contemporary photographer: Dayanita Singh that was thankfully held in the one air-conditioned room in the museum. We studied his work intently while cooling off. We dreaded the walk back to where the taxi dropped us off, but luckily we found an exit to the street nearby. We called our taxi driver on his mobile and he met us at our new location. Most taxi drivers will wait for you and give you their cell number. While we were waiting we watched a street Corn Remover work on a woman’s foot. I have never seen a mobile corn remover in the States!

We returned to the Taj, shopped a bit in their arcade, cleaned up, went for cocktails then taxied over to the Oberoi Hotel to eat in their Michelin rated restaurant. We had a set menu of Indian food, all modernized, and presented in courses. Most Indian restaurants serve all food at once, not coursed out. Rather like Chinese restaurants in the States. Here there was excellent, leisurely dinning.

We returned to the Taj for Cognac and Chocolates before heading to bed.

Anniversary Day

Cathy pointing to the winning Carpet! 

Raees with SRK at the Regal Cinema

Terrorist Alert sign shown before the Movie Starts

Studying the Wine List at Masala Kraft

Baingan Barta (Eggplant)

Crab, Rice & Chicken Tikka

Anniversary Cake

After breakfast at the Taj, we walked over to the Carpet Store: Mahad Joo & Sons located right behind the Taj. We examined some new rugs they had retrieved from their other store. We went through the long process of selecting the one we like the most. Cathy is pointing to it in the picture above. Then it was my turn to start the bargaining process. Round and round we went. I had started with a figure of what I was willing to pay in my mind, and started well below it. After going back and forth, I was only $ 50 over the amount and decided to throw in the towel. Because of the currency translation when I saw the actual amount in dollars on a text from American Express, I was only $ 37.00 over my intended paying price. Not bad, but I am sure the Carpet Dealer was happy too.

We checked out a boutique hotel near the Taj, if anyone is looking for a more moderately priced hotel in Colaba near the Taj (are you reading this John?) check out: “The Abode”. We went to a few more shops and returned to the Taj for Nimbu Pani (Indian lemonade) that is the perfect drink in a hot, humid climate. Cathy read and I had a massage at the Taj.

It was off to the historic art deco movie theater: The Regal. It is a short walk from the Taj. For those of you that don’t know his name: Shah Rukh Khan is a Bollywood actor and is by far the biggest movie actor in the world. He is known everywhere and is treated like a god in India. He is charismatic and charming on screen. We have seen many of his movies in Los Angeles, all with English subtitles. We decided to go to The Regal to see his most recent blockbuster: Raees. The title of the movie comes from an Urdu word meaning “Rich man” or “leader”. We decided to see the movie which is almost 3 hours long. In India, they don’t have English subtitles they are just in Hindi. We figured we would watch for a while then walk out of the theater if we couldn’t follow the movie. Because of the structure of Bollywood movies, and (SRK as Shah Rukh is universally known), acting ability, we totally understood the movie and enjoyed the experience of seeing a Bollywood movie like a native.

Terrorism is a real threat in India and is taken seriously. Before the movie the displayed a warning message on the screen about what to do if a bomb goes off in the theater. The message does make it all real. Before every performance of a movie they play the National Anthem of India. It is mandatory that you stand for it. If you sit you are subject to arrest or in many cases being attacked by fellow movie goers.

After the movie, we walked back from The Regal to the Taj for cocktails (Gin and Tonic for me, wine for Cathy). We cleaned up and went to dinner at The Taj’s excellent Indian restaurant: Masala Kraft. You wouldn’t think that a hotel restaurant would be excellent, but Masala Kraft is. The sat us near an open kitchen where there was a very unique large domed steel contraption. We had never seen anything like it before. It turns out is for making an Indian Bread. The chef rolls out a very thin, large pizza shaped piece of dough, then throws it in the air just like you see for pizza. He then puts it on the very hot dome for no more than 10 seconds, flips the bread, folds it and is done.

We had an exceptional dinner of Eggplant, Chicken Masala, Crab with Coconut, Veg Rice then finally dessert. I was getting progressively upset though because they knew it was our anniversary and they hadn’t acknowledged it. Cathy was aware of me being upset and kept counselling me to calm down. After dessert, I called the manager of the restaurant and berated him. While I was doing that, he smiled as he could see they were just about ready to bring us a special cake. He apologized that their timing was off. I apologized for berating him. I should have listened to Cathy!

We then went to the Club Room for our nightly Cognac and Chocolate, wondering where we would be next year on our Anniversary. This one will be remembered for the new Carpet and watching SRK at The Regal. It was then off to bed.