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.