Memorable
Moments in Mumbai
August 15, 2013:
While Mumbai was most
analogous to NYC, Mumbai was nevertheless the hardest city for me by far. Mumbai has long been famous for the cheek-by-jowl
existence of some of the world’s richest and poorest people. In the decades
since India’s independence, impoverished squatters have filled every unused
nook and cranny of the city, creating some of the largest shantytowns in the
world, including Dharavi, which was the slum featured in Slumdog Millionaire
that we passed on our drive to our hotel.
Yet,
amidst the extreme poverty and filth, tremendous architectural structures rise up through the
smoggy haze; some of which are private homes, some of which are luxury
five-star hotels, and some of which are office buildings. For instance, we drove past the
home of Mukesh Ambani, a business tycoon and the wealthiest man in India with an estimated
net worth of $22.3 billion. His home
cost an estimated $1 billion to build. The 400,000-square foot home is 27 stories high,
has three helipads, can garage 168 cars, and has a full-time staff of 600
persons. Yet, it only houses 5 people:
Ambani, his wife, and 3 kids. Oh and
occasionally, his mother stays as well. Shantytowns
surround their palatial home, just as shantytowns surrounded our hotel: The
Four Seasons.
At
the Four Seasons, we were upgraded from our free room (booked on miles) to a suite. The suite was spacious and absolutely
gorgeous, but the view from our window was hard to stomach. Below our beautiful room lie a sea of blue
tarps, which comprised walls or parts of ceilings for corrugated metal structures with dirt floors,
housing entire families within a matter of square feet. This was truly a bird’s eye view to the
squalor that lie below (from the air conditioned majesty of our suite)
We did all give special thanks for how fortunate we are.
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