So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, goodbye to India after about six weeks of travelling cross country, hitting half a dozen plus destinations and barely scratching the surface of an immense, enchanting, infuriating, perplexing, warm, welcoming, hostile, cold, stifling, hot-oh-so-hot, inspiring, inscrutable India.

It’s been one of the most, for want of a better word, interesting experiences of my life and without this blog turning into an even more cliché ridden, ‘live, love, laugh’ wooden kitchen mess, I can confidently say I’ve learnt a lot about myself over the past six weeks as I’ve gotten to know just a small part of India.

BORING. I know. I shan’t go on ad infinitum I will say that the past fortnight in particular has had it’s share of ups and downs, and at times I have felt very lonely and cut off from both the World, but also removed from what I wanted this trip to be. It’s been a challenge and I’ve found myself for long stretches not only physically on my own, but feeling isolated and totally aloof from my surroundings. Admittedly that last one isn’t exactly a new experience for me but you get my drift.

I’ve felt this loneliness all the more acutely when my digs across Mumbai and Delhi had their decidedly cell-like qualities- small rooms, with little to no natural light to at least brighten each of them. The hostels weren’t really hostels so I didn’t get the chance to meet people and make new friends in the way that I really wanted to, especially after travelling with friends old and new. The heat was stifling in different ways in each of Mumbai and Delhi making ‘going for a wander’ near impossible. The bar culture in India is different to say Sri Lanka, or Australia, and so the opportunity to just rock up and get chatting didn’t work out for me either.

I was also really sad to be missing this year’s London Marathon which is one of my favourite days in that beautiful city. A sub-two hour marathon…twice?! Unreal. And huge congrats to Ciaran for smashing through it in a great time, and raising above and beyond his target for the Anthony Nolan Trust.

Now before panic sets in, this is categorically not a cry for a help (rare I know.) I loved Mumbai. I basically had the Taj Mahal to myself in Agra. I caught up with a new friend ahead of the IPL in Delhi. But when so much of the content we share and consume on social media is sanitised and beautified to the point of becoming fiction, I didn’t want to neglect the fact that there’s been some tricky moments and feelings the past couple of weeks. And at the risk of self-congratulation (rare I know) I have found I have come through it far, far better than I ever thought I might, certainly better than I would have done this time last year and possibly better than at any time in my life up to this point. So that’s good.

There are also considerably worse things going on in the World than me feeling a bit sad whilst cavorting around the World in another desperate to bid to avoid the responsibilities of being an adult. So there’s that too.

ANYWAY. Travel blog. See below.

Mumbai my lover, Mumbai my friend, You have been the one, you have been the one for me

Whilst I shan’t pretend that the ‘Sound of Music’ is a new or in anyway relevant cultural reference (that said- the Nazis are back and meeting opposition from the Papists…), it’s cinematic origin is well placed to capture my experience of Mumbai, the home of Bollywood. It’s a city that I really loved and am already looking forward to my next visit to.  The aforementioned lyrics would probably would have been better placed at the start of this section of the blog but I’ve done it now.

Steamy city

I had a growing nervousness about the new climate and temperature I was leaving behind in Goa and venturing into in Mumbai and such nervousness was well placed. The high thirties became an ever present, with the humidity in Mumbai extraordinary. It is known that I am a sweaty boy at the best of times but this… this was something else. On a number of occasions, my early morning strolls were curtailed by the need to pop back and change into something more comfortable and not sopping wet.

Unfortunately, I am unwaveringly committed to the belief that the best if not the only way to get to know a city is to walk. Walk I did- dripping wet and chugging water like I’d cut an artery. The architecture of Mumbai is absolutely stunning with my favourite spot the central Oval cricket pitches which are overlooked by, amongst other beautiful buildings, the central university. The cricket grounds were in near constant use throughout my time there by children and adults alike, with half a dozen games of varying quality and seriousness taking place at any one time.

In addition to the central university, I was really taken with the:

• National Gallery of Modern Art (both the exhibition and the building itself);
• countless art deco cinemas (see below);
• Framjo Cowasji Institute (public reading room);
•  Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (which had an outstanding exhibition on the history of the Silk and Spices roads);
• St. Thomas Cathedral (the 300-year-old cathedral named in honour of Saint Thomas the Apostle, who is believed to have first brought Christianity to India);
• And the Victoria Terminus central railway station.

As with so many of my other stops, I ate very well throughout my time in Mumbai including the potato and bread street-food combo. At the airport on my way to Mumbai, I struck up a conversation with a local who recommended a bar which I then happened to be staying above which was a good and unexpected result.

Let’s go to the movies

As well as the home of Bollywood, there are over 100 operational cinemas in the city of Mumbai, a number of which are historic art-deco buildings. I visited three of them and caught two picture screenings in my time in Mumbai: ‘Project Hail Mary’ and ‘Booth Bangla’.

Both were an experience and a half. Unlike Sri Lanka, whose cinemas will always have my admiration for their absolute insistence on a militantly quiet cinema attendee, viewings in India are far more raucous. I’ve never seen an Imax screen full of the Indian flag for the singing of the national anthem prior to the film commencing. Equally, the intermission slap bang in the middle of Ryan Gosling’s dialogue was a touch jarring. In the screening of Project Hail Mary, I counted at least three people take a phone call during the movie, with constant lighting up of phone screens as folks checked the cricket score or in the case of the man two rows in front of me, repeatedly checking his home’s internal CCTV footage. Each time tobacco or alcohol appears on screen, there is a large stamp in the bottom right corner of the screen which states ‘smoking and alcohol is injurious to health’ which I not only strongly disagree with but does rather take the viewer out of the experience.

Bhooth Bangla at the Regal Cinema dialled this up to eleven. The place was packed and it was cool to see folks get so into the movie (bar the children dotted throughout the auditorium who were handed YouTube on their parents’ phones). The movie was a hot mess- fun, but a total mess, at three and a half hours long. It was a horror-comedy; a satire on religion, inheritance, wedding rituals, and family obligations. Even with so much going on, it was remarkably thin on plot but was peppered with some cracking lines of dialogue: ‘There are many idiots in this village. Which one are you waiting for?’

As well as the two screenings, and the individual cinema visits, Mumbai is also the home to the national museum of Indian cinema which was fabulous. Brilliantly put together permanent exhibitions, weekly screenings of historically important films, a studio for families and kids to experiment, and a really well put together audio guide; I am really jealous of Mumbai and would love to see something similar pop up in the UK. (I know, I know- the cinema museum in Kennington, London, is brilliant as is the BFI but this was something else. Brilliant.

Elephanta island

Given the humidity, I opted for the first ferry to Elephanta Island which is an island with temple and cave network in the Mumbai harbour. I’m very glad I did. Not only was the heat and stickiness already ratcheting up by the time I disembarked from the boat at 10am (check out the moisture on the selfie below), but in being on the first boat (and racing up the hill) I as good as had the temples to myself for a couple of hours. Clutching my trusty ‘Blue Guide of India’, I was able to explore every nook and cranny and really get a feel for everything I was looking at.

Down and (passed) out in Old and New Delhi

My week or so in Mumbai was immediately followed by a little over a week in Delhi. Out of the boiling saucepan and into the fire. It was insanely hot- so much so that, working in combination with my stupidity in not getting any water during the first twenty overs, I passed out at Saturday’s IPL match between the Delhi Capitals and the Punjab Kings. On said afternoon, the temperature reached 44.5 degrees C and I suspected it might be a touch warmer than I’m used to as I regained consciousness on the concourse floor. The match was a classic from what I recall and from what I’ve been subsequently told. I had a great few hours before the match catching up with the friend I made in Chennai ahead of the IPL there, as well as making two new pals. We didn’t meet up for further beers afterwards given my passing out.

As I think is obvious from the two differing lengths of entry, I did not much care for Delhi and certainly not in comparison to Mumbai. The heat, partnered with the very poor air quality, made me feel repeatedly ill. I fear that many of the unfair negative stereotypes westerners hold about India were visible in Delhi- the poverty, the dirty streets, the pollution, and the jarring split between the haves and the have-nots.

This is not to say that I didn’t see some remarkable places: the Red Fort, the Friday Mosque, the Museum of Modern Art, the Lotus Temple, India Gate, Connought Place and the underground Bazar there. The kids who played cricket in the streets were very friendly (when not critiquing my batting approach) and I had some real highlights in Delhi, but I must confess I was not sorry to be flying out of Delhi and into Nepal. I already miss India and am plotting my next long trip, not least of all to take in Kashmir and Calcutta for starters, but I shall not be staying for long in Delhi again.

The Taj Mahal

From Delhi, I took an organised day trip up to Agra to visit the Taj Mahal and the Agra Fort. I had my own tour guide and he was absolutely superb- informative, friendly, and clearly extremely passionate about his work. An Indian Muslim, he was able to provide a real insight into how the Taj Mahal is viewed in India given the rise of Hindu nationalism. Since I went out of the tourist season, and Indians are too smart to be trapsing around in the mid-40s, I was one of very few at the site. I was staggered by how quiet it was before I was then blown away by the majesty and beauty of the building itself. From a distance, given both its symmetry and how often one has seen images of it, it almost looks like a flat wooden backdrop for a movie or photoshoot.

Unesco records that:‘It is considered to be the greatest architectural achievement in the whole range of Indo-Islamic architecture. Its recognised architectonic beauty has a rhythmic combination of solids and voids, concave and convex and light shadow; such as arches and domes further increases the aesthetic aspect. The colour combination of lush green scape reddish pathway and blue sky over it show cases the monument in ever changing tints and moods. The relief work in marble and inlay with precious and semi precious stones make it a monument apart.’ As V.S. Naipaul has written: it is exquisite.

After exploring the Taj, we went on to the Agra Fort which had it’s own majesty and beauty. The train ride there and back was also a blast.

Wash up

Right- I reckon that’s enough for now. I’m enjoying the relative calm and rain(!!!) of Nepal and am off to explore Kathmandu.

The wash-up. I have:

been reading:

• Manoj Mitta’s ‘Caste Pride: Battles for Equality in Hindu India’ which was brilliant. A fantastic and comprehensive introduction to the legislative history of Caste differences in India;
• Arundhati Roy’s ‘The God of Small Things’- a beautiful book that really grew on me.
• Salman Rushdie’s ‘The Eleventh Hour’- what a story teller. Great fun.
• Aravind Adiga’s ‘The White Tiger’- hilarious. Contender for the best book I’ve read on my travels. Brilliant.

been watching:

• Project Hail Mary;
• Bhooth Bangla;
• The London Marathon 2026.

been playing:

• Expelled! (finally completed it whilst achieving Head Girl without Rivals status in the process);
• Resident Evil 8 (urgh… the title character is dull as dishwater.)

See you in Nepal.