Mumbai 18-22.1.10

I recently found out that one of the original planners of Gandhinagar was still alive; this was really exciting since I had thought there was only one main planner, H.K. Mewada, who had died years ago. Apparently there was another man, Prakash Apte, who also planned the city. Why did it take me 4 months to figure this out, you ask? Yeah, I don't know. One of my professors just happen to mention it and that there had been an article written about this guy in the paper. To track him down, I had to find the article, go to the newspaper office several times, try repeatedly to call the reporter who had written the story, until finally I met him at his office and he gave me Apte's contact information.

In contrast to Deepa Mewada, H.K. Mewada's son, Apte seemed very interested in talking about Gandhinagar. The reporter sent me several papers that Apte had written about it, so I was very excited to speak with him. Since he now lives in Mumbai, I arranged to go and speak with him there. It also gave me a chance to visit my old roommate, Arpita; after her research project finished here in Ahmedabad, she moved back with her parents in Mumbai.

Arpita's dad works for the central government in the dept. of atomic energy, so they live in a flat in a building just for employees of this dept. It's such a nice flat though! In the posh Malabar hill area, at the top of the hill, so the view of Mumbai is amazing. And they live near two big gardens. The whole family is there together now- Arpita's older brother and his wife are living there too. They are pregnant and due in just a few weeks. Here the woman gets 6 months of maternity leave! Really makes you realize how behind the US is! And of course, I can't forget their cocker spaniel, Bruno. He is quite the character and definitely spoiled and well-loved! My pill bottle has his teeth marks on it now! hahaha

We walked down along the sea front to the parks there one night. Another day we went to the Prince of Wales museum which has such nice indian art. The Rajasthani miniature paintings made me laugh. Half of them were of women wandering around in the woods singing of their lovers who were away, by looking at these you would have the impression that the indian woods were full of lonely women trailed by wild animals.

Then the other paintings were of couples. Each was a different month of the year, and the captions progressed - each month said 'the lover should not leave his beloved during this month', the next 'the lover would be crazy to even think about leaving the house this month' so I'm not sure if there was a time when he could leave. I guess they were just supposed to have 'fun' indoors the entire year... ;)