Exploring Colaba in Mumbai

Mark, Jen, Maggie and Karma, go out around Colaba (south Mumbai). First we pass a statue of Ambedekar, the hero of the "untouchable" caste, now called Dalits, since he rose to political prominence and was a primary author of the Indian Consitution. The recent 50th anniversary of his death, celebrated by huge crowds but less honored by political leaders, shows that he is still a controversial figure for his ambition of raising the lot of the most disadvantaged people in India.

Ambedekar near the Oval Maidan in Mumbai. As VS Naipaul writes, for Dalits, Ambedekar is more significant than Ghandi as a symbol for their freedom.

Next we visit the Prince of Wales museum, a turn-of-the-century British building which now holds an extensive collection of artwork and archeological findings.

Tour buses, school groups, and the Masselli's. That's the crowd at the Prince of Wales Museum.

Maggie and Karma spend most of their time with the audio tour in the Hindu sculpture collection.

After more than 2 months in India, we can recognize this fragment of an ancient statue as Vishnu, taking a rest on the coils of a cobra.

Looking up in the octaganol center hall of the Prince of Wales museum.

Then we head over to FabIndia, a store with the winning combination of good ethics and great cotton clothes and house stuff.

We've been to most of the FabIndia's in the country! How many of you can say that?

The rooftop of our hotel has a playground, so Kobi gets to go on the swings.

The "grass" is astroturf, but the trees are real. The kids decide we could just stay here, instead of our hotel room.