The Hell of Mumbai: A true story

By Thomas Rupp

Dear readers!
This book is most thrilling. If you start reading it you can`t stop any more.
On our layover in Mumbai we were sitting in a cozy Indian restaurant and were enjoying the delicious Indian meal when suddenly shots were fired ...

• Language: English
• Publisher: BoD E-Short
• Release date: Mar 5, 2018
• ISBN: 9783746048260

Thomas Rupp

Thomas Rupp war Englisch- und Sportlehrer, jetzt ist er Flugbegleiter. Er hat schon einige Bücher herausgegeben, darunter der große Erfolg "Die Hölle von Mumbai", der auch bei BOD.de erhältlich ist.

Book preview

The Hell of Mumbai

Preface

The Hell of Mumbai

Epilogue

Appendix 1

Appendix 2

Copyright

Bombay is fascinating. Bombay glares in the heat and is covered by smog. Bombay stinks mostly, but sometimes it even smells nice. Bombay is poor and rich at the same time. But what is most: Bombay is alive.

Everywhere you can see colorful market stalls, busy vendors and the loud, chaotic and nevertheless flowing traffic. Under bridges there sometimes are whole families with their sparse belongings. You can watch them making a fire with paper, cardboard or other things handy, while their kids are playing hide and seek. By doing this the Indians cause this extraordinary strange smoke, which welcomes you through the air-conditioning when you approach Bombay by plane. The people living there don’t look unhappy, they arrange themselves with their circumstances. And that’s the other perspective of India: It`s the source of sentimental stories, which take place behind the scenes of chaos, noise and odor. We arrive at the barber’s. A grandpa is lying on the ground in front of the door and is taking a nap. We have just decided to go back when the old man says: No, wait, my friend. My son’s inside. I’ll tell him. In fact we are welcomed by the younger man in a room with some old chairs and some unhygienic combs and scissors. We enter the sparsely equipped room, not before we have smartly circumnavigated the cow in the doorway, which is not allowed to be touched or even chased away. You must know the cow in India is treated like a holy and must not be eaten under any circumstances. That is very improbable anyway as presumingly 99% of all Indians are vegetarians. When my friend has his hair cut, he is not only greeted by the whole family members but is also invited to watch Western films - in our case American soap operas. This is a sign of hospitality and respect for foreign cultures. Afterwards he is given a twenty minutes` massage in addition. I am watching him from a wooden bench when suddenly it knocks from above. As I am looking in the direction of the noise, I recognize a door in the ceiling, which leads to a hidden room. I decide to leave the bench when the small door is opened from up there and someone puts a ladder on my bench up to the opening. Some men with a very dark tan climb downwards. They obviously have protected themselves from the heat and have taken a nap. They want to take part in the life below again.

Such anecdotes make up the charm of India. You cannot be angry with the Indians, neither for their laissez faire, nor for their being late, nor for their touchiness. They make up for this with their special likeability, open-mindedness and their good-natured friendliness.

Though the call was overdue for fifty minutes, my colleague was woken up by the hotel reception as following: Excuse me Madam, this is your wakeup call. Sorry for being late. Your pickup is in ten minutes. Then the receptionist hung up without any further comment. My poor colleague panicked and hardly had the time to catch the bus taking the flight crew to the airport. When she arrived at the reception out of breath, she had to grin at the staff member nevertheless because his call was so honest and cool at the same time. Typically Indian after all. His sentences were supposedly accompanied by the usual head shaking and singing tone.

These heart-warming human scenes unfortunately are undermined by a historical fact that weighs much more heavily and dates back to Gandhi’s times. To cut a long story short: The very deeply rooted hatred between Muslims and Hindus led to the separation of India from Pakistan. The great divide of the two religions has not been overcome yet. It might be the reason for one of the worst terror attacks of the 21st century, which haunted the Indian metropolis in the late autumn of the year 2008.

Dedicated to all the innocent victims of November 26th of 2008 who had to die way too early. The good and the pure must endure all suffering. (Indian proverb)

The Hell of Mumbai

A soup, hot and delicious, eaten in the heart of the family. Is it my Mum`s yummy cauliflower soup? No, the color is darker. Green, no, it`s red … The soup is splashing as if a stone has fallen into it. No, someone is smashing a spoon into the soup. There are even more people … My family`s running away and so is my girl-friend? What`s going on? A thunder is grumbling? And nevertheless we`re running out of the house?

I wake up covered with sweat. I don’t know what it`s all about! In the last time I have had several of those dreams. It must have to do with this Bombay affair…

" Mumbai ( /mʊmˈbaɪ/ ; also known as Bombay , the official name until 1995 ) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra . It is the most populous city in India with an estimated city proper population of 12.4 million as of 2011. Along with the neighbouring regions of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region , it is second most populous metropolitan area in India