At the top of the hill I found the Gardens. They are beautiful! Lots of flowers and shrubs cut into animal shapes. (What is that called? When you cut bushes into shapes? Thing-ary) The hill looks out over the rest of the city on one side and out to sea on the other. Some brave soul managed to eke out this valuable real estate for a public garden. I salute them. This is a must see for anyone who comes to Mumbai.
As I entered the gardens I came across a family taking photos of each other. I pantomimed an offer to take a picture for them with all of them in it, which they appreciated. Then to my surprise they wanted to take a picture with me in it as well. So we all stood together while the dad took our picture. Then they wanted one with me and the toddler, but that was not to be. The toddler was not enthusiastic. She was apparently extremely afraid of the scary looking white lady. Usually the kids here aren’t so freaked out by me. Oh well.
To the north of the gardens you could see lots of birds coasting around in the sky, presumably above the Towers of Silence, the Parsi funeral ground. Parsis don’t bury their dead, they don’t burn them, they put them on the top of tall towers for vultures to eat. The grounds are forbidden to anyone not of the burial sect of the religion. Probably for the best.
There was an article in the New York Times a while back about how the Parsis were protesting the erection of several billboards at the edge of their sacred burial ground. The people who run the grounds said that they weren’t making enough money to cover expenses, so they needed the income from the billboards to keep the funeral grounds going. The other people were like yeah, but c’mon. Sacred Ground. No billboards. I didn’t walk around to see if the billboards were still up, but this being Mumbai, I would guess they are.
As I entered the gardens I came across a family taking photos of each other. I pantomimed an offer to take a picture for them with all of them in it, which they appreciated. Then to my surprise they wanted to take a picture with me in it as well. So we all stood together while the dad took our picture. Then they wanted one with me and the toddler, but that was not to be. The toddler was not enthusiastic. She was apparently extremely afraid of the scary looking white lady. Usually the kids here aren’t so freaked out by me. Oh well.
To the north of the gardens you could see lots of birds coasting around in the sky, presumably above the Towers of Silence, the Parsi funeral ground. Parsis don’t bury their dead, they don’t burn them, they put them on the top of tall towers for vultures to eat. The grounds are forbidden to anyone not of the burial sect of the religion. Probably for the best.
There was an article in the New York Times a while back about how the Parsis were protesting the erection of several billboards at the edge of their sacred burial ground. The people who run the grounds said that they weren’t making enough money to cover expenses, so they needed the income from the billboards to keep the funeral grounds going. The other people were like yeah, but c’mon. Sacred Ground. No billboards. I didn’t walk around to see if the billboards were still up, but this being Mumbai, I would guess they are.
2 comments:
If you spend any time in the South/Southwestern US, you find this is also the preferred funeral arrangement for almost everyone except the humans. I imagine if you had gotten close enough down wind you would have arrived at the intersection of olifactory, meat & heat.
Topiary is I believe the name of that somewhat eccentric gardening practice. It's a sign of a civilized society if only because of the ease of creative vandalism in such a place.
p.
That would be funny - go by in the middle of the night and reshape someone's hedge into an elephant.
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