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Guides for the Business Traveler
Mumbai (2007)
4 hours in Mumbai (2007)
2007 Business Traveler 4-Hour Guide Sponsored by Korean Air. More than a city, the experience of Mumbai will astound and reward the patient traveler, Alex Féthière discovers.
 | GATEWAY OF INDIA An enormous colonial monument towering over the edge of South Mumbai, the Gateway is a classic place to start a trip through the hectic and colorful city. This basalt-and-reinforced-concrete portal was built to commemorate the 1911 visit of King George V and Queen Mary. It also loomed over the departure of the last British forces from India in 1948. Standing at an angle to the street leading towards it because of an uncompleted approach road, it faces away from the Taj Hotel Palace & Tower. In fair weather it is the departure point for a ferry to the Elephanta Caves, where visitors can marvel at four mammoth temples hewn out of stone, dating back to 750 A.D.
|  | TAJ HOTEL PALACE & TOWER Standing cater-corner to the Gateway, the Palace is a synthesis of Oriental, Moorish and Florentine architectural styles, erected in 1903. It offers sweeping views of the Arabian Sea and the Gateway of India from rooms, restaurant and lounge alike. Stop in for a light lunch of traditional Indian specialties or tasty little toasted sandwiches, like the "Mumbai Mix" julienne vegetables, dressed with a bit of chutney.
A spread of pricey designer items occupies the ground floor, but take a look, even if tags aren't your bag. Locally-owned businesses are interspersed throughout, and a patient eye can find items like a beautifully carved rose-quartz Ganesh statuette for $10.
Though the nearby street bazaar is teeming with aggressive hawkers and pushy pan-handlers, shops like Popular Footwear are worth shoving through the crowd. Chhapals (thin-soled, toe-holstered ornately punched leather sandals) and other well-wrought footwear are available there for a song. Many other items, however, can be bought without hustle and haggling at the Central Cottage Industries Emporium. Apollo Bunder, Mumbai 400 001; tel. 91-22-6665-3366 |  | CENTRAL COTTAGE INDUSTRIES EMPORIUM There's something for everyone at the CCIE, a sort of government outlet chain that's a short stroll from the Taj and the Gateway. Countless types of Indian handicraft can be found here. Prices and quality are state regulated, and the salespeople are refreshingly casual after the hard sell of street merchants. Sandalwood statues, stone and wood carvings with inlay, tapestries, paintings of all sizes, silk ties and brass-work are just a few of the items spread out over its two well-lit floors. Some items, like a carved-wood-and-brass swinging bench the size of a van or a Ganesh as tall as a man, would have to be shipped. Regardless of the space in your suitcase, you'll be hard put not to come out with something. 10 a.m.–7 p.m.; 4 Chhatrapatti Shivaji Maharaj Marg.; Mumbai 400 005; tel. 91-22-202-7537/2026564/2844181 |  | JEHANGIR ART GALLERY Gumptious Indian artists defining what's hot in Mumbai are the staple of Jehangir. About 150 artists are shown over a year, selected from some 3,000 entries by a board of trustees and established artists. Paintings, sculpture and drawings were on exhibit when I visited. Bulletin boards were tactfully placed outside the gallery sections in one wing, covered with clippings. A vast, separate gallery was hung with the work of three painters, and it was exciting to feel the buzz humming around so much emerging talent—particularly because all of the artists were present! After a tour of what's happening in Mumbai's art scenes, have a snack at the semi-enclosed Samovar Café, where students from nearby Elphinstone College and artists have been coming for years to debate ideologies and aesthetics over tea. 11 a.m.–7 p.m.; 151/V M G Road, Kala Ghoda; tel. 91-22-2204-8212 |  | MANI BHAVAN Walk in the footsteps of a nation's father and a godfather of 20th-century activism when you visit the memorial museum for Mahatma Gandhi, converted from a building where he stayed while visiting Mumbai—and where he was arrested. This unassuming edifice befits the man to whom it is dedicated, collecting a number of his photocopied letters (such as those he wrote to Hitler and Roosevelt) and photographs within frames.
Certain artifacts are behind glass, and a dioramic series winds through a darkened room, showing annotated scenes from his life within lighted boxes. It is an inspiring introduction to the eloquent simplicity of this international hero; the stamps issued in tribute to him alone will amaze with their range and iconography. A stamp collection is exhibited in a wall case, and poster board cards bearing worldwide stamps are for sale, with all proceeds going to the Mani Bhavan organization. 9:30 a.m.–6 p.m.; 19 Laburnum Road, Gamdevi, Mumbai 400 007; tel. 91-22-2380-5864
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