Banganga

Yesterday, I walked around an area called Malabar Hill. Luckily I had my camera (and my fancy shamcy, how the hell do you spell that?, lens) because the area was like nothing I have ever seen in Mumbai. It's as if they cut out a section of Varanasi and airlifted it to the heart of the city. In the center of this little village neighborhood is a water tank (photo 1) called Banganga. My friend and budding anthropologist asked around and found out it's called that because Ram came to Mumbai with Sita (you know, probably just doing some shopping, seeing the sites), and Sita was thirsty. Ram struck an arrow (ban) into the ground and a spring came up (that lucky girl, what a catch she has). The ban part is from the arrow and the ganga part is due to the holiness factor -ganga/ganges/holy water, I think you get it, and I think it's particularly appropriate, because the sides of the tank look exactly like the ghats in Varanasi (on the ganges). Go look back at my posts from there to compare. So this little rural looking area remains in the heart of developed Mumbai (literally the real-estate prices of the place around here rival New York), probably do to this fresh water tank that sprung up on a peninsula, on a peninsula surrounded by salt water. Although both tank and the sea view are beautiful (really, the garbage based shoreline has some fantastic color) , I think I am going to stick to my bottled water (sorry Ram).

Love,
Violet