Sarfraz Manzoor

An invitation to appear at the Kitab book festival has given me the opportunity to visit Mumbai for the first time. Some years ago I spent New Year in Goa and until now that was my only taste of India. I arrived yesterday lunchtime after a flight which left London just after eight in the evening Thursday. Rather disconcertingly I only got my visa allowing me to travel at four in the afternoon; being of Pakistani origin is not especially helpful when trying to travel to India. The festival organisers arranged accomodation in the fabulous Taj Mahal hotel which is on the very southern edge of the city. Wandering around the city by foot today what struck me was how comfortable it felt to here, I had expected traffic madness and noise and hustle and bustle and all of that is present and correct. But having spent time in Lahore and Karachi it doesnt feel like hard work having to negotiate crossing the road and, in my very limited experience of Mumbai so far, some of the things I saw in Pakistan are noticeable by their absence. Its interesting for example to see Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs all in one city- I did not see that in Pakistan. There are also many more European and American- lets me blunt, white- visitors than I saw in Pakistan. The other key difference is that here you see women on the streets and in mixed sex groups. In Pakistan there are far more women in purdah, not all by any means but the idea of mixing between men and women is more difficult in public and that seemed to create an unhealthy tension in the air.
Mumbai has the biggest slum in Asia, so i have been told, and I am hoping to take a look at that while I am in the city.