Animals in Mumbai, part 2

As I wrote in my first post about animals in this big city: they are everywhere. Cows, bulls, sheep, goats, roosters, dogs and cats....and in some of the lakes even (sweet water) crocs.

At first I could not figure out how the relationship was between the Mumbaikars and the animals. Do they see or keep them as pets? As food? Do they love them? Treat them well? Abuse them? And since I come from a country in which we see dogs and cats as pets and part of our family, I was especially interested in the fate of those over here.

Ofcourse I am no expert, but I came to the conclusion that on the streets, Mumbaikar and cats/dogs coexist. You often see the strays hanging around people that live on the streets and apparently they are being thrown food at. Most of them seem at ease with people, not scared.

Really as pets, (dogs on a leash, cats living in the house), I did not see a lot, but it happens. I guess that that is more the case with people who are better of in life, although many of the richer people want nothing to do with animals. But those who do, take good care of them. 

My friend K., e.g., took in a stray cat who is having a royal life with her now;-). 

If she sees a wounded one on the street, she will take it to the animal hospital and pay for it's care. At this moment she travels all the way to the hospital every other day to look after an injured cat.

And she, together with a few neighbors, are taking care of stray cats around her house. 

The other day, they hired a vet who was able to catch 5 stray cats to take to the hospital to be sterilized/castrated. K. paid for that. After the surgery, the animals are placed back on the streets where they were found.

A befriended couple, D. and S., have 6 cats and 1 dog, who live in their house and garden.

And look at this newspaper article about a neighborhood that did a lot of trouble to rescue a kitten from a well. I found that remarkable!

Stray cats

Stray dogs, sleeping the sleep of the innocent;-)

Left: one of the rare times that I saw a dog on a leash. Right: the dog Taco, being fed ice creams by vendors around him, which he liked very much!

Holy cow!

We all are familiar with the fact that the fate of strays in many countries is horrible; Spain, Turkey, Greece, Eastern Europe......I hope that my impression is correct that a number of them has a reasonable or acceptable life here ...

Some more of Mumbai's colorful residents

More pictures of people I saw while strolling through town. 

On most of these pics I did some post-processing. To emphasize certain persons in a picture or to highlight certain colors, I took out colors from the rest of the picture, or I blurred the background. I did not add any colors.

I do not have Photoshop, Lightroom, etc., so I use other photo editing software. For who is interested in the tools I used, here they are:

1. the photo editing tools in iPhoto

2. Picnik; unfortunately this photo editing tool has just stopped to exist:-(

3. PicMonkey; a very good alternative to Picnik!

4. Tintii; a color elimination tool.

And here are the pictures:

A man with a band aid on his head, taking a nap in some plants.

Pre-wedding mendhi. Look at the gorgeous birds! The name of the groom is hidden in the design and he has to find it.

Turbans, so Sikhs, I presume?

"Take my picture, please!"

Her shoes are twice the size of her feet...

"Take our picture, please!"

Mendhi.

Tricycle driver taking a nap.

Peacock feathered fan vendor

Every step outside the hotel there is so much to see; overwhelming....still....

Earning a living in Mumbai, 3

This is my third post about earning a living in Mumbai. The city is bustling with making money and businesses, often very small. Sometimes just selling three potatoes and a cucumber along the side of the road.

Here are again some more examples of what I encountered while strolling through town or cruising it in a taxi.

Crawford Market is a market in an old Victorian Building. Like everything else in town the building is seriously run down. The market has different parts, like vegetables, meat and even pets and animals. The latter divisions I definitely wanted to skip, since they are not for the weakhearted like myself;-). 

And since there was an old guy forcing himself upon us as a self declared guide we went through this market pretty fast. Too bad, but the guy was just too annoying!

Fruits

Spices

Poultry, with the occasional dead chicken lying around in the caged trucks

The majority of the markets are not in the shady indoors, but along the streets in the burning sun, amidst of rubble and garbage:

Baskets, buckets and other kitchenwares

Onions and potatoes

Vegetables

Grains and beans

Spices

Rice

More spices

Peppers

Grains and beans

An egg seller:

Eggs

This vegetable and fruit juice seller had been very creative with his carrots...hahaha:

Don't know what they are selling, but I think tins with olive oil.

Here I am buying and bargaining for sari's in this street stall in a slum. As you can see I soon became an attraction myself. But....I DID buy three sari's for 3 euro's each!

Booths like this sell magazines and other small stuff AND they have this huge red phone that serves as a public phone.

There are hairdressers everywhere. This one had a real salon;-), but many just work on the pavement.

Shaving the head of this baby.

This person sells keys along the road:

And if none of this is your cup of tea, you can always become a traveling gypsy who beats himself with a huge whip for money, like this guy:

I found 2 small videos on youtube with footage of these whip people in action. Maybe it's the same man; I can not tell:

Or you can open a restaurant, like this colorful hot chips place:

People's resourcefulness knows no limits; fascinating!