Elephanta Island

Elephanta Island is about an hour boat ride from the Gateway to India. What distinguishes Elephanta Island are a series of cave temples, with beautiful sculptures cut out of the rock, from about 1500 years ago.

These rock-cut temples were a Buddhist tradition that ported to Hinduism as Buddhist influence declined here. The rock sculptures are all in worship of Shiva and they express various manifestations and tell various stories about Shiva - Shiva, lord of yoga, Shiva, lord of dance, Shiva and Parvati, etc.

Before you get to the caves, of course you must run a gauntlet of what seemed like a hundred vendors selling various souvenirs, jewelry, T-shirts, etc. This would become something of a sub-theme - in the heavily touristed areas, India can resemble a giant bazaar.

One cultural issue is that shaking one’s head from side to side does not mean "no" here. I’m not sure what the non-verbal cue for "not interested" is, other than looking away and ignoring, which is what I’ve come to do.

The rock sculptures in the caves are quite impressive. The best part was that Becky was able to show off her knowledge - having studied Hindu art. So we had our own personal guide.

1500 year old stone sculptures of Shiva and friends


Raphael and a little friend on Elephanta Island


No elephants on Elephanta Island, but LOTSA monkeys!

After Elephanta, we came back to the hotel to chill (well, rest - one can’t exactly "chill" here - it’s hot and humid all the

We were invited for dinner with Raell Padamsee. Raell’s mom was a well-known actress in the English theater scene here (and cousin of Abe Sofaer). Raell is a well-known theater person in her own right - she's written plays and runs after school theater programs for children in 15 centers throughout Mumbai.

She has a beautiful apartment in the center of town, with a rooftop terrace, where we dined.

We talked about the events of 10 days ago. Raell's apartment is in between the Taj Mahal hotel and Chabad House, so she was in the thick of it. She said there is dissatisfaction with the police response, which, Raell said, was ridiculously ineffective - people are shocked that 10 people could inflict such damage on the city for several days - and also with politicians on all sides who, from her perspective, have done a lot of posturing for political gain.