Mumbai

I've been terribly saddened and shocked at the appalling violence and loss of life in Mumbai this week. It's a very significant city for me, having spent many days there, on two trips to India, both very happy and special times. 

It's a magnificent city, one of the great cities of the world, and one which I know I will go back to many times in my life. I can't wait to take my Little One there and have his or her first experience of India there, as it was for me.

Some of the best memories I have of the city are of places where the terrorist attacks occurred. My first Indian meal in India (and butter nans), with Jerry, at the Leopold on Kolabra causeway. Trying to negotiate the mind bogglingly complicated, Byzantium, way to buy rail tickets, at Chatrapati station (an immense building of grandiose, neo-gothic, beauty). And sneaking into the Taj Mahal hotel, back-packer scruffy with Ibolya, for a drink in the bar, (where the Australian cricket team were also drinking) and regretting, afterwards, that we hadn't splashed out and  stayed the night.