22 Life in Mumbai

CHAPTER 1 India at Night IT'S NIGHT IN INDIA. OVER 1,000,000,000 PEOPLE LIVE IN THIS GREAT COUNTRY. THEY SPEAK MORE THAN 300 DIFFERENT LANGUAGES. India is a fantastic country with high mountains, big deserts, and many great rivers. The moon is bright over the Ganges River. In India, this river is called "Mother Ganges." About 3,000 BCE, people began to live by this river. Today, millions of Indians live along it. The Ganges is very important to Hindus, members of the main religion of India. Many Hindus travel a long way to see the Ganges or to wash in its waters. It's cold and dark in the great Thar Desert of western India. Life is hard. In May and June, the temperature can be as high as 50 Celsius in the day and as low as 0C Celsius at night. Parts of the desert get only 10 centimeters of rain every year. Not many people live here. A line of hills or mountains is called a range. The Himalayan mountain range is in the northwest of India. It goes through many other countries, like Pakistan and Nepal. The Himalayas have the highest mountains in the world. Tonight, groups of tourists sleep in tents and wait for the sun to rise.

第一章夜晚的印度现在是印度的夜晚。 超过10亿人生活在这个伟大的国家。 他们说300多种不同的语言。 印度是一个神奇的国家，有高山、大沙漠和许多大河。 恒河上的月亮很明亮。 在印度，这条河被称为“母亲河”。 大约公元前3000年，人们开始在这条河边生活。 今天，数以百万计的印度人生活在这条河上。 恒河对印度教徒非常重要，他们是印度的主要宗教。 许多印度教徒长途跋涉去看恒河，或者在恒河的水里洗澡。 印度西部的塔尔大沙漠又冷又黑。 生活是艰难的。在5月和6月，白天的温度可高达50摄氏度，晚上的温度可低至0摄氏度。 部分沙漠地区每年的降雨量只有10厘米。 住在这里的人不多。 一排小山或山脉叫做山脉。 喜马拉雅山脉位于印度西北部。 它穿过许多其他国家，如巴基斯坦和尼泊尔。 喜马拉雅山是世界上最高的山脉。 今晚，成群的游客睡在帐篷里，等待太阳升起。

On farms in the central plains of India, the night is very quiet. Many people— about 60 percent— work in agriculture. Soon heavy rains called monsoons are going to come. It doesn't rain often, so the monsoons are very important. Farmers need the monsoons to grow rice and other foods, and to grow cotton to make clothes. The night is noisy in the forests of India. Many different animals live here: elephants, tigers, and rhinoceroses. Some of these animals are in danger, but there are national parks where they can live safely. It's night in Mumbai, but not everyone is sleeping. People are working. It's a busy city. It's the centers of business in India. Over 20 million people live in the Mumbai area. They work in all kinds of jobs. Some of them work in business, or in TV, movies, or music.

在印度中部平原的农场里，夜晚非常安静。 许多人——大约60%——从事农业工作。 很快，被称为季风的大雨就要来了。 这里不常下雨，所以季风很重要。 农民需要季风来种植水稻和其他食物，种植棉花来制作衣服。 夜晚在印度的森林里很嘈杂。 许多不同的动物生活在这里：大象、老虎和犀牛。 其中一些动物处于危险之中，但有国家公园可以让它们安全地生活。 现在是孟买的夜晚，但并不是每个人都在睡觉。 人们在工作。这是一个繁忙的城市。 它是印度的商业中心。 超过2000万人居住在孟买地区。 他们从事各种各样的工作。 他们中的一些人在商业、电视、电影或音乐领域工作。

CHAPTER 2 Morning in Mumbai FOR ONE MAN IN MUMBAI, THE DAY ALWAYS BEGINS THE SAME WAY... Sanjit Gupta wakes up at 5:30 and takes a bath. It's dark, so he lights a lamp. He uses ghee, a kind of butter, in the lamp. This begins his morning puja. Many Hindus begin their day with a morning puja. It's an important part of Hindu life. 80 percent of Indians are Hindu. After puja, Sanjit eats idlis, small cakes from South India. Sanjit lives in Mumbai now, but he comes from the south of India. When he eats idlis, he thinks about his hometown and his family. He misses them. Sanjit came to Mumbai to work. He remembers when he was a child. He grew up near farms and hills. In Mumbai he only sees buildings and streets. Sanjit's favorite place in Mumbai is the Dadar flower market. Every morning, farmers bring flowers to the market from their farms near Mumbai. People often buy the flowers in long chains.

第二章孟买的早晨对孟买的一个男人来说，一天总是以同样的方式开始… 桑吉特·古普塔五点半起床，洗个澡。 天很黑，所以他点了一盏灯。 他在灯里使用酥油，一种黄油。 他的晨祷就此开始。 许多印度教徒以晨祷开始一天的生活。 这是印度人生活的重要组成部分。 80%的印度人是印度教徒。 礼拜后，桑吉特吃idlis，一种来自南印度的小蛋糕。 桑吉特现在住在孟买，但他来自印度南部。 当他吃idlis时，他会想起他的家乡和他的家人。 他想念他们。桑吉特来孟买工作。 他还记得自己小时候。 他在农场和山丘附近长大。 在孟买，他只能看到建筑物和街道。 桑吉特在孟买最喜欢的地方是达达尔花卉市场。 每天早上，农民们从孟买附近的农场把鲜花带到市场。 人们经常买长链的花。

CHAPTER 3 Getting to Work LIKE MANY PEOPLE IN MUMBAI, SANJIT TAKES THE TRAIN TO WORK. The trains in Mumbai are famous. They started in 1853, and people in Mumbai call them the locals. The trains are often very old and they are always crowded. Sometimes they are so crowded that the train doors cannot close and people ride on top of the train! Several million people ride the locals every day. There are many buses, taxis, and auto-rickshaws, too. They take people all over the city. The streets are crowded because every year more and more people are coming to Mumbai to live. This is a difficult problem for the city. They must do something, but what? Some people think the answer is a different kind of train called a monorail. Monorails often go high above the streets. In 2009, Mumbai started making a monorail. It's going to take many years to finish. People in Mumbai want the monorail today! But for now, they can only ride the crowded trains and buses, and wait.

像孟买的许多人一样，桑吉特乘火车去上班。 孟买的火车很有名。 他们从1853年开始，孟买人称他们为当地人。 火车通常很旧，而且总是很拥挤。 有时他们是如此拥挤，以至于火车门无法关闭，人们坐在火车顶部！每天有数百万人乘坐当地人的车。 也有很多公共汽车、出租车和机动人力车。 他们载着乘客满城跑。 街道很拥挤，因为每年都有越来越多的人来孟买生活。 这对这个城市来说是个难题。 他们必须做点什么，但是做什么呢？ 有些人认为答案是另一种叫做单轨火车的火车。 单轨列车经常在街道上方行驶。 2009年，孟买开始建造单轨铁路。 这需要很多年才能完成。 孟买的人今天就想要单轨铁路！但现在，他们只能乘坐拥挤的火车和公共汽车，等待。

CHAPTER 4 Working in Mumbai MANY PEOPLE COME TO MUMBAI FROM OTHER PARTS OF INDIA FOR WORK. There are many call centers in Mumbai. In a call center, people answer telephone calls. Often call centers answer calls about problems with computers, smart phones, or other kinds of technology. In the early 2000s, countries like India, the Philippines, and South Africa opened many call centers. In Mumbai, many call centers opened in only a short time. Now some centers are closing. This is because some people in Britain and the US do not like having call centers in other countries. Sanjit works with computers, but he does not work in a call center. He's a software engineer. A software engineer writes programs for computers. Sanjit works in an office with ten other people. They're working on a game for people to play on the Internet. The game teaches English to children. Sanjit likes computers and helping children learn. Sometimes he wants to leave Mumbai and go back to his hometown. But he knows he cannot find an interesting and fun job there.

第四章在孟买工作许多人从印度其他地方来到孟买工作。 孟买有很多呼叫中心。 在呼叫中心，人们接听电话。 呼叫中心经常接听有关电脑、智能手机或其他技术问题的电话。 21世纪初，印度、菲律宾和南非等国家开设了许多呼叫中心。 在孟买，许多呼叫中心在短时间内开业。 现在一些中心正在关闭。 这是因为一些英国人和美国人不喜欢在其他国家设立呼叫中心。 桑吉特从事计算机工作，但他不在呼叫中心工作。 他是个软件工程师。软件工程师为计算机编写程序。 桑吉特和其他十个人在一间办公室工作。 他们正在开发一款供人们在网上玩的游戏。 这个游戏教孩子们英语。 桑吉特喜欢电脑和帮助孩子们学习。 有时他想离开孟买，回到家乡。 但是他知道他在那里找不到一份有趣的工作。

CHAPTER 5 Home-cooked Lunches for 175,000 IT'S LUNCHTIME, AND SANJIT WANTS HOME-COOKED FOOD. THIS IS NOT A PROBLEM. Like most people in Mumbai, Sanjit cannot go home for lunch. It's too far. Also, Sanjit does not want to ride the crowded locals four times in one day. Many people in Mumbai want home-cooked lunches. Happily, they can have them, and they are not expensive. Every day, people make and sell home-cooked food to workers all over Mumbai. These workers are called tiffin wallahs or dabbawalas, Tiffins are small boxes. Inside the tiffins are traditional Indian foods, like curries, rice, and phulkas, an Indian bread. About 5,000 tiffin wallahs work in Mumbai. They bring over 175,000 tiffins to hungry business people every day. They are fast and very good at their job 99 percent of the time, the tiffins go to the right places. Sanjit can buy home-cooked South Indian food from the tiffin wallahs. The lunch is not as good as his mother's food, but it is better than eating at a fast-food restaurant.

第五章为十七万五千人做的家常菜现在是午餐时间，桑吉特想吃家常菜。 这不是问题。像孟买的大多数人一样，桑吉特不能回家吃午饭。 太远了。此外，桑吉特不想在一天内乘坐拥挤的当地人四次。 孟买的许多人都想要自己做的午餐。 令人高兴的是，他们可以拥有它们，而且它们并不昂贵。 每天，人们在孟买各地制作和出售家常菜给工人。 这些工人被称为午餐瓦拉或达巴瓦拉，午餐是小盒子。 午餐里有传统的印度食物，比如咖喱、米饭和印度面包phulkas。 孟买大约有5000名午餐服务员。 他们每天给饥肠辘辘的商务人士送去17.5万份午餐。 他们的速度很快，99%的情况下他们的工作都很出色，午餐都送到了正确的地方。 桑吉特可以从午餐店买到自家做的南印度菜。 午餐不如他妈妈做的好吃，但比在快餐店吃要好。