Captain's log supplemental.. Mumbai 24th April 2016

M.K. Gandhi's room in his house in Mumbai
OK, so I wasn't looking for a wargaming connection here in Mumbai when I took a trip around the burg today. I wanted to feel the city in all of its 21 million (40% approx. of the population of England) chaos and that hit me the minute I got out of the hotel.

Ghandi's letter to Hitler 45 days before the start of it all

Nevertheless, wargaming and more precisely 17th century military history did catch up with me within 3 hours. As you will see, the extremely imposing and eye catching statue which faces down the last vestiges of the British Raj - India Gate is of a man well worth knowing about.

Remember 29/11/2008? - security here is much tighter now

Bombay/Mumbai is the human condition in its entirety. Spend a few hours here and you'll see the greatest wealth (a massive 40 storey building which is home to 4 mega rich yet detested people and 500 servants), the greatest poverty and mind bending humanity - the house/museum of M.K Gandhi was a real epiphany moment.

Our 15 minutes in the sun - Once there was an Empire - India Gate, Bombay

This blog is not a travelogue but sometimes it is nice to share particularly with friends. I am here to work but the privilege of this job is that I also get to see what I would never have expected.

Kick Ass Indian General - Shivaji Maharaj 1680

At the seething India Gate is an imposing equestrian statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Who? says Mrs H. Hmm, not sure but with a statue like that he must be somebody really important. He looks like a Mongol Prince says the Memsahib (I've always wanted to call her that! - she is well trained at spotting wargaming trivia). I'll Google him back at the ranch.

Plaque on Shivaji's equestrian statue

And, so I did... what a find! I love this guy already and I've only known about him for 15 minutes! Read this folks. What a find. It makes for fascinating and inspiring wargaming fodder. I may even start collecting/modelling a force to mirror the warfare of India between 1630 and 1680.

Click on this link to learn more about a real 'geezer'. It is pure wargaming manna from heaven (sorry to mix religious metaphors)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shivaji

End of a dream or a gravy train depending on your PoV

To all you fellow Brits out there.. we were only passing through this place for a few minutes of history. We made a mark yes but really, taking into account the big picture... it was a flash in the flintlock pan.

The last Tommies would have seen this view - boarding from India Gate