Blood-colored spitting in Mumbai

After we got off the plane in Mumbai and Magda was dealing with her lost bag I noticed an official looking dude spat out brown red, chunky goo into the garbage can.  First thought was blood, but then I noticed more folks doing the same.  Sure enough the next day out in the city there were throngs of men polluting sidewalks with their colorful saliva.  Sidewalks and the insides of low-brow joints were dotted with brown stains.  Pretty gross.

I didn't really have a good guess what it is that they spat out other then tobacco.  Magda refused to guess.  I was very curious but didn't want to just walk up to one of them and ask.  It may have been a religious thing or whatever.  I asked one of the bell-hops but failed to explain what I was asking and only got head shakes and strange looks.

On our last day in Mumbai we met a helpful older lady who showed us around the neighborhood.  Her command of English was great and I finally got my answer.  She bought the thing for us.  I don't remember its name, sadly, but Magda took a picture.  It's a bunch, and I mean at least 15 different spices, sprinkles and things wrapped in some sort of a leaf.  When you chew on it for a while it turns red.  It was sweet and tasted like a spice rack.  Both Magda and I couldn't get ourselves to spit it out at first and swallowed it.  On the second try I went for it and it felt good.  I felt just like the locals.