I landed in Mumbai late at night, but even through the darkness and steamed up windows of my taxi, it felt like a world away from the rest of India. Cramped high rise buildings, bright lights and glamorous billboards lined the expressway, I could have been in one of many large cities of the world.

Mumbai is where modern India crashes directly into traditional India, where rich and poor co-exist next door to each other yet live in completely different worlds.  India is constantly called a land of contrasts, nowhere is it more in your face than in Mumbai.  Walking down Bandra Bandstand, to one side are multi-million dollar apartments owned by movie stars next to small stalls of fisherman selling their catch for a few rupees. Nowhere else in the world have I seen two more extreme socio-economic groups live as neighbours.

Before arriving in Mumbai this time (this is my fifth visit to Mumbai in my life), I read Suketu Mehta’s book “Maximum City”.  It describes many different aspects of Mumbai’s underworld in rich and evocative text, so much so it made me feel a little bit apprehensive about going there but I needn’t have worried.  Just in that long drive down to Colaba, in South Mumbai, I instantly felt relaxed and calm.  I felt at home.

My first few days in Mumbai were spent in South Mumbai. Unlike other Indian cities, Mumbai seems a lot more British to me, particularly in the South.  Beautiful English buildings line the streets of Fort and you feel the colonial presence everywhere… what is missing is India…the India I had seen for 9 months, temples, tombs, palaces, ornate carvings of deities.

Whilst this India does exist in Mumbai, it doesn’t feel like its a part of the central town or daily life like it is elsewhere that I have visited. I guess that’s part of what gives this city its more cosmopolitan feel.. but its more than that. There is a buzz in Mumbai, like big things are happening around you, like you can achieve anything here and you can be yourself.

I certainly feel more relaxed and comfortable in Mumbai then I have anywhere else in India, it is somewhere I feel like I can fit in.

So for now, Maximum City Mumbai it is … but for me… I think I will just call it home.

 

Mumbai metropolis from Sanjay Gandhi National Park
Enter Maximum City: Mumbai
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9 thoughts on “Enter Maximum City: Mumbai

  • Pingback:Happy Anniversary to Me : 2 Years Living in Bombay | Rakhee Ghelani

  • April 30, 2012 at 10:01 pm
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    Glad you found you a home 🙂 I’ve been to Mumbai a few times, but never have noticed the colonial influence you refer to. Warrants another visit surely.

    PS: Finally got around to adding you to my blogroll!

    Reply
    • May 1, 2012 at 8:32 am
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      Definitely time for another visit in that case. Thanks for including me on your blog roll.

      Reply
  • April 28, 2012 at 1:52 pm
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    Nice to see that pic from Sanjay Gandhi National Park 🙂 if you are there in Mumbai around (or just after monsoon), then do visit Shilonda Trail in National Park. Its hard to believe such a place can exist within city limits.

    Reply
  • April 25, 2012 at 3:10 pm
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    Great narrative as usual – you bring life to all the places you are visiting!

    Reply
  • April 25, 2012 at 12:58 pm
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    A city with such a large slice of history buried deep within the ashes and mosses that cover its streets, the not so fabulous stories of the rich and famous. Mumbai is India in a nutshell and yet it is as distant from the real India. It still is a city where dreams are woven and dreams are crushed everyday.

    Reply
      • April 26, 2012 at 5:46 pm
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        Thank you! You have beautiful expressed the story of the metropolis.

        Reply
  • April 25, 2012 at 12:47 pm
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    Welcome to our city. It is magnet which few can resist. Do contact if you need any inputs. I have spent almost all my life here.

    Best wishes and regards

    Reply

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