My holiday to Mumbai, the financial capital of India, taught me lessons no other place would have. It is an intriguing city, things here are so complicated that it takes concentration to understand. Yet it is the city with a face which I will never forget and which I will always hold dear to my heart. Ancient yet modern, fabulously rich yet achingly poor it is a city of opposites and has to be experienced to understand. Mumbai is India in miniature.
In 1661, Bombay as it was called by the British, was the dowry given to Charles II of England by the Portuguese Princess Infanta Catherine de Braganza who married Charles II. It was the brightest of jewels of the British Raj. Today it’s a teeming metropolis, commercial hub of an old civilization which has found its place in the New World Order.
More than forty percent of India’s taxes come from this city alone, and half of India’s international trade passes through its splendid natural harbour. In fact Mumbai is the very soul of human enterprise. At the Bombay Stock Exchange, the oldest stock exchange in Asia (established in 1875) millionaires and paupers are made overnight.
Another characteristic of Mumbai is its sidewalks vendors hawking everything from ballpoint pens to second hand books, to clothes, to household items. Half of Mumbai’s population commutes from far-flung suburbs to downtown offices, banks, factories and mills for a living. There is a very good railway transport system which is used by most Mumbaites.
Wealthy industrialists, flashy film stars, internationally acclaimed artists, workers, teachers and clerks - all existing cheek by jowl in soaring skyscrapers and sprawling slums. They come from diverse ethnic backgrounds and speak over a dozen tongues adding colour, flavour and texture to the Great Mumbai Melting Pot. The available here is also diverse. From every part of India the specialists arrive in Mumbai to make a mark in their careers. From sidewalk dabbas to five star luxury restaurants – they are all available in this city. In short, you can taste all specialties of Indian food if you want to in the city of Mumbai.