Young, brash and oozing with the
cocksure self-confidence of a
maverick moneymaker,
MUMBAI
(formerly
Bombay ) revels in
its reputation as India's most
dynamic and Westernized city. Behind
the hype, however, intractable
problems threaten the Maharashtran
capital, foremost among them a
chronic shortage of space. Crammed
onto a narrow spit of land that
curls from the swamp-ridden coast
into the Arabian Sea, Mumbai has, in
less than five hundred years since
its "discovery" by the
Portuguese, metamorphosed from an
aboriginal fishing settlement into a
sprawling megalopolis of over
sixteen million people. Whether you
are being swept along broad
boulevards by endless streams of
commuters, or jostled by coolies and
hand-cart pullers in the teeming
bazaars, Mumbai always feels like it
is about to burst at the seams.
The roots of the population
problem lie, paradoxically, in the
city's enduring ability to create
wealth. Mumbai alone generates 38
percent of India's GNP, its port
handles half the country's foreign
trade, and its movie industry is the
biggest in the world. Symbols of
prosperity are everywhere, from the
phalanx of office blocks clustered
on Nariman Point, Maharashtra's
Manhattan, to the yuppie couples
nipping around town in their shiny
new Maruti hatchbacks. The flip side
to the success story, of course, is
the city's much-chronicled poverty.
Each day, hundreds of economic
refugees pour into Mumbai from the
Maharashtran hinterland. Some find
jobs and secure accommodation; many
more (around a third of the total
population) end up living on the
already overcrowded streets, or amid
the appalling squalor of Asia's
largest slums, reduced to
rag-picking and begging from cars at
traffic lights.
However, while it would
definitely be misleading to downplay
its difficulties, Mumbai is far from
the ordeal some travellers make it
out to be. Once you've overcome the
major hurdle of finding somewhere to
stay, you may begin to enjoy its
frenzied pace and crowded,
cosmopolitan feel. Conventional sights
are thin on the ground. After a
visit to the most famous colonial
monument, the Gateway of India
, and a look at the antiquities in
the Prince of Wales Museum ,
the most rewarding way to spend time
is simply to wander the city's
atmospheric streets. Downtown
, beneath rows of exuberant Victorian-Gothic
buildings, the pavements are full of
noisy vendors and office-wallahs
hurrying through clouds of wood
smoke from gram-sellers' braziers.
In the eye of the storm, encircled
by the roaring traffic of beaten-up
red double-decker buses, lie other
vestiges of the Raj, the maidans
. Depending on the time of day,
these central parks are peppered
with cricketers in white flannels,
or the bare bums of squatting
pavement-dwellers relieving
themselves on the parched brown
grass. North of the city centre, the
broad thoroughfares splinter into a
maze of chaotic streets. The central
bazaar districts afford glimpses
of sprawling Muslim neighbourhoods,
as well as exotic shopping
possibilities, while Mumbai is at
its most exuberant along Chowpatty
Beach , which laps against
exclusive Malabar Hill . When
you've had enough mayhem, the
beautiful rock-cut Shiva temple on Elephanta
Island - a short trip by launch
across the harbour from the
promenade, Apollo Bunder -
offers a welcome half-day escape.
If you're heading for Goa or
south India, you'll probably have to
pass through Mumbai at some stage.
Its international airport, Sahar
, is the busiest in the country; the
airline offices downtown are
handy for confirming onward flights,
and all the region's principal air,
road and rail networks originate
here. Whether or not you choose to
stay for more time than it takes to
jump on a train or plane to
somewhere else depends on how well
you handle the burning sun, humid
atmosphere and perma-fog of petrol
fumes, and how seriously you want to
get to grips with the India of the
twenty-first century.
