"Keeweechic's Mumbai (Bombay)" a Mumbai Travel Page by keeweechic

Until recent years Mumbai was known as Bombay. The name change resulted in the reorganization of states following independence in 1947, however it took until 1996 Bombay to be renamed. Mumbai is the city’s Marathi name and seems to have been the original name of a settlement in the area. It was the British which gave the city the name of Bombay. The city is actually made up of a cluster of seven islands which were once separated by creeks and channels then reclaimed and bridged over the years by the residents. In 1661 Bombay as it was known then, was given to King Charles II as part of a dowry in his marriage to Princess Catherine de Braganza of Portugal. In 1668 it was handed over to the East India Company. Some two hundred years later, India was taken over from the East India Company by Queen Victoria, the then Queen of England and the land was ruled by a viceroy. Evidence of the British rule is apparent in the wonderful British neo-gothic architecture preserved around the city.

For centuries Mumbai has been a strategic port and a natural one. The Dutch, Portuguese, Chinese and British all went there to buy and sell goods and have contributed to creating a very cosmopolitan city. There are large ship building yards with cargo such as textiles, machinery, electronics, sugar, cotton fibre and food grains. Known as a city that never sleeps, I certainly found it to be buzzing when I arrived during the wee hours of the morning. During the early hours the different areas are active with early morning markets and street sellers cranking up for busy passing workers grabbing a coconut or sugar cane juice or choices of the cities own pau bhaji, bhel puri and kababs. No one can think of Mumbai these days without being aware of Bollywood, the biggest Indian film industry which creates hundreds of Hindi block-busters every year, making it the largest producer of films in the world.

The city is one of contrasts. From sky scrapers to mud huts and lean to’s, and from ancient handed down traditions to high fashion and nightlife, Mumbai is undoubtedly the richest city of India, paying half the nations income tax, but the other side of the city is sadly so poor that it breaks your heart. Children live in the streets and in slums, begging for whatever they can get, with little hope of a future that so many of us take for granted.