A trip to the world's largest city

Mumbai, or Bombay as it was formerly known, is a teeming metropolis that is unlike any city I've ever visited. I commented while I was there that it was like New York City in the tropics, but that's only part of the story. Mumbai has an identity all its own, from the slums of Dharavi to the expensive waterfront apartments. Despite its terrible climate and smog-choked streets, people flock to the city in hopes of a better life and a higher income.

Getting around the city during the monsoon season is a I don’t think any trip to India is complete without a trip to Mumbai. Formerly known as Bombay, the world’s largest megacity is the epicenter of Indian culture, society, and commerce. We hardly had a chance to dig deep into the city’s underbelly and experience its nightlife. However, we were offered the opportunity to visit the city and get a brief glimpse of what the city looks like.

Mumbai is quite frankly unlike any other city I’ve ever experienced. It’s a far grittier than any Western larger city, with the city bursting at the seams with its massive population grinding out their lives. As soon as we got into the city, it was immediately noticeable by the amount of traffic. The streets of Pune seemed absolutely tame compared with the number of cars and the number of people all trying to get around. The situation has led to a whole host of infrastructure problems. During the monsoon season, the city is prone to flooding, which leaves transportation at an utter standstill. Just going a few kilometers can take hours. Recently, progress has been made in improving infrastructure, most notably with the addition of a 3-mile-long bridge over the Arabian Sea that connects the Mumbai suburbs with the mainland.

Upon arrival to central Mumbai, we saw exactly what every tourist coming through Mumbai is supposed to see: the Hotel Taj Mahal and the Gateway of India. Neither of these structures is a particularly remarkable architectural achievement, and they draw their significance from some of the key events that surround them. The Gateway of India was built about a hundred years ago to commemorate the arrival of the British Royalty. Ironically, the last British troops to leave India left through the Gateway of India in 1948.

The Hotel Taj Mahal, unfortunately, bears little resemblance to the famous landmark in Agra, but it is significant in its own right. The hotel is the flagship of the Taj Hotel system, which is known for some of the top hotels in India (the hotel we stayed at in Goa was a Taj hotel), and without a doubt is one of the most famous hotels on earth. Unfortunately, fame in today’s world is not always a good thing. Like New York City’s two most famous towers, pro-Pakistani extremists targeted the hotel along with seven other locations in an act of terrorism against the Indian people. We remember the day the Twin Towers Fell as 9/11. Indians remember the Mumbai attacks, which left at least 173 killed on November 26 of last year as 26/11.

Like the response to our own terrorist attacks, there has been an increased sense of patriotism in the country, as well as a far greater sense of vigilance. Security guards and their metal detectors are posted outside virtually every mall, hotel, and high-rise building. For the most part, their jobs entail stopping camera-happy tourists like myself from taking pictures of “strategic” areas (read: nice office buildings) and using mirrors to look underneath cars. In addition, memorials have been placed in memory of the attacks and the people they killed.

Our next stop was another location of the Mumbai terrorist attacks: Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (formerly Victoria Terminus). Fortunately, despite being the location of the brutal terrorist attacks of last year, the railway station is far more well known for another important role: it’s the railway station in Slumdog Millionaire. I don’t think it can fully be expressed in the movie what this station is like—it’s an absolute madhouse. when a train arrives you just see people start pouring out and the previously empty platform becomes a swarming mass of humanity.

Perhaps this, more than anything, sums up what Mumbai is like. Mumbai is overpopulated, choked by poor infrastructure and pollution, and has a stifling climate. Yet despite all of that, Mumbai is in a very real way the crown jewel of the Indian subcontinent. It is the epicenter of the culture of India. Bollywood and the hundreds of movies it makes every year is in Mumbai, and the high rent district along the waterfront is occupied by wealthy Indian businessmen and celebrities just a few miles from some of the largest slums on Earth. It is also the economic center of India, with many of India’s largest and most famous companies based in the city and 40% of India’s foreign trade going through Mumbai.

In conclusion, I couldn’t help but recognize the vast contradiction that Mumbai lives in. It’s a city that is undoubtedly one of the most cosmopolitan in India and certainly seems more “Western” in its attitude (at least compared to Pune), but still has an infrastructure that was outdated decades ago. It’s a city where we saw a Bollywood movie star being interviewed in the shadow of some of the most expensive property in the country just a couple hundred yards from where a young woman with a child was begging for money to feed themselves. However, it is no different in the fact that like all cities, it has its problems that need to be fixed. In spite of this, a trip to Mumbai was well worth the visit, and I’m very glad we were able to do it.