asialife HCMC 1 - AsiaLIFE Magazine

given an Indian name—Chhatrapati
Shivaji Maharaj Sangrahalaya)
and the General Post
Office (still called the GPO),
the letterheads of all functionary
offices could be changed.
And they were, using ‘Mumbai’
and making a lot of people
for whom Bombay came more
naturally, from individuals to
companies like Bombay Dyeing,
for instance, very unhappy.
But the spirit of the city—call
it Mumbai, officially, or Bombay
—rises above and beyond its
name. A visitor flying in at
night will be able to look down
to see a galaxy of lights of all
colours, in a way symbolizing
the many cultures and communities
that have made the metropolis
home. The airport is at
the edge of Asia’s largest slum
development—a paradox in
itself—a maze of tiny alleyways
winding through shanties piled
willy-nilly around, above and
alongside one another, where
some of the most expensive
products in the world are made
for export to the west, from
carpets to jewels to exquisitely
worked garments to leather
goods.
Mumbai was originally a
string of seven islands that
have gradually been joined by
causeways and reclamation
of land from the sea to make
one long, narrow collation
of concrete structures. Often
dubbed “city of gold,” the
region is a destination for
millions of migrant workers,
from construction labourers
to would-be-actors, who
come to Mumbai to find their
own Eldorado. Many have no
homes, spending their lives on
the streets, in dark warehouses
or in slum colonies, which make
a startling contrast to the towering
luxury apartment blocks
that tower overhead. The city is
indeed a golden one, but only
for a lucky few who have struck
it rich and found super-success.
It is also called the “city that
never sleeps,” since the roads
are rarely empty, business never
stops and life is an endless
circle.
The city is a study in contradictions.
South Mumbai, called
SoBo by the young elite, has
a high snob value. It is where
the original wealthy folks built
homes—many of these charming
mansions and bungalows
are now multi-storey apartment
blocks where a single
square foot of space is not just
exorbitantly expensive, but
rarely—if ever—available for
sale. The city stretches long and
narrow towards the western
suburbs, known mainly for the
film industry and its stars, or
towards the foothills of the Deccan
plateau, where a satellite
city called Navi Mumbai (New
Bombay) has taken root across
the creek on to the mainland.
Beaches edge much of the
coastline, with treacherous
quicksand and sharks making
some of them dangerous, while
others are dotted with tourists,
asialife HCMC 47