![\"mum.jpg\"](\"http:\/\/www.asianinny.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/01\/mum.jpg\")
<\/p>\nMeasure out: one part Hollywood; six parts traffic; a bunch of rich power-moguls; stir in half a dozen colonial relics (use big ones); pour in six heaped cups of poverty; add a smattering of swish bars and restaurants (don\u2019t skimp on quality here for best results); equal parts of…<\/p>\n
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Measure out: one part Hollywood; six parts traffic; a bunch of rich power-moguls; stir in half a dozen colonial relics (use big ones); pour in six heaped cups of poverty; add a smattering of swish bars and restaurants (don\u2019t skimp on quality here for best results); equal parts of mayhem and order; as many ancient bazaars as you have lying around; a handful of Hinduism; a dash of Islam; fold in your mixture with equal parts India; throw it all in a blender on high (adding generous helpings of pollution to taste) and presto: Mumbai.<\/p>\n
An inebriating mix of all the above and more, this mass of humanity is a frantic melange of India\u2019s extremes. It is the country\u2019s financial powerhouse and its vogue centre of fashion, film and after-dark frolics. Glistening skyscrapers and malls mushroom amid slums and grinding poverty, and Mumbai slowly marches towards a brave new (air-conditioned) world. But not everyone made the guest list: more than half of the population lives in slums, and religious-based social unrest tugs at the skirt of Mumbai\u2019s financial excess.<\/p>\n
Only once the initial shell shock of Mumbai\u2019s chaos subsides, can one start to appreciate the city\u2019s allure: a wealth of Art Deco and grand colonial relics; cacophonic temples; warrens of bazaars; and the odd spiritual bastion of tranquility. In Mumbai you can dine at some of the finest restaurants in the country, and work off the appetite gyrating at ultrachic bars alongside Bollywood starlets and wannabes. With a pinch of gumption, a dash of adventure, an open wallet and a running start, there\u2019s no excuse not to dive into the Mumbai madness head-first.<\/p>\n
Climate: Tropical monsoonal; warm temperatures all year, with heavy rainfall concentrated in the summer months<\/p>\n
Getting Around
\nMumbai Island, the heart of Mumbai city, is only 65 square kilometers (25 square miles) in area and extremely congested. Six million people commute daily on Mumbai’s public transportation system.<\/p>\n
Getting There
\nThe city lies on Mumbai Island, located off the Konkan coast of western India.<\/p>\n
Highways
\nMumbai is approachable by land only from the north (National Highway 8) and east, where National Highways 3 and 4 converge and cross over from the mainland to Thane on Salsette Island. This route then continues southward into the city, where a single main road continues to Colaba Point, and the southernmost tip of Mumbai Island. Bridges, such as the Thana Creek Bridge, link Mumbai to the suburbs of Greater Mumbai on the mainland.
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\nBus and Railroad Service
\nMumbai is an important rail center. Trains with colorful names, such as the Frontier Mail and Deccan Queen, set out from the city’s two main stations, Victoria Terminus (now called Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus) and Mumbai Central, carrying passengers to distant parts of the country. The headquarters of India’s Western Railway and Central Railway are located in the city. The Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation and other State and private companies provide bus service to and from the city.<\/p>\n
Airports
\nMumbai’s Sahar International Airport (recently renamed the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport), on Salsette Island, handles almost two-thirds of India’s international air traffic. The airport is served by most major international carriers. Domestic flights use Santa Cruz Airport (also renamed Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Airport), which shares the same runways but operates from separate terminals.<\/p>\n
Shipping
\nMumbai’s deepwater harbor and harbor facilities make it the largest port in western India, handling some 40 percent of India’s total maritime trade. Catamaran and hovercraft services carry passengers from Mumbai to Goa, a major tourist destination.<\/p>\n
ATMs
\nThe number of 24-hour ATMs linked to international networks in Mumbai has exploded in recent years and you\u2019re rarely far from one.<\/p>\n
History
\nThe area of the Konkan coast where Mumbai 1ies has been settled since prehistoric times. It later came under the control of several states that ruled western India. These included the Buddhist Mauryan Empire (fourth\u2013third centuries B. C. ) and the Hindu Satavahana, Shaka, and Rashtrakuta dynasties. The Chalukyas (A. D. 550\u2013750) built the magnificent cave temples on Elephanta Island in Mumbai Harbor. At the end of the thirteenth century, the Yadava rulers, who had their capital at Aurangabad, some 300 kilometers (186 miles) to the northeast, established a settlement at Mahim on one of Mumbai’s original seven islands. This was in response to raids on their territory by the expanding Delhi Sultanate.<\/p>\n
Mahim was captured by the Muslim ruler of Gujarat in 1348. The Portuguese reached India’s western shores in 1498, Francisco de Almeida becoming the first Portuguese to enter Mumbai Harbor when he seized a Gujarati ship there in 1508. The Portuguese eventually forced Bahadur Shah, the sultan of Gujarat, to cede them Mumbai in 1534. Mumbai was acquired by the British in 1664 as part of Catherine of Branganza’s dowry when the sister of Portugal’s king married Charles II (1630\u20131685; r. 1660\u20131685) of England. In 1668, the British East India Company leased the islands from the Crown for the nominal rent of ten pounds per year.<\/p>\n
Recognizing the potential of Mumbai and its harbor, the East India Company set about strengthening the settlement’s defenses and soon shifted its administrative headquarters to Mumbai from Surat, in Gujarat. Mumbai’s second governor, Gerald Aungier (d. 1677), laid the foundations for the city’s future growth. Political stability, the promise of religious freedom, and land grants soon attracted large numbers of settlers, including Gujarati and Parsi merchants, to Mumbai. These, and later immigrants, contributed significantly to the growth of Mumbai as an important trading center. By 1676, Mumbai had a population of around 60,000. The very end of the seventeenth century saw the beginning of the construction of seawalls, breakwaters, and reclamation projects that eventually connected the original seven islands (Mahim, Worli, Mazagaon, Old Woman’s Island, Colaba, and Mumbai Island) into a single Mumbai Island.
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\nDuring the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Mumbai lagged behind Calcutta and Madras in importance. However, a series of events in the early and mid-nineteenth century propelled the city to a position of prominence. The continuing struggle for power between the Mughals (the Muslim rulers based in north India) and the Hindu Marathas created unstable political conditions in Gujarat and western India. Artisans and merchants fled to Mumbai for security, providing the stimulus for growth and expansion. This was further enhanced by the British defeat of the warlike Marathas and the expansion of trade both with the mainland and with Europe. In 1857, the first spinning and weaving mill was established in Mumbai, creating a cotton textile industry that was given a great boost by the American Civil War (1861\u201365), which cut off supplies of cotton to Britain. The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 was another stimulus to Mumbai’s growth, further enhancing its position as a major trade, commercial, and industrial center.<\/p>\n
Mumbai’s size and economic power are reflected in its role in India’s modern political history. The city was an important center in India’s struggle for independence from British colonial rule. The Indian National Congress, which led the nation’s fight for freedom, was founded there in 1885. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869\u20131948), the Mahatma, spiritual leader of the independence movement, launched his “Quit India” campaign against the British in Mumbai in 1942. Linguistic tensions between Mumbai’s Marathi and Gujarati speakers resulted in violence in the city in the late 1950s. This led eventually to the separation of Gujarati-speaking areas from Mumbai state and the creation of Maharashtra State (1960).<\/p>\n
During the early 1990s, communal violence between Hindus and Muslims in Mumbai again shattered the myth of a tolerant, cosmopolitan city. Rioting led to the deaths of several hundred people (mostly Muslims) and culminated in the bombing (with numerous fatalities) of several buildings in March 1993. The Shiv Sena, a right-wing Maharashtra-based Hindu political party led by Bal Thackeray, was widely blamed for instigating Hindu violence against Muslims in the city. Subsequently elected to office, the Shiv Sena party in 1996 changed Mumbai’s name to “Mumbai,” the Maratha name for the city.<\/p>\n
Source : Measure out: one part Hollywood; six parts traffic; a bunch of rich power-moguls; stir in half a dozen colonial relics (use big ones); pour in six heaped cups of poverty; add a smattering of swish bars and restaurants (don\u2019t skimp on quality here for best results); equal parts of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plan-your-vacation-to-asia-with-our-traveling-information"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.asianinny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.asianinny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.asianinny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.asianinny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.asianinny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.asianinny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2085\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.asianinny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.asianinny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.asianinny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nhttp:\/\/www.lonelyplanet.com\/india\/mumbai-bombay<\/a>
\nhttp:\/\/www.city-data.com\/world-cities\/Mumbai-Bombay.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"