LET THE GLORY OUT: Mumbai: Day One

Recently I flew to Mumbai for four days. I hoped to do a little preliminary research for my dissertation at Oxford, and also to see a new part of the country. Both counts were wildly successful. The trip was delightful. It was also eventful, so I'll recount the days over the course of a few posts.

As home to more than 12 million people, Mumbai is the largest city in India and the fifth largest in the world by population. Located on the west cost with an active harbour, this is also the country's richest city. While "Mumbai" itself may not sound particularly familiar (the city was renamed from Bombay in 1995) you've likely seen parts of the city. The 2008 movie Slumdog Millionaire was set and filmed there. (More on that later.)

I'd heard that Mumbai's development was 20-30 years ahead of the area where I live. That seemed to be true. After an hour in town I texted a fellow IJM intern from my city, "two words: traffic lanes." An incredulous response came in capital letters. Reminders of what we've grown accustomed to living without are sometimes mind numbing. Apart from merely having lines painted on the roads, cars actually adhered to the delineations. That was a sight to behold. Cars were largely the same, though I did see more luxury vehicles, but the taxis were unique. As in our city, virtually all taxis were of the same model. Where our Ambassadors are wholly yellow and round, these were a bit more retro:

The taxi break lights are positioned in the center of the rear dashboard.

I had to laugh at other differences between the cities. Whereas most of our streets are lined with trash, these streets were lined with flowers. Local florists' roadside displays worked wonders for city beautification.

Mumbai sits beside the Arabian Sea, and my favorite part of the city was certainly the water. Because of its shape, inhabitants are hard pressed to travel more than a couple miles in any direction without encountering the sea. The breeze was a strong counter to the Indian heat and the general stench that seems to hang over cities here; a mix of mildew, burning trash, body odor and car exhaust.

Among other things, Mumbai is famous for the Bandra-Worli Sea Link, an eight-lane bridge crossing Mahim Bay that took ten years to complete.

Close to 40,000 vehicles cross the bridge daily.

For my first night in town a couple IJM Mumbai interns took me to a restaurant on the roof of The Four Seasons. My friends and I love our city, be assured, but we don't have anything on this scale. I felt like Gomer Pyle on a maiden voyage out of Mayberry. Everything was breathtaking!