Mumbai - The Blessed City Of Goddess Mahalakshmi

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Located at the west coast of India, and gifted with a deep natural dock, Mumbai was formally popular as Bombay. It has the privilege of being the largest metropolitan city of India and one of the most populous in the world. It is one of few cities that never sleep for the men and material are perpetually in the transit.

Mumbai is the city of dreams for it beholds in its lap a plethora of opportunities and immense possibilities. It is a city which one loves in spite of its constant hustle and bustle. Its effervescence is in itself a reason for its flourish. People who have once tasted its vibrancy invariably thrive in its liveliness. Although Mumbai is city of a never ending struggle for life, yet people who arrive here once rarely go back.

Mumbai is the pulsating nerve center that fans out audio-visual entertainment through the length and breath of the country. It has virtually spread out its influence worldwide. Mumbai is the hub for initiating and determining contemporary social guidelines by casting influence through dramatics and motion cinema. On the same lines the vice-versa is also true. Contemporary fashion lines are dictated and find shape here for the entire country. People from overseas are as much as enthusiastic about the Hindi movies as those living here. The Hindi film industry of Mumbai functions as the Bollywood and is home to India’s famed film and television industry.

Besides the entertainment sector, Bollywood is the commercial capital of India and operates the Bombay Stock exchange and the National stock Exchange with in its ambit. It houses the prestigious Reserve Bank of India and several small, medium and large scale financial and commercial institutions of profit as well as non-profit providing employment to a major chunk of population that immigrate to Mumbai from across the country. The city is a focal point of exalted industries catering to the media, healthcare, information technology, diamond polishing, engineering besides innumerable other businesses new as well as the traditional. Mumbai is celebrated for highest collection of income tax, custom duties, and central excise taxes besides billions flowing in through the corporate taxes. Blue collar workers as well as the white collar workers and several incumbents from various walks of life find home in the city called Mumbai. It is a true metropolis where sprawling slums and towering skyscrapers coexist.

Mumbai is an archipelago of seven islands namely, the Isle of Bombay, Mazagaon, Colaba, Old Woman’s Island, Parel, Worli and the Salsette Island. Evidences excavated at Kandvali reveal its habitation even during the Stone Age. The conglomeration was sea side fishing villages till acquired by the Portuguese in the 16th century from Bahadur Shah of Gujarat. The Portuguese christened it as Bombaim. It was later anglicized to Bombay following acquisition by the British. Bombay was gifted as dowry for Catherine de Braganza, the Portuguese princess who wedded Charles II of England, in 1661. Interestingly the islands were thereafter sublet to the East India Company in 1668 for a sum as small as 10 pounds. The Company was prompt enough to lay down their first harbor in the Indian sub-continent considering the deep natural harbor in the high seas of Bombay. With the shifting of British headquarters then stationed in Surat to Bombay in 1697, the city became to be referred to as the Presidency city of western India. Today Mumbai has distinction of being a multicultural, multilingual and a liberal city which add color, flavor, vigor and fiber to the Mumbai’s pot pauri.

A project called the Hornby Vellard (1817-1845) was undertaken to amalgamate the seven islands into one unified landmass. The city is honored for being the first to run the maiden railway line connecting Bombay to Thane in 1853. Its status as city par excellence was multiplied in several folds with the inception of prime cotton trade markets during the times of American Civil War which lasted from 1861-1865.

Mumbai lies at the inception of River Ulhas in the coastal and the lush green belt of Konkan off the western coast of India. The region is a home to unique endemic flora and fauna nestled in its inhabitation. The nearly Borivali National Park incorporates the Tulsi Lake and Vihar lake within its seams. These lakes along with the Powai Lake serve as the suppliers of drinking water to this vivacious city. The northern regions of Mumbai are mountainous while the coastline of the city is shuffled with bays and creeks. The ecology of Mumbai and its adjoining areas especially the eastern coast of Salsette Island is distinctive with mangrove swamps rich in biodiversity. The Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus and the Elephanta Caves also in Mumbai are honored for being on the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Rosy Vohra works for booksellers India

Tags: booksellers India, Mumbai

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