Evolution of Mumbai

Some of the original citizens of Mumbai took pains to make this city livable. The city gradually became financial capital from earlier being Industrial capital. The earlier inhabitants stayed in south Mumbai and either worked in Textile mills or Mumbai port Trust.
Gradually the Industries in Mumbai increased. Then the other industries started mushrooming in Mumbai. Later many of the Electronics companies were started in Mumbai. Mumbai became the Electronic hub of India.
There was a time when people of Mumbai were used to listening the siren of the factories early in the morning and in the evening. I remember my mother used to check her watch based on the siren. Today one can hardly hear a siren in any part of Mumbai.
The cost of real estate started increasing in Mumbai. Many of the companies and factories started moving out of Mumbai. The infrastructure improvements in other parts of India attracted these companies. Today sadly there are very few companies left in Mumbai.
As the cost of Real Estate in Mumbai is going up the greed for land is also growing, so much so that all the original settlers are being dislocated. They are either being shifted to North Mumbai or some smaller apartment by paying them certain amount of money. The towers in south Mumbai are pushing the people from old Bungalows, apartments, chawls and huts out of their properties by paying compensation.The entertainment Industry is probably the only Industry which has strong presence in Mumbai today. The city which once was flooded with small and big enterprises is today filled with residential towers and malls. The average Mumbai resident today has very limited options to go to work.
How long can Mumbai sustain on such limited resource ?

Transportation in Mumbai

Mumbai is probably only city in India where one can travel at any time of the day or night and expect a public mode of transport.
The Railway is one of the most common and popular mode of transportation in Mumbai. Lakhs of people travel daily by train. The trains are timed by the minutes. The trains are heavily crowded but still the people prefer to travel by train as it takes less time than traveling by road. It is also the cheapest mode of travel. The trains are available almost through out the 24 hours of the day.
The second most common and popular mode of transportation in Mumbai is by the BEST buses. BEST not only stands for Brihanumumbai Electric Supply and Transport, but it also stands for the best buses available in India. Even though these buses are heavily crowded they keep moving and take the passengers to their destination. These buses are kept clean. The buses keep moving almost 24 hours of the day.
The third most common mode of travel in Mumbai is Auto-rickshaw. Auto-rickshaw is a three wheel vehicle. It is convenient to travel by this as it is small in size and can conveniently move in the heavy traffic of Mumbai.
The Yellow-black Cabs are also available. They are more popular in south Mumbai. Cool cabs are equally popular. One can also dial a cab. Hence traveling in Mumbai is very easy. The latest addition to the public transport in Mumbai are the AC buses.

Staple diet of Mumbaikar

There are quite a few interesting snacks very popular in Mumbai. The most common and easily available diet of Mumbaikar is the Vada pao. Vada pao is available at every corner of Mumbai. Most of the Mumbaikars eat a Vada pao if they feel hungry and are short of time to have a proper meal. The second snacks that comes to the mind of a Mumbaikar is Paani-puri. People enjoy eating Paani-puri. The third snack that a Mumbaikar commonly eats is Bhelpuri.

Mumbai is a city on the West coast of India. The people of Mumbai are called Mumbaikar.The local people of Mumbai eat Rice and Chapati (Indian Wheat bread). Many of the Mumbaikars eat fish. Bombay Duck is the fish which is one of the fish which is very specific to Mumbai.

Chanawallas and Namakwallas of Mumbai

      I can vividly remember my childhood days. There were few luxuries. One of them was to to take 5 paise from father and buy chana from chanawallah. It gave immense pleasure to share the chana with friends and family. The simplicity of the action has lost its value today. The chanawallah would come every evening shouting to sell his wares. It was nice to see the children collected around him to buy things. Today the chanawallah has disappeared or very rarely seen. The importance is also lost. Today the kids get to eat anything from the ice-cream to cake at the drop of the hat and they do not value it.

      Another important person from the childhood was the Namakwala. He would come selling salt. Today people buy the iodized salt, powdered salt which is supposed to be free flowing. Those days the salt used to granular, sticky. The ladies of the house used to rush out to buy the salt. The iodized salt was unheard of. They would bargain with the salt seller while buying salt. Today we do not know who packs the salt. It comes in packets and the human touch is lost.