Reported by IOL
For most people, the phrase “the city that never sleeps” conjures up images of New York. But 12 500 kilometres away, another city has earned the same nickname: It is Mumbai, India’s largest city, with a population of more than 21 million.
It is a teeming, pulsating metropolis where shanty towns dot the coastline and the poor live cheek by jowl with the rich. Luxury high-rise buildings tower over blue canvas-covered shacks, and the contrast seems as natural as breathing to Mumbaikars.
For a group of foreign journalists who visited Mumbai after covering the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi, courtesy of India’s Ministry of External Affairs, the sight of makeshift shops virtually at the doorstep of our luxury five-star hotel, The St Regis, was something of a shock to the system.
But we were soon overtaken by a sense of awe as we caught a glimpse of the real Mumbai – colourful, chaotic, entrepreneurial, diverse, and exhilarating.
The city, a composite of seven islands on India’s western coast along the Arabian Sea, is the country’s financial heart. People from across India flock to Mumbai in search of economic opportunities, many hoping to make it big in the multibillion-dollar film industry for which the city is famous. Little wonder, then, that the city that never sleeps is also known as the “City of Dreams”.