AAMCHI MUMBAI

Born n brought up in this beautiful city i have deep attachment with "Aamchi Mumbai". The city which never sleeps. The city which has thousand stories to tell. The city of dreams, the city of broken dreams. From Haji Ali to Siddhivinayak, from local trains to the Vada Pav, from the boulders of Bandstand to the sands of Juhu, from Mangeshkar to Tendulkar, from the Khans to the Bachchans, it is ‘Aamchi Mumbai’ all the way.

 So what is it that makes this city so irresistible? 

Is it the spirit of Mumbai, the unpredictable monsoons, the fast-paced life in the local trains or Bollywood? I would say absolutely everything! Enjoying the cool breeze or simply admiring the beauty of the Arabian sea at Marine Drive is sheer bliss.With fruit juice at Rs. 5 a glass outside railway stations, to Rs. 200 a cappuccino at the Trident, life in Mumbai sails smooth with all its diversity. The night remains young from DJ jamming sessions to ek chaalis ki last local. Even in the nights, there is movement – whether in the form of discotheques and pubs or the auto-rickshaw drivers plying the roads all through the night.From street shopping bargaining at Colaba market or Bandra Linking road to brand conscious purchases at Jimmy choo. This city has a lot to offer in every way. When it comes to food, we get absolutely everything. Finger licking street food to fine dining restaurants, and not to forget the midnight bhurji-pav walas. This city doesn't let you sleep hungry for sure.

No mention of Mumbai can be complete without speaking of the Mumbai film industry, often lovingly termed as Bollywood. Almost a hundred Bollywood movies have had as their opening scene a long shot of Victoria Terminus, introducing Mumbai as sapno ki nagari. The famous ‘Tu Hi Re’ on old fort reminds us of Bombay, whereas Ranbir Kapur’s ‘Wake up Sid’ sketches Mumbai on a realistic canvas. Dreams come true here, dreams shatter here, but life doesn’t go off the tracks. The locals move on, carrying few lakh dreaming hearts every day.‘Bombay to Goa’ to ‘Saathiya’, the local train has repeatedly come on the silver screen. Even the Oscar winning Indian movie ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ had one of its popular songs shot at the famous Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus platform. The city of Bollywood has people from small towns visiting everyday just to have a glimpse of their favourite stars. Be it "Mannat"-Shahrukh khan's sea facing bungalow or Amitabh Bachhan's residence at Juhu. People from all over the country come to Mumbai with mainly one dream: to make it big. With the Hindi film industry situated in Mumbai, every year thousands of hopefuls land up here to become actors and actresses. In fact, out of every ten people who migrate here, seven want to be a part of the film industry. Others come here in search of a job or to improve their careers.

Watch Mumbai wash its dirty linen in public at the Dhobi Ghat, the world’s biggest laundromat turned tourist attraction. You’ll find over 200 dhobi families washing and drying a bright patchwork of saris, kurtas and boxers in the open with the smell of detergent in the air.

 A million-dollar baby … elephant This infant is 12 feet tall, his name is Lalbaugcha Raja and he is the king of Mumbai’s annual 10-day Ganesh festival in September. During the festival, more than two million Hindu devotees throng to see the wish-granting idol of the infant elephant god, which was insured for 25 million rupees this year. Devotees collectively donate Rs 5 crore and more than 5,000 sacks of coconuts each year, then follow the Raja on a procession toward Chowpatty beach, where he's immersed in the sea.

 One of the most prominent features of Mumbai’s culture is the language which has evolved since years .It is called Bambaiyya Hindi, it is exactly that, Hindi with a dash of Mumbai’s flavor. Here Aloo is commonly referred to as batata and pyaaz as kanda, kona is referred to as khopcha and dimaag as bheja!!

 This city belongs to diverse cultures and religions from the entire country who work together in harmony.It is a melting pot of different people from different cultural, religious, ethnic and lingual backgrounds. The people here have a no nonsense attitude, but are very warm hearted. Millions go unnoticed like sand castles washed away at the 

beach, millions are attracted by the skyscrapers, and millions are immortalized like the Elephantas. The commercial capital of India, this city comes as a surprise to visitors with its high rising structures, multi millionaires driving down the roads, multinational business houses on the one hand and decaying old structures, slums in the form of Dharawi and the overcrowded surroundings on the other. It depicts the place that is always up and about, a city with a spirit of gold and a determination to never say die, even in the wake of terrorist attacks and natural calamities. 

The engine siren pierces through the silence of the night, the bogies rattle on the tracks, the signals go red and green, the pebbles on the fishplates turn and overturn, and the Mumbai city go on and on.