A city with multitude personalities

“Earth has not anything to show more fair: Dull would he be of soul who could pass by A sight so touching in its majesty: This City doth, like a garment, wear The beauty of the morning, silent, bare.”

When Wordsworth wrote these lines, he could have been inadvertently referring to the city we call Mumbai. Still called Bombay in common parlance, Mumbai is a city that touches one’s soul in more ways than one.

While on the one hand, it is the financial nerve centre of the country, on the other hand, it is also a potpourri of cultures and traditions. The city can overwhelm the uninitiated but, at heart it is a city that welcomes all and makes them a part of its being.

Lonely Planet describes the city beautifully: “Mumbai is big. It’s full of dreamers and hard-labourers, starlets and gangsters, stray dogs and exotic birds, artists and fisherfolk, crorepatis (millionaires) and lots and lots of people. It has India’s most prolific film industry, some of Asia’s biggest slums (as well as the world’s most expensive home) and the largest tropical forest in an urban zone.”

This ‘Maximum City’ has almost a chameleon like entity – a new avatar at different times of the day.

We at Le Passage to India take our guests on a tour of the city at the crack of dawn. It is a tour that pays homage to the people of Mumbai and venerates all those who go about their businesses obstinately with one purpose – a better life.

Your day begins early to experience Mumbai at the crack of dawn. Watch this bustling city wake up. Get a peek at its underbelly with insights into what makes this magnificent city tick.

As the day starts, you will find yourself at the clamorous and chaotic docks, where Koli fisherfolk (the original inhabitants of Mumbai), collect and grade approximately 25 tonnes of fish. You will also be privy to a one-of-its-kind fish auction of the famous Bombay Duck (yes, its a fish!).

From the fish market, to another kind of conundrum, as thousands of illiterate vendors sort out newspapers of 7 different languages, that too in the middle of the road.

Moving on to the next leg of our tour, that manifests the city’s robust vendor distribution networks – You will understand the logistics of the food distribution method in the city as 100 tonnes of meat, fruits and vegetables enter the various markets.

These markets are not only a great introduction to the people of the city, but also a tribute to the city’s resilience.

From the milkmen driving past with milk canisters to the deliveries of freshly baked bread to the melee of colour and fragrance at the flower market, all these bazaars add to the frenzy of Mumbai.

Another highlight is the ‘all herb mandi (market)’ spread across a popular bridge. Possibly the only market of its kind in the world, this green market has a thousand vendors sitting atop a bridge selling various leafy vegetables.

The final stop is to watch mallakhamba (a traditional Indian gymnastic sport performed using a rope or wooden pole) that dates back centuries and is a complete exercise for the mind, body and soul.

Earth has not anything to show more fair.

What is amazing is that by the time Mumbai is really up, there is not even a shred of evidence of the morning frenzy. It is as though another city has taken form in its stead.