The Coming of Age of Mumbai
ISBN:475674565

A new look at the city of Mumbai, the New York of the East through the eyes of one that has grown up in this fascinating city, and experienced its various hues. If you go into the history of Mumbai, it was always the outsiders who contributed to its growth every few centuries. Even now, in 2014, it is the outsiders that continue to make it grow. The book will focus on the origins of the Kolis and their position in society today in the mega city of Mumbai of 2014, and the growth of the other communities: SINDHIS, PARSIS, GUJARATIS, PANJABIS, SOUTH INDIANS, UP-WALLAHS – they and others make up what Mumbai is today; they are all collectively responsible for Mumbai. This will be a first-of-its-kind book that talks about the people that make Mumbai what it is. A beautifully researched account of a city that intrigues, inspires, and is called ‘the city of dreams’. It was always outsiders that shaped Mumbai’s growth every few centuries. Bom Bahia was a good listener, a good doer. People from across India, and abroad migrate to Mumbai for various reasons, many of them with an intention and sheer determination to settle here permanently, and then, never want to return to their place of origin or birth. Even though they never stop complaining about the extreme pollution, the horrendous traffic, the littered and pot-holed streets, the poverty neck-to-neck with the most affluent residential areas, the acute humidity, the torrential monsoons, the sky-high realty rates and rents, the shortage of potable water, the overcrowded-bursting-at-its-seams public transport, the unfinished infrastructure. Why? Because Mumbai works for them!