Bombay

Mumbai is the second largest city in the world. (Tokyo is the largest, by population density). It also has the most number of homeless squatters in India. Just gaze out your window on landing or take off, you will see the plastic sheet roofs and cardboard box-like shanties line the airport perimeter fences and they spread outward like a sprawling mound of dark brown boxes with equally brown zinc rooftops stacked very closely together, the occassional clothesline slash the box landscape. Vagrant children with yellow sand peppered hair rush to give unwanted assistance with your baggage and in the end they always complain about the meagerness of your tip. I suspect it is a well rehearsed ploy.

Our hotels carry grand names; Park Plaza, The Oberoi, The Taj President and the Taj Mahal- this grand architectural masterpiece that stands alongside the Gateway of India landmark is a proud testimony to British rule. One cannot be blamed for equating Mumbai as a dustier, older, mustier version of London. It does look that way. The old and new Mumbai are actually locked in an eternal embrace for the world to see. And see they are, as corporations rush in to see what opportunities this city, the financial hub of India, await them.