The former Bombay was renamed Mumbai in 1995, to unsettle its colonial past. A wise choice that makes this megacity the benevolent mother goddess of India. A divinity with three faces, those of trade, industry and finance, dressed in the Technicolor sari of Bollywood.
What remains of the "smell of India" in Mumbai, that Pasolini and his wandering mood discover in the poorly reputeed neighborhoods of the Port of Bombay in 1963? Of all those people that he makes characters sleeping on the sidewalk? What remains of "a certain idea of India", of Moravia who makes the same journey? The first is wild and beautiful, the second is interested in the religious fact. 53 years later, Mumbai is no longer the same. Grab last minute flight deals to india and save big on your travel trip to india.
Bombay, first of all is no more. Except for the High Court and its scholarships, 70% of the capital transactions of the entire Indian economy (Bombay Stock Exchange and India National Stock Exchange).
The largest Indian megacity, which count 19 million of souls, has disposed in its denomination of any colonial reference. "The Good Bay" or "Bom Bahia", a vestige of the Portuguese occupation of 130 years in the seventeenth century, which the British angliciseront in Bombay, disappears in 1995. Here it is more religiously Mumbai, contraction of the goddess Hindu Mumbadevi and of Aai or mother in Marathi – Moravia won. The benevolent mother goddess of the city which has its temple (destroyed by the English in the eighteenth century and rebuilt in 1830), does not possess, oddly, no mouth. Here she is silent in the face of new Technicolor deities from Bollywood Studios, but also from commerce, industry and finance. Silent in the face of the largest slums in Asia (Pasolini also won) as with its multiple dwelling skyscrapers which, like Babel, defy the skies.
The visitor will enjoy the sweetness of the dry season and pay close attention to the intimacy of Mahatma Gandhi, at the Gandhi House Museum, and to the early youth of Rudyard Kipling, a native of Bombay and a symbol of British colonialism. He will keep a deep nostalgia for his whole life.
From Bollywood to the palaces of the maharajas, to the sacred cows and Hindu temples, India's wealth is immeasurable. A fascinating country that an entire life would not be enough to know. From Delhi to the north, to Mumbai to the south, a trip to India is a life experience.
If it is an Asian country that invites to reverie, it is indeed India. Delhi travels in "rickshaw". Its old town, its red Fort, Chandni Chowk and its great Mosque, the medieval district of Nizam-ud-Din, all inspires a stroll. The north of India is also a sunrise on the splendid and legendary Taj Mahal. India has countless palaces of maharajas in which it is possible to stay. Varanasi, the sacred place of Hinduism welcomes every year millions of pilgrims who come to wash themselves of all sins in the waters of the Ganges. His travel guide is closed in India to soak up the Indian traditions and the finesse of Bengali cuisine that are exhibited in the bazaars of Delhi, Jaipur and Kolkata. A flight to Rajasthan will lead you into an eternal India as drawn from the tales of the Arabian Nights.
A pure Mumbai airfare will plunge you into the Gothic Victorian architecture of this inescapable city of southern India. You can also enjoy the Portuguese colonial style of Old Goa. The Hampi campaign and its 400 Hindu temples are cycling or the rhythm of the Nilgiri mountain Railway, while Kerala travels through the backwaters. The Buddhist, Hindu and Jains temples carved out of elloa leave no one indifferent. We marvel at the multicoloured saris of the hordes of pilgrims who invest in the holy city of Puri and are allowed to be invaded by the magic of this Bollywood cinema that makes the Indians dream so much.
An ashram in the heart of Puducherry finally offers an unusual experience for travelers looking for themselves.