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Mumbai on my mind

It was a real quick taxi run through some familiar haunts in the northern fringe of Mumbai Municipal limits in Mulund to the south Mumbai landmarks before heading to the hotel for a stay close to the airport in central Mumbai.

Using newly built flyovers that connect the northern burbs to the Mazgaon Shipbuilding dock area on the shores of the Arabian Sea we did a fast crossing of 17 minutes to reach the Gateway of India.  The Mughal style gate was built to honor the arrival of the then Emperor of India and completed in 1924.
Ship yards, Mazgaon Docks

Tourists gaping at the sights of Mumbai - Gateway of India on the Arabian Sea
 After feeling enough claustrophobia amidst the thousands of local and visiting crowds at the Gateway and Taj Mahal hotel area we continued west toward Marine Drive past the beach front known as Girgaon Chowpatty,

Sea View apartments - prized real estate, Marine Drive

Nearing Sunset - Marine Drive, Mumbai

Queen's necklace so named due to the curve of the ocean road


Continued to navigate our way past all of the most primo real estate including the Ultimate on Altamount road in the form of the billion dollar Ambani residence called Antilla.
It sort of resembles concrete containers stacked on each other but is considered to be one of the most pricey, if not THE ULTIMATE in Mumbai real estate built through years of business savvy and politicking by the Ambani family from Gujarat, profiting from petrochemicals.  The modern day oriental John Rockefeller as it were.

My house is bigger than yours... Ambani residence














Mumbai thusly represents a concrete jungle of distinct contrasts evident in multi million dollar real estate and dirt poor shanties that house the hopefuls arriving by the trainloads within stone's throw of the beach front.

We eventually navigated past the famous Haji Ali Darga (a mosque in the sea) towards and onto the new span over the sea called the Bandra Worli Sea Link. 

Open since 2010 this new link reduces travel times to half hour between south Mumbai and the business district in Bandra

A 60 INR tollway took minutes to get us over from Worli sea face to the bustling commercial complex that is now Bandra.  All former fishing villages now are HQ to the world's largest companies wanting a presence or toehold in India.

Much like the British East India company did during the reign of the monarchs 100 years ago so too do the large Fortune International conglomerates that package the support services and software writing skills from the sub continent and reap profits by selling to businesses worldwide.

Capitalism where you can find it. 

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