A cosmopolitan metropolis, Mumbai was built on seven islands on the Konkan coastline which over time were joined to form the island city of Bombay.
The island was in turn joined with the neighbouring island of Salsette to form Greater Bombay. The city has an estimated metropolitan population of 21 million , making it one of the world's most populous cities. Mumbai is undoubtedly the commercial capital of India and is one of the predominant port cities in the country.
Mumbai's nature as the most eclectic and cosmopolitan Indian city is symbolised in the presence of Bollywood within the city, the centre of the globally-influential Hindi film and TV industries. It is also home to India's largest slum population and the iconic Gateway of India built on the waterfront of Mumbai Harbour during the British Raj.
Mumbai is named after the goddess Mumbadevi of the Koli community. A visitor to Mumbai's suburbs will quickly learn that the suburbs are divided into "Western" and "Central".
You will also hear of a "West" side and an "East" side. Here is a quick explanation for the confused:. Mumbai is a city built in successive waves of migrations. The neighbourhoods acquired their character from the communities that settled there first. These neighbourhoods are too numerous to list and there is no commonly accepted way to group these neighbourhoods into larger districts. But roughly, from the south to the north, this is how the city developed.
