Bombay

When I arrived in Bombay, it was still very dark. It had rained over night, but it was warm and very humid. There were few people on the streets, but there was a heavy military and police presence. I got a taxi to take me to my hotel, in the Colaba district, but that is where the terrorist trouble had been, so many of the streets were blocked off. My taxi dropped me off about six blocks from my hotel, at a police checkpoint, and told me just to walk a few blocks down the street to my hotel. It was more than a few blocks, but with a bit of help from the street people of the night, I found my way to my hotel, verified that I had a room, dropped my bag off at the desk and headed out to find some breakfast. Bombay is a large and busy city. It is a center of business, finance, fashion and movies. Some of the town is rich, but much of it is poor. Over half of the people in Bombay live in shanty town slums. These people work in sweatshops in the slums, are beggars, or have small sidewalk stalls. The sidewalks are lined with small merchant stalls. The name Bombay originated during a period of Portugese rule. In 1996, Bombay was renamed as Mumbai, after a goddess, Mumba, who was important to the fishing communities that lived in the area at least back to 2 BC.