This post today is dedicated to the City of Dreams. Any guesses...? Well, its all about Mumbai today. We will be seeing some important information about Mumbai in this post. You will get to know much about this great city.Mumbai, as we all know is the city of dreams for one and all here in India. Mumbai is located on the west coast of India. The city which is the financial capital of India was probably first recorded as the home of fisherfolk where a group of Buddhist monks established an outpost late during the Magadhan empire. The islands were tossed from one king to another emperor for two millenia, until the maritime trade empire of the British decided to develop the natural harbour into a city. In the four hundred years since then, the city has grown by a series of land reclamations which now link the original islands into one mass.
For the last hundred years, the city of Mumbai was called as Bombay. The name Bombay is believed to be derived from the phrase named "Bom Bahia" which is actually a Portuguese term meaning "good bay". In 1997, the name "Bombay" was changed and renamed to "Mumbai". It all happened by an act of the parliament in 1997. The reason for this change was that in two of the local languages, Marathi and Gujarati, the city has long been called Mumbai. It is believed that the name comes from the name of one of the old Koli goddesses, Mumba Devi, a temple to whom now stands in Bhuleshwar.
Mumbai has a population of over 15 million people and keeps on growing day by day. The core area called the "Island City" is known to be the most expensive real estates in all of India. And is one of the reasons why the city has grown far into the mainland both to the north and the east.
Mumbai is also known as the financial capital of India. The stock exchange of India is located here and also most large business houses have their corporate offices in this city. It is also the primary center for the arts and the entertainment industry. In India it is the city of gold, of dreams. Everyone comes here to make money, whether by selling chapatis on Chowpatti or stolen wallets and used dentures by the roadside. Whatever may be, Bombay does sleep at night, but usually rather late and very briefly.
Well, I hope you people came to know something about Mumbai. To tell you more, Mumbai has drawn global attention in recent times. And its just because it has rose as the hub of the Indian Film Industry. The Hindi Film Industry popularly known as the Bollywood is located here. Bollywood is the largest film producer in India and one of the largest in the world. The name is a portmanteau of Bombay (the former name for Mumbai) and Hollywood, the center of the American film industry. Lakhs of films are produced each year in the bollywood and with now global penetration, Bollywood seems to be rocking everywhere.
Some interesting facts on Mumbai -
- Mumbai singlehandedly handles about 25% of the domestic and 38% of the international air passenger traffic in the country.
- Mumbai's suburban rail systems carry a total of 2.2 billion passengers every year. Incidentally, the world's population is 6 billion.
- Mumbai's literacy rate is 85.6% (female: 82.7%, male: 90%) compared with India's overall literacy of 65.4%.
- Mumbai's per capita income is Rs 48,954. This is almost three times the national average!
- At the end of financial year 2002-03, Mumbai paid Rs 28,000 crore in taxes, 35% of India's collection of Rs 82,000 crore!
- The original Walkeshwar Temple was destroyed by the Portuguese, but was rebuilt by Rama Kamath in 1715.
- Bombay University was founded in 1857 at the Town Hall, and was shifted to the new complex near Oval Maidan in 1874.
- The Elphinstone College was originally built for the Government Central Press at a cost of Rs 7.5 lakh.
- The city's first church - the St Thomas Cathedral - was built at Horniman Circle in 1718.
- The first post office in Bombay was opened in 1832 at the residence of the junior magistrate of police at Byculla.
- The Stearns & Kittredge company was given permission in 1874 to start Bombay's first tram service with a fleet of 900 horses.
- The East India Company appointed Sir George Oxenden the first governor of Bombay in 1668.
- Until 1864, the city's highest ranking police officer was called Police Chief. Post 1864, the title was changed to Police Commissioner.
- The Hanging Gardens at Malabar Hill was built over three reservoirs which can store up to 300 lakh gallons of water.
- The first inter-city railway was built between Bombay and Surat, and was completed in 1864.
- The Great Indian Peninsular Railway laid the first rail tracks in India between Thane and Bombay.
- It took 60 years to merge the seven islands of Bombay into one landmass between 1784 and 1845.
- Bombay's highest population growth rate was between 1661 and 1675 when it rose six times from 10,000 to 60,000.
- The 2nd governor of Bombay, Gerald Aungier, was behind its development into a major centre of commerce.
- The name Bombay was derived from Bom Bahia (The Good Bay), a name given by Portuguese sailor Francis Almeida, in 1508.
- When a person travel towards Mumbai,one can see milestone stating Mumbai 35 Kms, but where is Mumbai Zero Kms, it is at Flora Fountain
- The railway tracks of the Churchgate Station originally extended beyond Azad Maidan in the direction of Afghan Church, which was later changed to a tar road.
- Former English cricket captain Douglas Jardine of Bodyline fame was born in Malabar Hill, Mumbai, in 1900.
- India’s first cricket club, Orient, was founded in Bombay in 1848.
- Mumbai orginally was a cluster of seven separate islands, and the southernmost island was called Old Woman’s Island.
- Nobel Laureate Rudyard Kipling who wrote Kim and The Jungle Book was born in Mumbai.
- There are 14 platforms inside the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, earlier called Victoria Terminus.
- Mumbai’s first ever meteorological observatory was built in Colaba in 1826.
- The wooden pole in the centre of the Banganga Tank in Mumbai signifies the centre of the earth. Legend has it that Lord Ram created the tank by piercing the earth with his arrow.
- The Lumiere brothers introduced Motion Pictures to India with six soundless short films at Bombay’s Watson’s Hotel in 1896.
- There is an original portrait of former US President Abraham Lincoln at the Prince of Wales Museum.
- Lord Elphinstone performed the opening ceremony after railway tracks were laid between Bombay and Thane in 1853.
- The railway line from Mumbai to Pune through Bhor Ghat was built by a woman named Alice Tredwell in 1863.
- The Quit India Movement was launched by Mahatma Gandhi in Mumbai in 1942 from Gowalia Tank. It is now called August Kranti Maidan.
- Mumbai industrialist Jamshetji Tata was the first Indian to own a car.
http://blog.monsterindia.com/my/manojmehta78@gmail.com/Little-known-Facts-about-Mum-16699.html
http://theory.tifr.res.in/bombay/
