Over 15 million people live in this city -- from the rich and the famous to homeless wage earners. The city boasts of modern sky scrapers and plush homes, but a peek into the city, reveals just as many slums and ‘chawls’!

Unique to Mumbai is the ease with which people from all walks off life jostle for space and brush shoulders with one another.

Mumbai, which is a total of 440 sq km, was once a group of seven islands, on the Arabian Sea, in the state of Maharashtra, mainly occupied by fisherfolk. Today, over a period of several hundred years, the city has grown by a series of land reclamations which now link the original islands into one mass.

One-fourth of Mumbai lies below sea level. It is covered by two ridges of low hills -- one on the East and West of Colaba, and the other ending at Malabar Hill, Mumbai's highest point. In between these two ridges is the busy area of fort.

The two main railway stations CST and Churchgate, the Indian Government Mint, the Reserve Bank of India, the General Post Office, the Bombay Stock Exchange, etc., are all located here.

Nariman Point, known as India’s Manhattan, is also situated in the South of the city . To the north of the city are the two Airports, the International and the other Domestic.

The northern side of the city, better known as the suburbs, were developed mainly as residential localities. Of late, however, the famous BKC in Bandra and the Andheri area have grown into commercially sound options due to the proximity to the airports. Bollywood, the largest motion picture Industry in the world is in and around the suburbs of Juhu and Andheri.

Warm and humid through the year, except between the months of November and February. Rainfall during the monsoon months of June to September, is heavy and can disrupt normal day-to-day life.

Mumbai has one of the largest cotton textile industries in the country, the biggest port in India, the largest source of oil and natural gas, and the third largest stock exchange in the world!

The city is known for creating wealth, from the busy business tycoons to the beggars in the street everyone gets his share of the pie.

The city is extremely cosmopolitan and secular, and has a wide variety of worship centres. Besides Hindus, Christians and Muslims, a fairly large amount of Parsis also live in the city. The city caters to all religions and the festivals that are linked to it.

Ganesh Chaturthi is celebrated in all grandeur and pomp for a good ten days.

That the city was called Bombay for much of the last four hundred years?

That the word, Bombay is said to have come from the Portuguese phrase bom bahia meaning ‘good bay’?

That the name Mumbai has been used in Marathi, the main local languages, and is ascribed to the local Goddess, Mumba (ai means mother in Marathi)?

Bombay was changed to Mumbai by an act of the parliament in 1997