Culture Mumbai

This cosmopolitan city with varied cultural societies. Mumbai' culture is a contrast; a blend of old and new.  The Mumbaikars are the life of the town and live a fast-paced life with very little time for cultural activities. Their first love is music, art, dance, religion. The dynamism of the city itself narrates to you its glorious past and vibrant present. Mumbaikars belong to diverse ethnic and social backgrounds. People try to follow the celebrity lifestyle as they belong to the ‘Film City of India’. They participate in every occasion irrespective of castes and religions. Festivals bring greater enthusiasm among the dwellers. People forget their caste, creed, religion, position and come together to share rare moments filled with divine ecstasy. The food they prepare, the clothes they wear, the music they play all have their unique fervor and charm.

Mumbaikars have their own blend of dialect, called the 'Bambaiyaa Hindi'. Other main languages spoken in the city are English, Hindi and Marathi. The town is known for its taporis and their tapori language.The smell of modern India can be better felt in Mumbai due to the conglomeration of Indo – western culture. People live in this teeming megalopolis with affection for each other.

The city glistens with growing wealth and at the same time is matted with stagnant poverty. The gleaming skyscrapers have an air of Manhattan or Osaka about them. Its streets are crowded by the little Marutis acquired by the newly emerging middle class in India. People from every nook and corner of India have been swarming into Mumbai everyday to try their luck, jostling to make the most of the bevy of opportunities they get here. And this rightly makes it the Maya Nagri. Along with them they’ve brought along their own cultural ingredients to make an interesting potpourri that is Mumbai. The city has been converted into a fascinating medley of Maharashtrian, Gujarati, Parsi and Islamic elements. Today, for every Siddhi Vinayak Temple, there is a spectacular Haji Ali shrine or a Mount Mary Church in the city. Peaceful co-existence and religious and cultural tolerance make up the moral-fibre of the citizens of Mumbai. No wonder then that Mumbai is often referred to as a ‘Mini India’.

The pleasant natured people of Mumbai are dedicated to their work and strive from dawn to dusk to earn their daily bread and make a name for themselves. And when it comes to partying and carousing in style, Mumbaiites are second to none. All in all, the people of Mumbai believe in living life to the fullest and giving it all they can.  Trade has fed Mumbai's progress from a 7-island swamp to a single island city of ten million today. Its air is no longer so pure and its sky is no longer blue. Its difficult to say what course the city of Mumbai will take during the years to come.