Our drive from the airport to the Fort area of Mumbai provided quite an eye opening experience as to the variance of life styles in this teeming city of 21million. From Wikipedia: “Mumbai, also called Bombay, is the capital city of the state of Maharashtra in India, and it’s the most populous city in India. As the 4th most populous city in the world and one of the populous urban regions in the world.”
A walk around the Fort neighborhood, where our hotel is located, offered a perspective of wide boulevards, green spaces, massive Victorian style buildings with colonnades, and these playing fields, Azad Maidan, and Tudor-style club house ( previously known as the Bombay Gymkhana club house built in 1875). The grounds cover 25 acres and are used for inter-school cricket matches, protest meetings – to include the largest ever by Mahatma Gandhi in December 1931, and yesterday for the Mumbai marathon, which we, thankfully, missed!
And then there is this – massive structure – bathed in the beautiful golden light of late afternoon. The railway station!! Formerly named The Victoria Terminus in 1887, in honor of Queen Victoria. It was designed by Frederick William Stevens and the architecture represents “progress and prosperity” through a variety of sculpted birds and animals. It is now a UNESCO World Heritage site and was renamed Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus in 1996.
The Municipal Corporation Headquarters was also designed by Stevens in Gothic Revival style and built in 1893. Noteworthy is its 255 ft tall tower with the central dome rising to 234 feet.
On the streets …
Beautifully shot, and seems you had a great time. Do check us out on https://pavwadapepanchat.wordpress.com/ to get a brilliant feel of the vibe of the city apart from the usual.