1. Definitive Guide to Riding Mumbai Trains (With Pictures)
Mumbai’s local railway is aptly nicknamed the “lifeline of the city.” Mumbai is one of the densest cities in the world and the trains are its saving grace, transporting a staggering 6.9 million people per day. Trains can get so overcrowded during peak hours that it is common to have 14-16 people per square meter. If this sounds intimidating, don’t worry, after reading this guide you will have all the information to conquer the Mumbai local trains.
2. 8 Mumbai Areas To Explore That Aren’t Colaba
Mumbai can be a difficult city for tourists; it’s hot, crowded and difficult to get around and on top of that there aren’t many famous sights to help guide your visit. But there is actually a lot to see and do once you start searching beyond the well-known sights. Instead of searching for sights to see in Mumbai, a better approach is to look for neighbourhoods to explore. Mumbai is a cosmopolitan city, rich in history and culture and each of its neighbourhoods has a unique feel and something different to offer. Here is a list of our favourite neighbourhoods to give you some ideas of areas to explore outside of Colaba.
3. The Danger of a Single Story: Why Dharavi’s Other Story Needs to be Told
“The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story.”
In her brilliant TED talk, novelist Chimamanda Adichie discusses how only hearing one story about a people or place can lead to misunderstanding. In the vast and complex world that we live in it makes sense that we try to simplify our world to help us make sense of it. Ms. Adichie gives an example:
“If I had not grown up in Nigeria, and if all I knew about Africa were from popular images, I too would think that Africa was a place of beautiful landscapes, beautiful animals and incomprehensible people, fighting senseless wars, dying of poverty and AIDS, unable to speak for themselves and waiting to be saved by a kind, white foreigner.”
4. Mumbai Rush Hour Transport Race (With Video of Bicycle Ride)
It’s 6pm, you’re in Colaba and you need to go north, what do you do? Risk a traffic jam in a taxi? Get a free body massage in the train? Weave in and out of traffic with your motorbike? We decided to put six forms of transport to the test and figure out the answer once and for all.
Last Thursday, twelve Reality Tours staff met outside our Colaba office at 6pm and prepared to race across Mumbai. The destination was our Dharavi office, 14km to the north. We decided to race in pairs on six types of transport: taxi, train, bus, motorbike, bicycle and running.
Here are the result in reverse order!
5. Mayur’s Journey with Reality Group: Dharavi to Australia
Born and raised in Dharavi, Mayur has worked with Reality Group for over five years. In his own words, Mayur tells the story of his journey with Reality Group and how it led him to find his passion.
Working with Reality has been an achievement. I joined Reality Gives as a caretaker. Through this job, I have grown as an individual and my communication has improved. When I started it was not possible for me to speak English. Now, it’s very easy for me to speak in English and for that I thank the team at Reality.
I joined a computer course with Reality Gives in 2009 because one of my friends introduced me to Reality Gives. It was a 3 month course and during that time I met the founders of Reality, Chris Way and Krishna Pujari as well as Asim Shaikh, my computer teacher. I still remember my first class with Asim (it was also his first class!), he taught us about the desktop recycle bin. To better understand he gave us an example: recycle bin is a Kaachra kundi (hindi for dustbin), we thought that was really funny. I finished the course in three months. It was a great start to a never ending journey!
