Rental Car Tour: Mumbai: First & Third Worlds Together

[Demographia/PublicPurpose/RentalCarTour Updates]

When parts of Mumbai (Bombay) [1] begin to resemble Paris, it means you
have spent too much time in Kolkata (Calcutta) and Delhi. Kolkata,
Delhi, Mumbai --- this is the order for an optimist visiting the three
Indian megacities (urban areas over 10 million population). Kolkata,
while perhaps not as dreadful as some reports, shows only the faintest
sort of light. [2] The poverty is pervasive and little of the urban
area is either clean or attractive. Delhi [3] is a step above that. The
parts of the city planned for the national capital, while generally
less than tidy, are far better than what will be found in Kolkata.
Indeed, the mall from the Secretariat to India Gate is as attractive a
government center as will be found. However, most of Delhi is, poor,
untidy, even filthy (as is nearly all of Kolkata). Further, as an
over-planned city, even the newer parts have the sterility that
Stalinism imposed upon Russia and Eastern Europe.

Wealth and Poverty

Mumbai is altogether different from Delhi and Kolkata. Many small
pockets of Mumbai have the look of first world prosperity, something
absent in both Kolkata and Delhi. At the same time, Mumbai, like the
others, has a large third world population that is dreadfully poor.
Perhaps as in no other urban area in the world, the complete array from
wealth to poverty is on display in Mumbai. Shantytowns sit adjacent to
luxury condominium buildings. People sleep on the streets in front of
the same luxury condominiums.

More at: http://www.rentalcartours.net/rac-mumbai.pdf