A Look at Daily Life in Mumbai India
Relocating to Mumbai can be an incredible adventure for foreigners. Expat life in Mumbai has a truly cosmopolitan flair while retaining the full “Indian experience”. Our InterNations Guide to India’s largest metropolis covers leisure, transportation, housing, and other key topics.
Mumbai is rich with culture and festivals for everyone to enjoy. Once you move to Mumbai, you’ll find plenty to entertain yourself with in the Bollywood capital of India.
The public transportation in Mumbai is one of the best and most widely used in India, with expats often using trains and the metro to get to work.
An excellent selection of schools and fully equipped expat apartment communities await you in Mumbai.
Just over 22 million people live in Mumbai, making it the second-biggest city in India and one of the most populous cities in the world. The official language of the state of Maharashtra is Marathi. However, local varieties of Hindi, Gujarati, and English, or a mixture of all, are also among the many languages used by Indians from around the country who settled in Mumbai. The literacy rate in Mumbai is 86%, and in such a cosmopolitan, well-educated city it is easy to converse with locals in English.
The rich mix of cultures, religions, and languages can be traced back to the city’s long history as the country’s most popular destination for migrants from both India and overseas. The different religions practiced by the various demographic groups living in Mumbai are an important part of cultural life.
A FESTIVAL FOR EVERY FAITH
Life in Mumbai features countless traditional festivals originating from the city’s various religious groups and spread out across the year. Vaisakhi, for example, is a harvest and Hindu New Year festival celebrated by the Sikh and Hindu population during the middle of April. It includes joyful processions, martial arts performances, and acts of charity.
Diwali or Deepavali, the Hindu Festival of Lights, is very popular with nearly all residents of Mumbai and the whole of India. It takes place either in the last week of October or the first two weeks of November, and — since it’s associated with Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth — it also marks the beginning of the new fiscal year for the Gujarati community in Mumbai. Arguably the most important religious and cultural festival in Mumbai, though, is Ganesh Chaturthi, the birthday of the elephant-headed deity, Ganesha, celebrated for ten days in August or September.
However, it is not only Indian festivals that are highlights of the year in Mumbai; some Zoroastrian festivals as well as Eid al-Fitr (the end of the fasting period for Muslims), Christmas, and Easter are also very much part of the festival calendar of Mumbai’s diverse population. Christmas and Easter are not only part of the Christian year in Mumbai, but are celebrated to some degree by many other Mumbaikars, too.
KEEPING ENTERTAINED IN THE BOLLYWOOD CAPITAL
Of course, there is a secular side to culture in Mumbai as well. Locals and expats alike enjoy the lively entertainment offered in the countless theaters, museums, art galleries, music festivals, restaurants, and nightlife venues. The city also has a rich literary history, with Salman Rushdie being Mumbai’s representative best known among Western expats.
And who could forget yoga, a very important part of life in Mumbai and of Indian culture in general. If you’ve never done any yoga before, now is the time to try it. For useful updates on other events and leisure activities in Mumbai check out what’s hot in Mumbai or asklaila — an online local information service for India.
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