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Mumbai) for another kind of contrast. On one side you have beautiful neo-Gothic buildings that look as if they’ve been transplanted from another continent, albeit with typically Indian flourishes and intricate carvings. Walk over to the other side of this huge field and you see Art Deco buildings from the 1930s and ’40s with nautical and tropical motifs, again embodying a distinctive Bombay quality. Only Miami has something close to this. The northern end of the field has a cricket training academy but on Sundays, the maidan is overrun by dozens of impromptu cricket games, and in the middle of the chaos, a group of Nigerians can often by found playing football. Another great place I like to wander is Chor Bazaar and the adjoining Mohammedali Road. A flea market, Chor Bazaar is filled with a jumble of interesting things, and you can snag some good vintage finds—furniture, posters, coins, records—or just window shop and laugh at some of the ridiculously naïve copies of old objects and artifacts.”

—Naresh Fernandes, Editor, Time Out Mumbai.

Victoria Terminus Rechristened Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus as part of Mumbai’s nationalist-inspired anti-Raj campaign, this baroque, cathedral-like train station—still known to everyone as “VT”—must rank as Mumbai’s most marvelous Raj-era monument. India’s very first steam engine left this station when it was completed in 1887; today at least a thousand trains leave every day, carrying some 21⁄2 million commuters in and out of the city. Targeted in 2008 as part of a wider attack on the city by a group of terrorists, the station has been undergoing some renovation, and attempts to beef up security mean that there are now armed guards around all the entrances. Don’t let that put you off, though—and don’t be alarmed by the sheer number of commuters should you happen to turn up during peak hours. With its vaulted roofs, arches, Gothic spires, flying buttresses, gables crowned by neoclassical sculptures, stone carvings, and exquisite friezes, the terminus is an architectural gem, worth entering to see the massive ribbed Central Dome (topped by a statue of the torch-wielding “Progress”) that caps an octagonal tower featuring beautiful stained-glass windows with colorful images of trains and floral patterns. But come, too, for the spectacle of the disparate people, from sari-clad beauties to half-naked fakirs, who make up Mumbai. Get here just before lunch to watch the famous dabba-wallas stream out into the city: A vast network of dabba-wallas transfer some 200,000 cooked lunches, prepared by housewives for their office-bound husbands, and kept warm in identical dabbas (metal lunch containers), through a unique sorting and multiple-relay distribution system; later in the afternoon these empty dabbas are returned to their home of origin. The success of this system (no one gets the wrong lunch) is proof of how well India works, despite its reputation for obstructive bureaucracy. In fact, following a study of this network, U.S. business magazine Forbes gave it a Six Sigma (99.99% accuracy) performance rating, which means that just one error occurs in six million transactions.

Dr. Dadabhai Naoroji Rd., Fort.

Need a Fortifying Break in Fort?

Stadium ( 022/2204-6819) is a cheap, unpretentious Irani restaurant outside Churchgate Station where you can sip chai or a cold drink while you contemplate your next move. Across the street (though you will have to walk all around to get there) is Gaylord (Mayfair, Veer Nariman Rd., Churchgate; 022/2204-4693) an old fashioned cafe with a terrace and an all-day bakery selling fresh breads, croissants, and assorted bites—great to recover your strength after a day of pounding the sidewalks or idling in traffic.

MARKETS

Mumbai has more than 70 markets, and it’s worthwhile to spend a couple of hours exploring at least one, not so much for the shopping (for that, see “Shopping,” later in this chapter) as for the human spectacle of it all. Flowers are an intrinsic part of Indian culture, and Bhuleshwar Wholesale Flower Market (CP Tank Circle; dawn–noon) is the