"I Would Compare Mumbai To New York." Personal Experience Of Living In The Most Contrasting City In India

When you search for information about Mumbai (Bombay before 1995), videos like “Real Life in Mumbai”, “Expectations and Reality” immediately appear. Maria told us about her real-life experience in Mumbai, as well as what struck her when she moved and still amazes us, how the local real estate market and, in general, the local way of life work.

“I don’t understand at all how all this can function together.”

About how I ended up in India

— My name is Maria, I am 26 years old. I visited India for the first time in 2019, and moved to Mumbai a little over 2 years ago. It happened at the call of my heart, because I met my partner here, with whom I am still in a relationship. So I had to gradually integrate into this city and try to get used to it.

I have been teaching English offline and online for 10 years now. Also 1.5 years ago, already in Mumbai, I got another job — I am an artist manager, and now I have a wonderful artist whom I promote. Accordingly, I live this electronic nightlife of Mumbai and, in principle, India.

And here I want to point out that Mumbai is a very creative city. If you know English, it will be very easy to prove yourself, whether in cinema, music, or any art direction – you can always find your “own” community here. Mumbai is basically very much about the kind of people you surround yourself with. Although almost all big cities are about it.

About what struck me when I moved

— When I moved, I was struck by everything: from the infrastructure to the lifestyle and mentality of the people. Changes happen here every day, which is primarily due to religious holidays — everything is constantly decorated in different ways.

Mumbai is such a very delicate organism; I don’t understand at all how all this can function together. There is literally chaos here: these rickshaws, buses, and their underground surface. Every time you cross the road, you just hope that someone will stop — it’s a constant game between life and death. You just need to walk, and slowly, that is, you need to feel the rhythm of the road.

Since we touched on the topic of transport: I usually call Uber, because in the case of rickshaws, you can often get to taxi drivers who do not turn on the meter, and then the trip can cost not 40 rupees, but 400. This is especially true on weekends. It must be said that to a greater extent this practice applies to white people in India.

What else surprised me? I think that there is a sea, but you can’t swim in it.This is, of course, one of the saddest parts of my life here, because we live 10 minutes from the beach.

And of course, it’s amazing how dirty it is here — it’s just terribly dirty. Of course, I would like to see more garbage handled here — there are not even enough simple garbage cans on the street, to be honest. But you can live if you try not to notice it. I always tell everyone to raise their heads and look a little above the horizon. That’s how beautiful Mumbai is in general.

The city also lacks simple infrastructure: parks, alleys, paths for pedestrians and cyclists. And in general, there are few places where you can walk — and if there is something, everything is filled with people. That is, you need to run away somewhere (to south Goa, for example) to be at least in some kind of solitude.

“The whole of Mumbai is being ransacked”

About local prices and the calculation system

— In fact, in Mumbai, as in any other big city, you can live on any purse, even the “smallest” one. In general, to feel comfortable, it should be from 150,000 rupees ($1,800) if you live alone, and from 100,000 rupees per month if you live in a couple (that is, about $2,400 for two). Because a nice studio or studio apartment in a good area will cost at least 35-45 thousand.

To understand local prices, you need to understand their calculation system. The following designations are used here:

1 lakh = 100,000 rupees
1 Crore or 100 lakh = 10,000,000 rupees

And nothing in between. It’s about the question of rich and poor.

Life in India: how much money is needed, what is difficult to get used to and how things are with real estate

About buying real estate

— The whole of Mumbai is being dug up now, as a large metro and two bridges are being built here, which should connect two distant parts of the city by sea. Initially, this city consisted of 7 islands that were not connected to each other.

So in Mumbai there is an old city where many British buildings have been preserved (in fact, everything that you read in Shantarama is here), and on the other side of the river (where the airport is) a completely different life reigns: in the past, individual islands and villages turned into districts, and some of them — quite modern. I live in one of these areas, Bandra. There are a lot of foreigners living in this part of the city, and there are also a lot of restaurants, cafes, clubs, etc.

There is not much space left for real estate in Mumbai — many buildings are already being rebuilt here, old plots are being bought out and high-rise buildings are being built up. I notice this in many areas. This market is interesting, because, basically, the buildings here are not single, but either in the format of several buildings, or one, but fenced.

It is very expensive to buy an apartment in good areas. For example, in our district, in Bandra, the cost of a two-room apartment was 4 or three and a half crores (about $482,292.64). I have seen apartments for 30 crores, that is, 30 times 10 million.

At the same time, the apartments here can be incredibly different: from old bungalows to some unrealistic new houses with duplex apartments (and they are, one might say, semi-locks, sometimes with pools inside).

This is found even in buildings that we used to call anthills. Moreover, there is also a division there: it will be expensive to buy an apartment on the lowest and top floors (ground floor and top floor), and all the others will have ordinary apartments with standard layouts.

In general, all the new projects here are very similar to any modern buildings at all. And if it’s some kind of luxury house, they hire an event agency there to arrange various events, yoga days, religious holidays; there are also gyms, concierge service.

By the way, I am often asked where the poor live and where the rich live — so in fact everyone lives in about the same realities, only the rich have more fenced off.

About rent

— We ourselves will need to move soon, as the owner of our apartment refuses to renew the lease (it ends in August) — this is a common practice here. I do not yet know how we will solve this problem.

The rental system here is as follows: first you need to pay the initial insurance premium (it is usually equal to two monthly payments, but everything depends on the owner), then a contract is signed, and then you can stop by. Sometimes they can also request an arbitrary amount for unclear purposes.

Now I live with a family that rents a two-bedroom apartment with a terrace for 65 thousand rupees. The same good options that I see now in our area already cost from 100 thousand per month. Of course, this is significantly more.

There are realtors here, and no matter how much I would like to, it is almost impossible to rent a house without them: the problem is that housing search sites are filled exclusively with realtor ads — there are simply no such from the owners. Therefore, many people are looking for housing simply by word of mouth.

“It took me 2 years to roughly navigate the product names”

About everyday life, medicine and education

— Real life in Mumbai is the same life as everywhere else, it just adds a lot of noise. Plus, all sorts of bureaucratic issues are being slowly resolved.

In everyday terms, everything is different here, of course. Because of the heat, there are air conditioners everywhere, and electricity bills increase significantly during the hot months. For example, in normal times we pay about 2000-3000 rupees (25-35 dollars), and in the hottest month, October, we got 6800.

There is also other food and ingredients. I lived here for a year and a half and bought yogurt for 150-200 rupees (about $2-2.5). And then I found out that there is a local yogurt, Dahi, which costs 10 rupees! They are exactly the same, but the difference is that this yogurt is locally made, and those are imported.

It took me 2 years to at least sort out the names of the products and what I like and what I don’t like.

The infrastructure of most instances also leaves much to be desired, to put it mildly. It is generally scary to be in state polyclinics. But there are, for example, Catholic hospitals that are not bad with average prices. And there are, of course, super expensive clinics that look literally like the Taj Mahal – one appointment there costs at least 60 thousand rupees (~ 720 US dollars).

The situation with education here is also so-so. There are, of course, public schools, but firstly, the quality suffers there, and secondly, it will be free only until the 9th grade – you will have to pay for the completion of grades 10-12.

Education in private schools costs at least 200-300 thousand rupees per year.

About your favorite places in the city

— I rarely leave my house in Mumbai, primarily because of the heat. But there are events and places that I like to visit.

For example, horse racing and horse polo are still held in India — in Mumbai, the venue is called Mahalakshmi Flight Kors. I love going there because I love spending time with horses. There are also a lot of hangouts for dog owners, a lot of spas and groomers — these are, frankly, my favorite hangouts.

Good parties take place at the Sociales (this chain of establishments) and the antiSOCIAL club. There is also a wonderful Bonobo bar.

I also have a few other favorite cafes, for example, SUBKO, Boojee, Veronica.

I also like to go swimming in the Otters club pool, an iconic sports facility overlooking the sea.

— I would compare Mumbai with New York: incredibly expensive real estate, rats are constantly running around and cultural life is in full swing. Well, it’s pure New York, honestly.

Actually, I’m only staying here because of love, really. And I miss my homeland very much.