Hi Shanks,

Sorry my response to this comes a bit late, but thanks for your fantastic write up about Bombay. More than half of what you wrote was news to me, although I belong to Maharashtra - or Goa to be more precise. I speak Marathi, the language spoken in Bombay. (for the others)

Yes, changing the name was a mistake. In Marathi, Bombay has been called Mumbai all along, and it has never sounded odd to me. But the moment, in other languages, English or Hindi, people began referring to the city as Mumbai - it sounded awful .

I don't have a deep love for the city because I never lived there. My main unhappiness is for the extinction of the word Bombay. I think it is a lovely word and it beautifully captures the crazy chaotic nature of the city.