Mumbai is the capital of Maharashtra and the economic powerhouse of India. It's an exhilarating city, fuelled by entrepreneurial energy, determination and dreams. Compared to the torpor of the rest of India, it can seem like a foreign country. Mumbai is the finance capital of the nation, the industrial hub of everything from textiles to petrochemicals, and it's responsible for half the country's foreign trade. To many visitors, Mumbai is the glamour of Bollywood cinema, cricket on the maidans on weekends, bhelpuri on the beach at Chowpatty and red double-decker buses. While it boasts an impressive Victoria townscape, a sculptured island cave temple and a national park that's roamed by wild tigers, the city's formal attractions pale in comparison to the nonstop theater of its streets. Flush with money, the city has an established social elite and an entertainment hungry middle class, which mean diversions are never in short supply. Mumbai lives and breathes cinema, enjoy a rollicking nightlife, boasts the best seafood restaurants in South Asia and has more shops and bazaars than you could ever hope to explore.

Chowpatty Beach
Chowpatty beach is in the heart of Mumbai. At present, this is where images of Ganesha are immersed after the ten days of Ganesh Chaturthi. On this beach the most famous are the Kiosks statues of Lokmanya Tilak and Sardar Patel, two of the most outstanding Maharashtrian freedom fighters, stand on the beach.