The night before leaving Mumbai I was out for some work and on my way home I was looking at how my city has changed so much in the last 10 years. Some one who would visit after 10 to 15 years would feel a bit lost with so many changes. There are flyovers everywhere now. The amount of traffic has increased so much that all these changes are needed. There is a coastal road that is coming up, part of which is already operational. Then there is a metro system being developed, which the work has been going on for last couple of years and this project is going to take some more time. The infrastructure of the city has been developing and it's kind of easing out the travel for people, so it's good. I remember when I was working back in the city, travelling was sometimes chaotic, would get stuck up in traffic for long time. I will not say the problem is completely resolved, but for sure it's getting better.

The major development that has been happening in the city is with the old buildings going into redevelopment and skyscrapers shaping up in those places. This is also again worry some because as the infrastructure gets better, so is the occupancy level of the city increasing, which will keep increasing the population of the city. Some of the internal roads are not yet developed in that manner to support the additional traffic.

As a kid, I remember the place where I lived, till far off I could only see 3 tall buildings, else everything was somewhere between 8 to 10 floors. But now everywhere around I see 40 to 50 floors building. Till 2010 I had a clear skyline from my home, but now all I see is buildings all around. Thankfully the place I live in is spacious and these buildings are far off, which does not make it congested near my area.

While driving back home, I could get some pictures of my city by night. All of these tall rise buildings have come up in the last 10 years. This particular area that you see was a total Cloth Mills area. Now these Mills are no more operational, actually some of them were shut down decades ago, but the place was as is. Now that the property prices are soaring, these owners are selling them off to builders. They get a very good price for their property. There is a lot of benefit in selling because they not only get handsomely paid but also get apartments in these buildings. It's like a life changing deal for them.

I know this because one of my friend had one such Mill in the area. His father was not willing to sell, but after his father passed away, he sold it to one of the builders and the whole deal made him a multimillionaire and he also got 2 apartments when the society was ready. Now he lives a very luxurious life in a bungalow in the city and has rented out both the apartments, which gives him an additional income.

Mumbai is now becoming an expensive city to live with all of these developments. There are times when I too find Mumbai very expensive in certain ways. There is tax to be paid on everything. Specially dining out becomes expensive in comparison to Muscat. In Muscat there is no tax, there is just a 5% VAT, but in Mumbai there are some list of taxes that has to be paid. There is a multi layer tax. A salaried person pays tax on the salary earned and then has to pay tax on every single commodity and service used.

Life in Mumbai is very fast paced, you really have to consciously slow down your life here. When I am in Mumbai, my days just fly off and I realize that on few days there is barely any quality time that I spend with myself. But all said and done, I still am in love with this place and love to live here, probably because it's the place where I was born and my roots are here so I am strongly connected.

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"Unlimited Abundance, Blissful Happiness and Unconditional Love"

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