Mumbai.. A summer intern's account

Fifteen days into this city and I already feel like a pro. A quick read of the novel "Maximum City"- by Suketu Mehta an NRI who spent some time here as a child and then as a researcher among the bhais, Hindu fundamentalists, dance girls and the film industry has gone a long way in my understanding of the city.
A very fortuitous or unfortunate fact is that I am living very close to Nagpada, Madanpura etc. which were the playgrounds of the Dawood Ibrahims and Chota Shakeels. It is a Muslim dominated area from which the Hindus have more or less vanished given the aftermath of the 1992-93 riots and and the bombings.
They say that, if the riots happen again this time the Muslims will be prepared. I cannot but look in consternation at the taxi-wala or my co-compartment mates in the train dreading what is going on in his mind.
But then again, this whole setting has made me a little excitable and I love the constant mobility of the city. One always feels that something is happening either good or bad, life is in fast motion. People must be aging a lot earlier here not only because of the pollution and the stress to earn the maximum, to reach there faster but because of the fact that the events which would take 10 years to happen in my home town occur overnight here. It is hard to recognize a street here if you come back after 10 days, the whole city is transmogrifying everyday. It sensitizes you to somethings and desensitizes you to others, a constant learning and unlearning -you become wiser everyday.
Everybody talks about the fact that Bombay never sleeps .. this quaint boulevard of the Portuguese which was built on cloth is now running on information. So you see everybody looking for informations from the investment bankers/brokers to the marketeers to the IT professionals and the raddiwalas. Everybody feeds on information , you must have information or you will be swindled. So if you sit in the taxi and the taxi-wala asks you -"Is road se nikalne ka hai kya?", you better nod your head in affirmation rather than quote ignorance, for then you will be taken for a ride - a long ride.
So, to say the least the experience has been good and enlightening.