The residents of Mumbai are called Mumbaikars. For easy access, the people of Mumbai prefer to stay close to a railway station because of easy accessibility to other parts of the metropolitan city. The city people are known to lead a life which is really fast-paced and don’t have time for any other activity because of the time taken to travel from one place to the other.
The vernacular language of the city is Marathi which according to statistics is spoken by 42% of the population of the place. But it should be noted that a large number of people come to Mumbai city for various reasons, mostly for the purpose of work.
Mumbai has today become the melting pot of various parts of the country. Because of the diversity of its population, a new dialect has developed over the years which is known as Bambaiya Hindi. This is the result of the blending of different kinds of people in this city. This can be heard in several Bollywood movies.
The residents of Mumbai celebrate the festivals and celebrations of India as well as those of Western countries. People belonging to all communities and religions have their own celebrations and festivals. Some of the festivals in the city are Diwali, Holi, Christmas, Navratri, Good Friday, Id, Dussera, Durga Puja, Muharram, Ganesh Chaturthi and Maha Shivratri.
Out of any festivals celebrated, Ganesh Chaturthi is one of the most popular festivals celebrated in this part of the country. To celebrate this festival, people place the idol of Lord Ganesha in the house for a certain number of days; either 1½, 3,5,7 or 11. After this, the idol is immersed into the ocean accompanied by a colourful and fun-filled parade.
The celebration of this festival was started by the well-known Indian revolutionary figure Bal Gangadhar Tilak who initiated this celebration as a means to unify people. Mostly, this festival is celebrated by the original people of Maharashtra but all Mumbaikars participate in the celebration in one way or the other. In the middle of the summer season, the city also holds a gay pride parade every single year.
The city also organizes cultural performances and plays. Some well-known theatres include Prithvi Theatre at Juhu, Shanmukhananda Hall at Matunga, Dinanath Natyagruha at Vile Parle and Prabhodankar Thackeray Theatre at Rang Sharda which is at Bandra.
National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) in Nariman Point is another well-known name in this field. Also, Mumbai city has two well-known public galleries which are The National Gallery of Modern Art and The Jehangir Art Gallery. There is a museum in South Mumbai and the oldest public library built in 1833 in the city is The Asiatic Society of Bombay.
