I Moved To Mumbai A Year Ago, Here Are 12 Things I've Learned Since

Love Bombay or hate it, you have to admit: it's the easiest city in the world to buy a beanbag.

1. The most generous people in this city are those who don't have much to spare. They do it anyway.

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Rickshaw-walas have let me pay them a few bucks short of the meter when I've been low on cash. Tapri dudes have loaned me lighters when I've been out of change, trusting that I'll pay them back when I can. I met an autowala who donates ₹2 of every ride to charity.

2. Mumbaikars are pros at getting shit done – they see obstacles as opportunities for ingenious jugaad.

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From plastic sheets becoming DIY-rickshaw-doors to bricks placed in puddles as bridges, Bombay is defined by its firm refusal to take no for an answer.

3. It is absurdly, hilariously, comically easy to buy a beanbag in Bombay.

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When I moved to Mumbai, I had zero beanbags and absolutely no desire for any. A couple of months later, just from being bombarded so often with this phone number, I had bought two.

4. Mumbai's relationship with the rain is unlike any other city's.

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Monsoon isn't just a season here, it is an identity. It is, in equal measure, loved and loathed, cherished and barely survived, adored and feared, filtered, Instagrammed, Tweeted, and trended. Year after year, it is as much a disaster as it is a relief. It is cocktail party smalltalk as much as it is a race to survive. It has taken several lives and changed others forever.

5. Bollywood is everywhere.

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Whether it's Chapel Road's larger-than-life Amitabh mural, coffeeshops in Lokhandwala teeming with super model-esque aspirants with pre-audition jitters, or vanity vans holding you up in traffic jams, the industry has tentacles spread deep and wide in this big town's nooks and crannies. It brings with it a city-wide propensity for theatrics, a promise to its citizens that every experience is one worth dramatizing, and a chance to define yourself by either revering or ridiculing it.

6. The age-old adage is true: The cheaper the food, the better it tastes.

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Roadside bun maska dipped in chai will, for ₹30, do things to your tastebuds that the most expensive gourmet dishes at Masala Library and Ellipsis won't do for ₹3,000.

7. Convenience is a commodity here. If you have the money, you can buy an easy life.

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Too lazy to run your own washing machine? A dude will come home, pick up your clothes, and return them washed, dried, and ironed in 24 hours. Don't have the energy to pack your own lunch? One of thousands of dabbawalas will bring you a hot meal wherever and whenever you want. Just don't want to leave home? Well, if you're willing to pry your wallet open, you can get anything brought to your doorstep: a masseuse, fresh coconut water, a lady who'll wax your legs and thread your eyebrows – you name it.

8. People can (and do) assume a lot about you based on your address.

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As soon as you've paid an arm and a leg to get yourself an apartment (and your slimy-ass broker has also convinced you to pay him hospitalization and amputation charges for said arm and leg), a label is plastered on you for everyone to see. You will be known henceforth as such a townie! or a tyyyypical Bandraite or one of a hundred other signifiers of how much money you make (and how little of it you save).

9. Contrary to Mumbai's reputation for rush and rudeness, there is no dearth of kindness.

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Mumbaikars are hustlers but not the selfish kind. There is a warmth and a camaraderie with which they hustle for each other, too. As a newcomer to this jungle, I've spent a lot of the last year at the mercy of strangers' willingness to lend me their time and wisdom. I have asked them for all sorts of things – directions, to lend a hand pushing a rickshaw, to let me huddle under their umbrella, to lead me to the closest lock-wala or cobbler – and I have never been refused.

Perhaps it's because so many of those strangers were once new here, too, and they're repaying the kindnesses they were shown.

10. "Ae dil hai mushkil jeena yahan" is not a cute lyric; it is a warning to be heeded seriously.

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This is an incredible city to live in but a horrifically difficult one to move to if you're doing it alone. Trying to set up a new life and home here tests the outer limits of your adaptability and resourcefulness. From its hippest bars (tucked deep in barely-labeled mill compounds) to its most essential amenities (men who will cut your simcard for you, localized WiFi providers who operate only in your neighbourhood, shoes that will hold up to the rain), Mumbai believes in keeping its treasures well-hidden. Like an entrance exam to qualify to live here, moving to Bombay involves quickly finding allies who will give you the addresses and phone numbers you need to survive.

11. The way Mumbai treats women is – for the most part – a relief.

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Save for the occasional catcaller and the rare sleazeball rick-wala who will tilt his mirror to your chest and drive extra fast over speed-bumps, Mumbai does a relatively decent day-to-day job – in my experience – of making women feel welcome and respected. That said, it doesn't exist in a vacuum, but operates within a broader national culture of patriarchy and misogyny. Luckily, we're working on it.

12. Bombay is full to the brim of really cool people doing really cool shit.

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It's a random weeknight and you feel like watching some slam poetry? You can. Stand-up comedy? Yup. Some serious theatre? Go for it. An indie music gig? Choose one. It's a Sunday morning and you feel like going to a photography exhibit? Cool. A wine-tasting lesson? Sign right up. A graffiti or mixed martial arts or breakdancing workshop? You literally can.

In just a year, I've met more intimidatingly talented, creative, and ambitious people here than I met in several years in other cities. There is a violence and an urgency with which Mumbai is shattering and re-moulding the edges of culture and the city doesn't get nearly enough global credit for the powerhouse of intelligence and talent that it is.

Sit down, New York. Step aside, London. Whaddup, Bombay.