How different is Delhi from Mumbai?

The fact that Mumbaikars and Delhites will forever debate on which is the better city to live in, is an unstated truth. While Delhi boasts about being the political powerhouse of the country, Mumbaikars laugh upon hearing that Delhites travel hundreds of miles to sip beer on a beach. While Mumbai boasts about being the financial hub of the country, Delhites laugh on seeing that all the money flowing through this city can’t buy a balcony in your homes. And as the bickering keeps going on, migrants keep coming in and going out, let’s take a look at some of the glaring cultural differences between the two cities.

Naturally, Hindi in Mumbai has a Marathi/Gujarati/Southern flavour to it and Hindi in Delhi has a Punjabi/Haryanvi/UP flavour owing to the geographical differences. And of course, Mumbai has its own hugely popular and hip subset of Hindi called Mumbaiya Hindi (Bahut Hard!). But there are 2 notable differences in the way Mumbaikars and Delhites speak Hindi:

The other day I was travelling to Noida from Gurgaon on the newly constructed Magenta metro line, when I got an epiphany on how much better the Delhi metro experience is compared to its counterparts all over the country. Apart from feeling like I was at an airport at one of the major junctions of the Magenta line, the unconventional navigation system managed to put a smile on my face. Rather than just displaying signboards meting out directions to lost travellers, they can find their way to the right platform by simply following the coloured trail of footsteps on the floor. This smart design works of course, because all the metro lines in Delhi are colour coded — Yellow line, Magenta line, Blue line etc. So, if you’re at Botanical Gardens metro station, which acts as a junction for the Yellow, Blue and Magenta lines, you’ll now be spared of the inglorious task of removing your earphones and asking for directions to random strangers. Thank you DMRC for the uninterrupted music experience!
On the other hand if you’re an outsider to the local train system in Mumbai, travelling in locals is going to be an ordeal you won’t forget. You’ll feel utterly lost without M-indicator and then be intimidated by the large swarm of people getting in and out of the trains. And once you get into the bone-crushing crowds of a local, you’ll realise that high school chemistry was incorrect to say that only metals are malleable — even humans in a Mumbai local are. If you’re still not convinced that travelling in locals is a nightmare, just hop on to (if you can) the 18:44 Virar fast from Andheri on a weekday.

When it comes to housing, yes, we all know that Mumbai is way more expensive than Delhi. Keeping that aside, Mumbai accommodates most of its population in apartments (and slums) while in Delhi, its more like a row of houses in a residential colony. A typical address in Mumbai would look like A/901, Lakshman Towers, Malad(West) while that in Delhi would be 721, Sector 12, Rajouri Garden. So in Mumbai, the name of the building (Lakshman Towers) is where you navigate towards while in Delhi, its the house number you search for (House no.721 in Sector 12).
But the biggest letdown in Delhi is how the residential areas are bifurcated from the markets. In most of the areas, all the shops and eateries are concentrated into a market, which is a fair distance away from residential areas. Even though this keeps things organised, walking out of the residential areas in the night give out a very deserted and lonely vibe. In Mumbai, on the other hand, the shops fit in seamlessly with the buildings. So, you might see a building here, a line of shops and then another building and so on and so forth. This organisational structure could probably be one of the reasons why Mumbai is often said to be a lot more safer than Delhi.
Another interesting difference between the two cities is how Mumbai has kind of a community-segmented housing arrangement. For instance, the Tamilians live in Matunga, Gujaratis reside in Borivali/kandivali, there are a lot of christians in I C Colony etc. This isn’t a hard and fast rule set in stone but just a pattern that can be observed. Now I don’t know whether this is good or bad, but it’s just something that exists in Mumbai and not in Delhi.

There are a lot more options to travel within Mumbai, thanks to rickshaws that ply by the meter and a more robust public bus service. Even for the local train system, there is hardly any downtime with the train service shut roughly between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. The only problem in getting around anywhere in Mumbai, is the humungous crowds, be it walking on the streets, getting on a BEST bus or getting onto a local. Yes, it is the city that never sleeps but its also the city that can get on your nerves if you’re a newcomer.
In Delhi, people prefer to travel by their own private vehicles or book a cab, especially if they stay in places like Gurgaon in the National Capital Region (NCR) where there is no public transport system! The rickshaw drivers usually quote their own rates but riding in an Ola/Uber is cheaper compared to that in Mumbai. The road infrastructure in Delhi though, is so much more better than Mumbai, where potholes and narrow stretches causing bottlenecks are a common sight. And don’t get me started on the BMC’s ( Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation) favourite hobby of digging up roads all over the city.

This is probably the one thing that causes the most hue and cry in this eternal Mumbai-Delhi debate. So, let me give my honest opinion on this.
Mumbai definitely has a more cosmopolitan crowd since the population is a confluence of people speaking different languages. There are a good number of Marathis, Gujaratis, Malayalees, Tams, Punjabis etc. No one’s denying Delhi is cosmopolitan but just that it comprises of a native Hindi-speaking majority. But much like the weather in Delhi, the bonds you make with the people of Delhi are on the extreme side. With time, you either come to hate their guts or fall in love with them. In Delhi, you’ll find the typical bullies that you come across in memes and also find real gems of people. In Mumbai, people tend to lead more private lives with minimal interference in others’ lives.
I just feel that Delhites are more large hearted (even with strangers!) and if you can identify the genuine ones out of the crowd, you’ll have a long lasting true friendship. It’s little surprise to me that all my best friends have been connected to Delhi in some way.

Alright, any answer to that question is going to be filled with some sort of personal bias and hence futile. Each city has its own vibe: Mumbai being the city that’s always on the move and yet never reaching anywhere while Delhi’s that city which is always full of energy but not always expended in the right way. Mumbai is the city of dreams which has sprung up from seven islands while Delhi is the historic city that’s stood tall through all the wars since the Mughal times. For some people, it’s Aamchi Mumbai. For some people, its Dilli ki hawa. Ultimately, home is where friends and family are and that’s the better city to live in. And with that caveat, I’d end this post by saying that I’ve always loved Mumbai and I’m beginning to fall in love with Delhi.

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