New Delhi, Dec. 7 -- As far as I know, there is only one Indian city whose residents say life has improved in the last five years. That is South Mumbai, which is correctly pronounced 'South Bombay.' People who don't know Mumbai think South Bombay is the southern tip of Mumbai. That is not the way to consider it. It is a separate city.

Across India, the upper class complains of a deterioration in public spaces, except in South Bombay. Every affluent resident I have met is all praise for what has happened to their town in recent times. And what has happened is that new sea-links, including an undersea tunnel, have eased traffic congestion in South Bombay, which was in any case not all that congested by general urban Indian standards.

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