ONE: The Gateway of India, Mumbai’s most remarkable monument, was built by the British to commemorate the visit of King George V and Queen Mary in 1911. It has served as a tourist attraction ever since and is a place Mumbaikars (Bombaywalas) love to visit. Small launches take tourists and locals on short cruises. Now the question: in which city is the India Gate?

TWO: Mumbai has a fine public transport system though its burgeoning population has made it somewhat inadequate. There is a network of local trains, arriving and departing every two minutes, and a large fleet of buses. The double-decker buses have of late gone into oblivion. They were modelled on the double-deckers in London. Incidentally, Mumbai was one of the two Asian cities to have had double-decker trams; the other city which you have to name still retains them.

THREE: Mumbai was the second most populous city of the subcontinent until three or four decades ago. Which Indian city was the largest in terms of population?

FOUR: Bombay’s name changed to Mumbai but Bollywood, the film industry located in the city, didn’t become Mollywood. More films are made in this city than in any other city of the world. Which were the two other major film centres in India before Partition?

FIVE: The credit for making the first feature film in India goes to Dadasaheb Phalke, whose movie Raja Harishchandra, made in 1912, was released in May 1913 at Bombay’s Coronation Cinema. It was a silent movie. Can you name the first talkie to be produced in India?

SIX: The first train service to operate in the subcontinent connected Thane, then a small town close to Mumbai (now it’s a part of the mega city), with the port city. What about the first train to ply in the area now forming Pakistan?

SEVEN: The legendary Frontier Mail, rechristened 12 years ago as Golden Temple City Mail, left Mumbai for a city now in Pakistan on September 1, 1928. After Partition it didn’t cross the newly carved border. As its name suggests, the train now terminates at Amritsar, where did it end its journey before August 14, 1947?

EIGHT: Sindh (then spelt Sind) was once a part of the Bombay Presidency, but later became a separate province. Karachi and Mumbai are supposed to be sister cities for there is so much in common between these two cosmopolitan cities. They are about 500 miles away from each other. Name the sea which is common to both cities.

NINE: Mumbai is the capital of Maharashtra. Many languages such as Konkani, Hindi, Urdu, Gujarati, Marathi and, of course, English are commonly spoken in this mega city. What is the state language of Maharashtra?

TEN: Mumbai has been the subject of at least three film songs but the most popular so far has been a duet sung by Geeta Dutt with a famous male singer for Guru Dutt’s film CID. The song, composed by the inimitable OP Nayyar, is Ye hai Bombay, ye hai Bombay, ye hai Bombay meri jaan. Name the male singer.
 

ANSWERS
 

(1) Delhi (2) Hong Kong (3) Kolkata (4) The ones in Lahore and Calcutta, as it was then called (5) Alam Ara (6) Between Karachi and Kotri (7) Peshawar (8) Arabian Sea (9) Marathi (10) Mohammed Rafi. — Compiled by AN