People's Republic of Bandra

There was once an empire called Bombay.
Bombay was then changed to Mumbai and its citizens, barring a few rebels, started calling it Mumbai.
Nothing happened to the rebels. They continued calling it Bombay and since Bombay believes in the system of democracy, barring a few protests, nothing happened.
Then came the characterizations of the Mumbaikar or Bombayite.
People living in town were called the people of South Bombay or SoBo. Geographically, South Bombay begins at Peddar Road and goes all the way up to Navy Nagar.
However, people living in Dadar and Sewri that fall in Central Bombay thought that they should be considered as residents of South Bombay.
The rest of the city laughed at these people.
Then there are the suburban people, who live from Khar Road to wherever Bombay ends.
And then there is the People's Republic of Bandra.
Bandra is like Harlem. I say this not because crowds are similar (although there are a select group of people living in Bandra who believe that they are black hip hop artistes and are seen sporting baggy jeans that start at their knees and end after their feet), but because for the resident of the People's Republic of Bandra, there is Bandra and the rest of the world.
When I say People's Republic of Bandra, I specify Bandra West. For the citizens consider Bandra East an area outside civilization.
I work at the People's Republic of Bandra. It has apartments, branded department stores, roadside stalls, fancy and expensive restaurants, expensive roadside food, street markets, two colleges, several schools, a few police stations and a huge fire stations - everything that is necessary for a city. There are mosques, churches and temples showing that everyone is equally tolerant of each other's religion. Yay for secularity.
Another thing where Bandra stands out is the fact that the main language spoken here is English. While the rest of India has Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Bengali, Assamese, Oriya, Bhojpuri, Punjabi, Rajasthani, Sindhi and Sanskrit listed as some of the official languages of the country, Bandra's official language is English. The police speak in English, rickshaw drivers speak in English (I remember one of them telling me, "Sir, why do people say fuck off? Why can't they say fuck on?"), shopkeepers speak in English, hawkers speak in English. The best bit is that even if they speak one or two words, they think that Shakespeare was their ancestor. As a result, they speak to you in English.
The People's Republic of Bandra is an emerged economy. People who own homes here are the rich and famous, that is if they are not the earliest generation of Catholic settlers, who moved here. Because Bandra is an emerged economy, things are 200 times costlier than the rest of the city. One pomegranate costs Rs 50 in Bandra, while two cost the same price in the rest of the city. What makes this convenient for the store owners is that people come to buy because there is no life outside Bandra.
Despite all its idiosyncrasies, there is still a charm about Bandra. It has the only dingy bar where you can drink and smoke at the same time, while listening to crime branch officials discussing their latest case; you have an overcrowded 'garage' that makes the best vodka chilly, despite the fact that it is really expensive; you also have a place called Boat Club, which used to have a cheap beer deal until alcohol prices shot up.
The best thing about it is the craziness you can see. Where else in India will you see a woman, who looks 60, sporting bubblegum pink hair and wearing a leather skirt? Where else in India will you see a toothless old man, walking barefoot and wearing a t-shirt that says 'Good looks can kill too."? Where else would you see people not giving a fuck, while the rest of the country is raising slogans against corruption, but doing their own work to ensure that their area is the best in the city? That's The People's Republic of Bandra for you.