Yet, in Mumbai, wealth and poverty coexist in the slums. The result is that many local people are now in slum areas. Dharavi is Asia's largest housing slum. In these zones, people are already huddled together in overcrowded surroundings; venturing further, they need disposable pure drinking water, toilets for urgent calls, long-term medical care, etc. It is an absolute feast of contrasts, with the rich living in paradise apartment blocks right next to what capitalism has built from greed and squalor. It says a lot about The City itself. In a city with rapid growth and a huge population, the government has invested almost nothing in infrastructure. Therefore, most of the roads are regularly congested, and the public transport facilities need to be renewed (though there are already quite a few of them). Mumbai is nothing if not a city of sharp contrasts. Rich men and Gandhi Road dwellers live side by side with folks fleeing those slums that border on disaster or merchant sailors with no money but dreams of more freedom—personally human things at their deepest level. While still suffering from these gaps between rich and poor, Mumbai's never-say-die spirit keeps people fighting off the streets to improve themselves in every way. One of the most important reasons to visit Mumbai is its immense diversity. As much as the shopping districts are part of city life in this vibrant metropolis, the high-rise buildings towering into the sky take up only a tiny corner of town.
