Better Mumbai pictures
This is of my neighborhood, which is the valley where Chinchpokli, Parel, and Mahalaxmi all come together (it's sometimes called Jacob Circle, but strictly that's farther south).
Lots of people live and work here.
They build shops under the banyan trees
Those trees are everywhere here. Apparently the "banyan" is actually just the parasite growing around the main tree.
The neighborhood used to be the big mill area of Mumbai (of the whole British Empire, for that matter), but the mills have all closed because wages in India got too high (ponder that for a second).
The middle-class people (and this is a fairly affluent neighborhood by Mumbai standards) live in apartments like this
India is the world's largest democracy, and elections are approaching after the monsoon (the clouds in the sky and water dripping are signs that we're still in monsoon season, albeit the tail end). This is a poster for the Nationalist Congress Party, a center-left coalition that's popular here in Western India.
Chinchpokli is an economic dynamo, with stalls packed in very tightly doing every imaginable form of business. Here's a man running his machine shop.
And here's a juice stand, which is very tempting on a hot humid day like this (I went with pineapple/mango/green coconut -- you've never had real mango until you've had it in India, and the pineapple is so tender you don't have to take the core out to eat it).
This is the infamous Arthur Road jail
Parel is also a religious center. There's a very old Catholic church I couldn't get a shot of (there were always buses in the way), but I did get these:
Here's a tiny tree shrine dedicated to Hanuman-ji, the monkey god. The (fake) cobras are auspicious. Hanuman is less devoutly worshipped in this part of India than he is in the east.
Here's a large neighborhood shrine to Ganesh-ji, the elephant-headed god ("ji" means roughly "lord"; the gods' proper names are Hanuman and Ganesh). Mumbai, and particularly Parel, hold Ganesh to be especially important. Ganesh Chaturthi, his holy festival, is in a couple of weeks and all the shrines and temples are gearing up for the celebration (I intend to get lots of pictures that day).
This is the wall of a sort of generic Hindu temple. The nearest icon is of the "holy family", Rama and Sita, with Hanuman portrayed as a child. I didn't recognize the camel riding god next to them; next to him is Ganesh again. (Blue skin is a way of symbolizing holiness, like halos are in the west).
Islam is not strongly represented in the neighborhood (though there is a mosque), but there's a surprising representative of Judaism, this cemetery.
It dates back to the 1700s when Jews could serve in the East India Company but not the British Army or Navy.
That's inside. It's still in operation.
Finally, Mumbai is a city of animals. Consider:
One of the many, many feral dogs
Feral cats are less common, but not unknown
Cows are kept by some shrines and temples. They are sacrosanct, and always have right-of-way (a concept otherwise fuzzily defined on these roads). These guys are eating some sugar cane a pious shopkeeper has left out -- having a cow eat your goods is auspicious.
This guy took me by surprise at first, but I asked one of the kids and he introduced me to the woman who keeps a whole flock of them (she didn't want her picture taken). She has 14 hens and one rooster (this is a hen, it turned out; this breed has combs for both sexes) and lets them wander the streets and pick through garbage, that way she doesn't have to buy food. She sells the eggs in her little stall (I bought 4; will let you know how they are).
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Lived in Malaysia and China in the late 80s and I miss the flavour of the place. I've never been to India but these pics still bring back a lot of the flavour of being there. I can still remember the heat and smell and chaos, it's addicting and you start to miss it if you have lived there when you were young. Many of these pics could be Malaysia of the 80s I remember. I know exactly what you mean about the fruit, and in fact food in general in much of Asia. I miss many a Malaysian dish.
How are you finding the food? You almost certainly will get the "runs" for a bit till your stomach can acclimatise to the new environment. I love street food for one.
What are you doing in Mumbai, is this business related? How long are you there for?
How do you find the culture? Malaysia had many Indian aspects to it and I miss some of the culture too, everything seems kind of bland here in the west once you have acclimatised to Asia 
Not that there aren't lots of difficult things to get used to in Asia, it's a love hate relationship.
Please keep us up to date. I especially appreciate these types of posts!!
some facts about the area is great. Thanks again. Proud to be your Tenth Rec 
