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Salaam Bombay Restaurant
City: BudapestAddress: H-1051 Budapest, Mérleg u. 6.
Tel.: +36 1 411 1252
Ancient yet modern, fabulously rich yet achingly poor.
The city of Bombay originally consisted of seven islands, which have since been joined together by a series of reclamations. This group of islands once formed a part of the Kingdom of Ashoka, the famous emperor of India, around the third century B.C. The empire ebbed, leaving behind some Buddhist monks and deep-sea fisherfolk called "Kolis", whose stone goddess Mumbadevi gave her name to the modern metropolis - Mumbai. Completely ignored by Marco Polo, Ibn Batuta and other travellers who sailed the Indian Ocean and specially the Arabian Sea conducting flourishing trade between West Africa and Calicut, this seven island cluster was a sleepy paradise inhabited by simple fisherfolk.
Bombay changed hands many times, until in the early 1500's the Portuguese sailed into its deep natural harbour, set up base here and came to call it " Bom Bahia " or Good Bay. By 1534 the Portuguese had overhrown the current Mohammedan ruler and made Bombay, a part of their Empire.
A hundred and twenty eight years later, in 1662, the islands were given to the English King Charles II in dowry on his marriage to the Portuguese Princess Catherine of Braganza.
A few years later the islands were acquired by the English East India Company on lease from the crown for an annual sum of 10 pounds, and shifted their headquarters here due to its excellent harbour, and eventually anglicised the name from Bom Bahia to Bombay.
Today a teeming metropolis estimated to inahabit a population of 17 million people, Mumbai as it is called now is the epicentre of trade and commerce in India. The immense business oppurtunities and the big city glamour attracting millions of people from all over India to settle here, making the city a potpourri of various communities and cultures.
Its unique melting pot, this synergy of Indian and Western celebration, where all communities and religions contribute to the daily functioning of this City, where no one goes hungry, where the residents proudly refer to themselves as Mumbaikars or Bombayities, which prompts us to say -" We salute you Bombay! " - SALAAM BOMBAY!
