In 1988, when V.S. Naipaul arrived in Bombay, now known as Mumbai, and drove south from its airport, he could tell something unusual was happening because the traffic was so bad. It turned out that a festival of Dalits, the former untouchables, had led to crowds that blocked the roads. The Nobel-prizewinning writer complained of "fumes and heat and din" in his taxi to the Taj Hotel. The chaos was novel enough to form the opening passage of his book, "A Million Mutinies Now". Today greater Mumbai's population has almost doubled to 18m, and transport bedlam has become as integral to its psyche as the stockmarket, films and slums.
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