The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation passed its highest-ever budget for 2026-27 on May 1, with Rs 48,164 crore earmarked for capital work including the Versova-Dahisar-Bhayander Link Road, Gargai Dam, and a desalination plant. The debate was broadcast live for the first time. The opposition Shiv Sena (UBT) walked out. Some traditions endure.

CIDCO confirmed that NMIA will begin international operations in May 2026 with roughly 35 international flights daily. The airport has grown from 5,000 to 22,000 daily passengers since December. The loudest complaint on social media remains the same: getting there from the western suburbs is expensive, slow, and awkward. A world-class airport with the connectivity of a mofussil bus stand.

The BMC Health Committee has passed a proposal to rename the 100-year-old King Edward Memorial Hospital to something that conveniently also abbreviates as KEM. Doctors are protesting, the opposition is threatening unrest, and the hospital is in its centenary year. The full story is in The Deep Cut.

A 103-run thrashing by Chennai Super Kings at Chepauk on May 2 left MI with three wins from ten games and a net run rate that looks like a blood pressure reading. The Wankhede game against Lucknow Super Giants tonight (May 4, 7:30 PM) is effectively must-win. If you're going, bring patience. The team certainly left theirs in Chennai.

Citizens from Govandi, Mankhurd, Shivaji Nagar, and Deonar submitted a formal petition to the Union Home Secretary, the NCB, and the NIA, citing two violent deaths linked to the drug trade in early 2026 and alleged gaps in FIR registration. A delegation also met Police Commissioner Deven Bharti. They've given a 30-day ATR deadline. Residents shouldn't have to write to national intelligence agencies for basic policing, but here we are.

King Edward Memorial Hospital in Parel has been Mumbai's safety net for exactly a century. Built in 1926, it treats thousands of patients daily: the working poor, the emergency cases that private hospitals turn away, the complicated surgeries that take months on the public system. Mumbaikars simply call it KEM. That's not branding. That's trust built over three generations.

Now the BMC's Health Committee, backed by Maharashtra minister Mangal Prabhat Lodha, has passed a proposal to rename it 'Kaushalyashreshtha Ekalavya Memorial Hospital.' The abbreviation would technically still be KEM. That's the part that's supposed to make this feel reasonable.

The backlash has been immediate. KEM MARD (resident doctors' association) called the move "unacceptable" and urged focus on patient care reforms instead of signage politics. Shiv Sena (UBT) leader and former Mumbai mayor Kishori Pednekar visited the hospital in protest. The party has warned of "law-and-order consequences" if the renaming goes through.

The proposal still needs sign-off from the municipal commissioner and the BMC general body, so it is not a done deal. But the context matters: this is the BJP-led BMC's first major civic identity move after winning the January 2026 elections, ending 25 of Shiv Sena dominance. The National Herald frames it as part of a broader decolonisation drive that has targeted colonial-era names across Maharashtra.

What nobody is arguing is that KEM needs better funding, more staff, and fewer rats in the wards. Renaming a hospital in its centenary year while leaving the structural problems untouched is the kind of move that manages to be both symbolic and empty at the same time.

On May 7, 1907, Bombay's horse trams gave way to something faster and quieter: the city's first electric tram, operated by the newly formed Bombay Electric Supply and Tramways Company. BEST, for short. The name stuck.

The transition had been coming since 1905, when the company was incorporated and bought out the old Bombay Tramway Company for ₹9.85 million, gaining a monopoly over both electricity supply and public transport. The electric tram retired 900 horses from stable life, removed the need for the fodder logistics that had kept the system running for three decades, and set the template for how Bombay would move. Double-decker trams came in 1920. Motor buses in 1926. The last tram ran on March 31, 1964.

BEST is 118 years old this month. The same institution born to run electric trams now operates over 3,000 buses and supplies electricity to South Bombay, perpetually cash-strapped, perpetually debated, perpetually essential. Every conversation about BEST's merger with the BMC, its electric bus rollout, or its fare hike this week (see The Commute below) is a continuation of a founding argument that began on a May morning in 1907.

Here is a piece of Bombay history that connects Abraham Lincoln's assassination to Marine Drive to a clock you can probably see from your office window.

Premchand Roychand was a Jain stockbroker in mid-19th century Bombay, known as the "Cotton King," the "Bullion King," and the "Napoleon of Finance." A founding member of what became the Bombay Stock Exchange and reportedly the first Indian broker who could read, write, and speak English.

When the American Civil War cut off Britain's cotton supply, India stepped in. By 1864, Bombay had 31 new banks and 62 joint-stock companies. Roychand's biggest play: the Back Bay Reclamation Company, which proposed to reclaim land from Bombay's western seafront. Shares with a face value of Rs 5,000 were trading at Rs 50,000, a 10x premium on a proposal to literally fill in the sea.

Then Lincoln was assassinated in April 1865. American cotton flooded back. Back Bay Reclamation shares crashed from Rs 50,000 to under Rs 2,000, a 96% fall. The Bank of Bombay wound up. Bombay had its first stock market crash.

Thirteen years later, in 1878, Roychand donated Rs 2 lakh to build the Rajabai Clock Tower on the University of Bombay’s Fort campus. Named after his mother, Rajabai. She was blind. As a devout Jain, she had to stop eating before sunset. The tower's chimes, ringing every 15 minutes, let her track the time without asking anyone.

Today the tower is maintained by a single worker, Mahendra Prasad Gupta, who climbs 236 steps daily to wind the mechanisms by hand. No electricity. No automation. Just muscle memory.

The sea Roychand proposed to reclaim in 1863? That's Marine Drive now. India's first stock market crash, a blind mother's mealtime, and a city's most photographed waterfront: all connected.

Next time you're near Fort, look up at the tower on the university campus. Someone climbed 236 steps this morning just so it still works.

Papi | Bandra West
Cocktail bar where the drinking is serious and the food menu unexpectedly keeps up. They brine, distill, and ferment in-house, and the result is drinks that taste like someone actually thought about them. Sichuan paella and ricotta recheado alongside the pours. Walk-ins welcome, but weekend evenings fill fast. Source

Adelina | Bandra West
Modern Italian by sisters Harshita and Ankita Bhatia. Handmade pastas, wood-fired Neapolitan pizzas, and aperitivo-logic cocktails that actually complement the food instead of competing with it. Interiors inspired by Italian countryside homes, the kind of place that works equally well for a date or a group dinner. ₹2,500–3,500 for two. Source

Nōdo | Andheri West
Ramen and donburi, no reservations, no frills, no adaptations for the Indian palate. Just short menus, fast service, and Japanese food treated as an everyday thing rather than a destination. Walk-in only. Best for a quick solo lunch or a pair that doesn't want to talk too much. ₹800–1,200 for two. Source

The Rajabai Clock Tower has been ticking since 1878. Every morning, one man climbs 236 steps and winds it by hand so it keeps working for one more day. No electricity, no automation, no budget allocation discussed in a 94-hour meeting. Just the same thing, done reliably, before anyone else in the city is awake.

Bombay is a city that somehow still runs on exactly this kind of stubbornness.

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