Facade of Victoria Railway Terminus, Mumbai, India Click on photo to see a larger image.

If you’ve been following the Boomerang Box, you know that it’s currently on its way from Oakland, California to Nhava Sheva, India. But, if you’ve tried to find Nhava Sheva on a map, you probably haven’t been too successful. Where is Nhava Sheva? And why is it so hard to find?

The answer is simple: Nhava Sheva isn’t a city and it isn’t on most maps. Instead, it’s a brand-new, fully modern container port located just a few miles east from India’s largest city, Mumbai. Now, can you find Mumbai on a map?

Well, if you’re using a new map, produced in the last several years, you shouldn’t have any trouble finding Mumbai on India’s west coast. But if you’re using a map, atlas, or encyclopedia printed before 1995, you won’t have any more luck finding Mumbai than you did finding Nhava Sheva. Why is that? How could India’s largest city be so hard to find?

The answer may surprise you. In November 1995, the city of Bombay changed its name to Mumbai. The name change is one of the latest events in this city’s long and very colorful history. Here are a few highlights.

Mumbai is an island, connected to mainland India by bridges. It was originally made up of seven islands. The islands were ruled by several Hindu dynasties, invaded by Muslims in the 14th century and then given to Portugal in 1534. One hundred years later, the islands became British colonies when Portugal’s Catherine of Braganza married England’s Charles II. The British government rented the islands to the East India Company. The islands were named “Bombay” and developed as a trading port.

During the 1700s, the islands were joined by land-filling (or land reclamation) projects. During the 1800s, the city of Bombay grew in wealth as power as it became India’s major port as well as a cotton milling town. But during the late 1800s through mid 1900s, the City of Bombay also became home to the “Quit India” campaign, which won India’s independence from Great Britain in the 1940s.

After India’s independence, Bombay became home to many people of different cultures who came from all over India. They came to Bombay seeking wealth and opportunity. Bombay’s new cultural makeup was the reason it was renamed in late 1995. The new name, Mumbai, stands for its new identity as a multi-cultural city. Today, at the end of the 20th century, the city of Mumbai is still growing and changing: a new container port named Nhava Sheva was built a few miles east of Mumbai in the mid-1990s and a new satellite city, called New Bombay, is being built on the mainland to give people in overcrowded Mumbai more places to live.

What is the history of your city? Using an encyclopedia, an atlas, and old newspaper clippings from the library, research your city’s past. When was it formed? Who named it? Why? What are some major events in your city’s history?

If you already know all about your city’s history, why don’t you look at the role it has played in trade. What goods are made in your city? What goods do people in your city buy? Does your city have a port? If it’s not on the water, does it have a place where railroads come together to deliver goods?