gajras, banglt-s and bhulis," says Mehta. "Even though we're relatively new, we get over 100 tourists per month. We also hold various seasonal tours during festivals such as Ganpati, Diwali, Goktt-lashlami and Holi," adds Vahalia. Mehta and vahalia: different touts for diffen

umbai is always in the news for doing things differently. This time, it's for some unusual tours being offered by various tour companies. The current favourite is the 'slum tour', made popular by the movie- Sltnndog Millionaire and celebrities like Madonna and Gregory David Roberts (Shantaram) who have visited and lived in slums, respectively. Although the origin of this trend is unknown, there are some firms that specialise in this new concept. On top of the list is Namaste City Tours, brain child of Naini Mehta and Kunal Vahalia, who started the company nearly two years ago out of passion for the city and otherwise hold separate full-time jobs. Namaste has a number of exceptional tours such as the temple tour, shopping tour, golf tour, rural tour, Bollywood tour, Rajasthani fair tour, and of course, the slum tour. Namaste's temple tour takes tourists to a number of temples, churches, mosques and gurudwaras, including Haji AH, Mahalaxmi temple, Jain tem ple, Siddhivinayak temple and so on. "For the shopping tour, we speak to the customer beforehand to find out what nt folks he or she wants. It can be anything from roadside shopping to a wedding trousseau, and a professional shopping consultant accompanies the cus tomer," says Mehta. The golf tour, a hot favourite with Japanese tourists, takes clients to a Mumbai golf club and the company provides all the necessary equipment. The rural tour takes tourists to a village in the interiors of Maharashtra. "Our Bollywood tour is quite popu lar, but often poses problems for us as the foreigners come thinking we'll take them to have coffee with Shah Rukh Khan and Amitabh Bachchan. We actually take tourists to watch a day's -shooting at Film City and if requested,. to see some film stars' houses," explains Vahalia. The Rajasthani fair tour takes tourists to Choklri Dhani, a few hours away from Mumbai, while the slum tour provides a glimpse into Mumbai's underbelly. "Almost all our customers are for eigners. It is obvious that a Mumbaikar will not take these tours and we hardly get anyone from other parts of India either. So we focus on making the tours as 'Indian' as possible, complete with