It's busier than ever at my old university hangout. Students and tourists jostle good-naturedly for a table in the centre of Café Leopold as they vie for a space by the window. That's not because they want to look out onto the street – a metal shutter on the outside blocks both light and view – but because they want to sit by the bullet holes that penetrated the sheet of glass but did not shatter it.

"We're keeping the window and the bullet holes in the wall opposite as a reminder, as a piece of history," says Farhang Jehani.

Along with his brother Farzad, he runs the 138-year-old restaurant that is perhaps the most accessible attraction on the new terror tours revisiting the horrific attacks of November 26, 2008.

One year ago, the café was one of several high-profile attractions bombed in a militant attack that killed at least 173 people and injured more than 308. It famously reopened for business one day after the three-day hostage drama at the centre of the terror crisis ended and has since grown far beyond the backpacker bar it once was. Indeed, Farhang Jehani told us when we met in the air-conditioned upstairs bar earlier this year, the café is busier than ever. The T-shirts and mugs he has put on sale to commemorate the attacks and their first-year anniversary today are just one example of the city's dogged business-mindedness.

The new terror tours begin at Rs1,500 (Dh119) a head and take in all the 13 places attacked last year, including the neo-Gothic building that is home to the central Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus train station. Here, you can see men loading and unloading lunchboxes all morning – hundreds of thousands of which make their way across the kilometres from suburban homes to downtown offices in a marvel of organisation that has been studied by academics worldwide.

Over the years there have been several such tours, says Serena Franklin, President of the Tourist Guides Association of Mumbai. "There are a lot of different things to see and do in Mumbai; these are just new ways to package the sights," she tells us as she squires us around this city of squalor and beauty courtesy of travel supplier Tamarind Tours (tamarindtours.in), which tailors India packages for residents of the Gulf.

We are headed to Dharavi, which until it lost its crown to Orangi in Karachi this September, was the largest slum in Asia. Never mind Slumdog Millionaire, this city within a city offers a true lesson in business for any manager. Home to roughly one million people, this former fishing village is now a production hub for the leather, garment and plastics industries. Asha, as she calls herself, deftly plaits a leather belt that is suspended from a nail on the side of her tiny but sparklingly clean shanty, a fact my European travel companion still remembers and remarks on. If she can meet her target, she says, she can earn Rs200 a day.

Just then a man materialises besides us and starts cross-questioning her in Marathi, the local language: who are we, what do we want, why are we talking to her? She tells us all this after he vanishes as suddenly as he showed up, apparently satisfied that we are not out to cause trouble by interrupting his cheap supply of goods.

Asha says she has become used to people coming by and asking questions: a Hollywood hit will do that. In the aftermath of Danny Boyle's Oscar-nominated hit, Slumdog Millionaire tours are all the rage, says Louis D'Souza, Chief Operating Officer at Tamarind Tours.

Business from the Gulf declined following the attacks, he says, but it has begun to pick up again as the cooler weather sets in.

"Growth was almost flat," he says, "but that was also because of the recession and the threat of swine flu. Terrorism on its own, especially after the increase in attacks around the world over the past few years, is not something that scares travellers very much any more."

The best way to take in Mumbai, he says, is to tack on three or four days in the city to a week-long trip to one of the country's many other attractions: Himalayan spas, Keralite tea plantations, tiger parks or the remnants of the Mughal empire, such as the much-photographed Taj Mahal.

That is not to be confused with the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower, the 106-year-old hotel that sits at the southern end of Mumbai and is a few minutes' walk from Café Leopold. As the centre of the hostage crisis last year is a far cry from its association with India's swanky elite, who stop by the Michelin-worthy Zodiac Grill for its legendary Camembert Dariole.

The hotel re-opened its landmark Golden Dragon Chinese restaurant yesterday, to get to which visitors must pass through metal detectors and allow their bags to be checked. If you haven't got time for a meal here, make it a point to visit the famed Sea Lounge on the first floor of the hotel's heritage wing. It offers a view of the iconic Gateway of India, a triumphal arch built to commemorate the 1911 visit of King George V and Queen Mary, then Emperor and Empress of India, and beyond it, the muddy Arabian Sea which leads to Elephanta Island, home to medieval Hindu cave temples.

The restaurant is a great place to stop for afternoon tea and is where Mumbai's diamond-dripping socialites and Forbes-listed industrialists can be seen discussing deals, arranging marriages or carrying on very public romantic liaisons.

However, if it's Bollywood celebrities you want to spot – Mumbai is home to one of the largest film industries in the world – you'd be better off staying at the other end of town, at a hotel in the city's western suburbs. The Grand Hyatt Mumbai, where we stayed, is both an oasis of calm in the teeming city and home to a vibrant nightclub that attracts A-list actors.

Less common now, but still often requested, are tours that visit Bollywood sets at Goregaon Film City and, for a fee, arrange a walk-on part in a C-grade film that is unlikely to see release. When there, ask about Ritesh Deshmukh: the son of former state chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh. The actor visited the terror-struck areas with his father and film director Ram Gopal Varma, whose movie he was working on. That publicity-seeking attempt unseated his father.

But that's all part of what makes Mumbai the business hub it is. Later that day, we return to Leopold. As my European travel companion steps outside Café Leopold for a smoke, he is approached by a slight young man he describes as being barely 14 years old. Can he get him anything, he asks?

It's business as usual.


Essential guide

GETTING THERE

Emirates (emirates.com) and Jet Airways (jetairways.com) operate daily to Mumbai from Dubai while Etihad Airways (www.etihadairways.com) flies from Abu Dhabi.

WHERE TO STAY

The ultra-luxurious Grand Hyatt Mumbai Hotel, located in the centre of the city, is more like a lifestyle complex set on 12 acres of landscaped gardens and water features – the perfect escape for tired souls. Rooms start at Rs10,000 (Dh795) a night. Go to www.mumbai.grand.hyatt.com

DON'T FORGET

Mosquito repellants can prove to be a life safer for some. Make sure you drink only bottled water and pack a few stomach tablets. Mumbai is frenetic, so be adventurous.

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