Antiques
The Chor Bazaar area, and Mutton Street in particular, is the centre of Mumbai's antique trade . Another good, if much more expensive, place to sift through the fakes for a real gem or two is Phillip's famous antique shop, on the corner of Madam Cama Road, opposite the Regal cinema in Colaba. This fascinating, old-fashioned store has changed little since it opened in 1860. Innumerable glass lamps and chandeliers hang from the ceiling, while antique display cases are stuffed with miniature brass, bronze and wood Hindu sculpture, silver jewellery, old prints and aquatints. Most of the stuff on sale dates from the twilight of the Raj - a result of the Indian government's ban on the export by foreigners of items more than a century old.

In the Jehangir Art Gallery basement, a branch of the antiques chain Natesan's Antiqarts offers a tempting selection of antique (and reproduction) sculpture, furniture, paintings and bronzes.

Clothes and textiles
Mumbai produces the bulk of India's clothes , mostly the lightweight, light-coloured "shirtings and suitings" favoured by droves of uniformly attired office-wallahs. For cheaper Western clothing, you can't beat the long row of stalls on the pavement of MG Road, opposite the Mumbai Gymkhana. " Fashion Street " specializes in reject and export-surplus goods ditched by big manufacturers, selling off T-shirts, jeans, leggings, summer dresses, and trendy sweatshirts. Better-quality cotton clothes (often stylish designer-label rip-offs) are available in shops along Colaba Causeway , such as Cotton World, down Mandlik Marg.

If you're looking for traditional Indian clothes , head for the Khadi Village Industries Emporium at 286 Dr DN Marg, near the Thomas Cook office. As Whiteaway & Laidlaw, this rambling Victorian department store used to kit all the newly arrived burra-sahibs out with pith helmets, khaki shorts and quinine tablets. These days, its old wooden counters, shirt and sock drawers stock dozens of different hand-spun cottons and silks, sold by the metre or made up as vests, kurtas or block-printed salwar kamises . Other items include the ubiquitous white Nehru caps, dhotis , Madras-check lunghis and fine brocaded silk saris.

Handicrafts
Regionally produced handicrafts are marketed in assorted state-run emporia at the World Trade Centre, down on Cuffe Parade, and along Sir PM Road, Fort. The quality is consistently high - as are the prices, if you miss out on the periodic holiday discounts. The same goes for the Central Cottage Industries Emporium , 34 Shivaji Marg, near the Gateway of India in Colaba, whose size and central location make it the single best all-round place to hunt for souvenirs. Downstairs you'll find inlaid furniture, wood- and metal-work, miniature paintings and jewellery, while upstairs specializes in toys, clothing and textiles - Gujarati appliqué bedspreads, hand-painted pillowcases and Rajasthani mirror-work, plus silk ties and Noel Coward dressing-gowns. Mereweather Road , directly behind the Taj , is awash with Kashmiri handicraft stores stocking overpriced papier-mâché pots and bowls, silver jewellery, woollen shawls and rugs. Avoid them if you find it hard to shrug off aggressive sales pitches.

Perfume is essentially a Muslim preserve in Mumbai. Down at the south end of Colaba Causeway, around Arthur Bunder Road, shops with mirrored walls and shelves are stacked with cut-glass carafes full of syrupy, fragrant essential oils. Incense is hawked in sticks, cones and slabs of sticky dhoop on the sidewalk nearby (check that the boxes haven't already been opened and their contents sold off piecemeal). For bulk buying, the hand-rolled, cottage-made bundles of incense sold in the Khadi Village Industries Emporium on Dr DN Marg are a better deal; it also has a handicraft department where, in addition to furniture, paintings and ornaments, you can pick up glass bangles, block-printed and calico bedspreads, and wooden votive statues produced in Maharashtran craft villages.

Books
Mumbai's excellent English-language bookshops and bookstalls are well stocked with everything to do with India, and a good selection of general classics, pulp fiction and travel writing. Indian editions of popular titles cost a fraction of what they do abroad and include lots of interesting works by lesser-known local authors. If you don't mind picking through dozens of trigonometry textbooks, back issues of National Geographic and salacious 1960s paperbacks, the street stalls between Flora Fountain and Churchgate station can also be good places to hunt for secondhand books.

Chetana , 34 Dubash Rd (Rampart Row). Exclusively religion and philosophy.

Crossword , Mahalakshmi Chambers, 22 Bhulabhai Desai Rd, Breach Candy tel 022/492 2458. Mumbai's largest and most reputed retailer, a bus ride (#132) from the downtown area.

Nalanda , ground floor, Taj Mahal . An exhaustive range of coffee-table tomes and paperback literature.

Pustak Bharati , Bharatiya Vidhya Bhavan, KM Munshi Marg. Excellent small bookshop specializing in Hindu philosophy and literature, plus details of Bhavan's cultural programmes.

Shankar Book-Stand , outside the Café Mondegar , Colaba Causeway. Piles of easy-reads, guidebooks, classic fiction, and most of the old favourites on India.

Strand , next door to the Canara Bank, off PM Road, Fort. The best bookshop in the city centre, with the full gamut of Penguins and Indian literature.

Music
The most famous of Mumbai's many good music shops are near the Moti cinema along SV Patel Road, in the central bazaar district. Haribhai Vishwanath, Ram Singh and RS Mayeka are all government-approved retailers of traditional Indian instruments, including sitars, sarods, tablas and flutes. For cassettes and CDs try Rhythm House, Subhash Chowk, next to the Jehangir Art Gallery. This is a veritable Aladdin's cave of classical, devotional and popular music from all over India, with a reasonable selection of Western rock, pop and jazz.