Mumbai – Page 4 – My Favourite Things

A double-decker bus, a launch & Mumbai

Posted on May 19, 2014August 14, 2014 by sudhagee

Sometimes, all it takes is a bus ride to see your surroundings in a new light, or a new perspective. Don’t believe me? Read on… 🙂

It all began with an invitation from Audio Compass to celebrate the launch of their AudioCompass Guide with an “open air bus journey through Mumbai at sunset, discussing and getting to know her many stories”. So, on the appointed day and time on a beautiful day in March, I boarded the open air, double-decker BEST bus near Churchgate Station in South Mumbai.

As I surveyed my surroundings from the upper deck of the bus, it was with a sense of familiarity of seeing old landmarks—the Asiatic Departmental Store across the road, Resham Bhavan on my left… And yet, everything looked so very different. That’s when I realised that the elevation made a huge difference to what I was seeing and things that I had not noticed or details that were not visible from ground level were suddenly in focus. For instance, I could see the white spire of St. Thomas Cathedral rising above the trees through the left windshield of the bus — something I had never noticed before.

Audio Compass Bus Tour, #Stories of Mumbai, BEST Double Decker Bus, Nilambari

This is the ‘church’ whose ‘gates’ have given Churchgate its name. To me, this felt like an auspicious start to the tour and I couldn’t wait to see what else was going to be revealed during the bus ride. I didn’t have long to wait and once the other guests had arrived we set off. Continue reading “A double-decker bus, a launch & Mumbai” →

I. Saw. Flamingos.

Posted on April 20, 2014May 1, 2014 by sudhagee

Last Friday began very ordinarily for me. Though it was a holiday, I had to go in to work. I finished around 4 pm and headed to Sewri, where I met up with 2 friends. Sewri is on the eastern shore of what was once Parel Island, one of the seven islands of this city, and fringed by mangroves that are home to a variety of bird life all through the year.

We were there to see the Sewri Fort, one of the Mumbai’s 8 forts, and once there we first spent time looking around and discussing its rather unique architecture (more about that in another post). Only then did we get around to exploring the nooks and crannies of the Fort.

When I peered through an opening in the wall, this is what I saw.

And I squealed, “I see flamingos, pink flamingos, a bunch of flamingos… ” (I’m pretty sure I must have jumped up and down, but I can’t recall that.). I think I went a little incoherent after that.

But the thing is: I. Saw. Flamingos. Live ones. Outside of a TV screen or a glossy magazine or even a comic book. I. Saw. Flamingos. And my camera wouldn’t stop clicking. They were quite some distance away and I had to zoom in to see them even half-way clearly. 🙂

Continue reading “I. Saw. Flamingos.” →

Bandra’s street art: A fantasy world at Chapel Road

Posted on April 18, 2014August 26, 2015 by sudhagee

The dragon was wearing a red fez and carrying a flower almost as big as himself.

“Where are you off to?” I asked him.

“To meet my lady love, who lives across the road,” the dragon replied.

“Have a great date,” I smiled.

“And you have a great time here at Chapel Road. I’m sorry I can’t take you around myself and introduce you to the others,” said the dragon as he hurried off with a backward glance and a ‘fangy’ smile.

Yes, I did meet a dragon in a red fez and with a flower.

No, dear reader. I’m perfectly alright. No, I’m not lying.

Yes, the dragon in a red fez and with a flower was quite real. As real as art can be. 🙂

Welcome to Bandra’s Chapel Road. It is a road that connects Mount Carmel Church to Hill Road. It is narrow, winding road that runs through what was once the independent Runwar Village, but is now part of Bandra. It is a road that is used as a short-cut by many residents of Bandra travelling to or from the Bandra-Worli Sealink. But most importantly, and in the context of this post, it is also a road that is world-famous, thanks to the graffiti and street art there.

Unlike the street art that I have written about in my previous posts (the links are given at the end of this post) where only one artist’s work was in focus, the street art on Chapel Road is by multiple artists from all over the world. Some of them are pretty famous artists too ! This has resulted in a pot pourri of styles and art that is quirky, whimsical, comical, serious, nostalgic, fantastical… but always designed to engage with the viewer.

Come with me as I take you to meet some of my favourites and overhear the (entirely imaginary) conversations I had with some of them. 🙂

Continue reading “Bandra’s street art: A fantasy world at Chapel Road” →

Bandra’s street art: Bollywood on the walls

Posted on April 15, 2014August 26, 2015 by sudhagee

Mumbai and Bollywood are synonymous with one another for many people. I have lost track of the number of times people have only wanted to talk about films and Bollywood with me, once they found out I was from Mumbai.

Yes, Mumbai is the birthplace of Indian cinema, all Hindi film production houses and studios are located here, all Hindi film stars live in Mumbai, etc… And yet, there is a remarkable lack of initiatives to document its journey. Sure, there are books, some half-hearted attempts at tours of the Film City, product designs with Bollywood as the theme, and so on… but these are individual, isolated efforts.

One such effort is the Bollywood Art Project (B.A.P), “an urban art initiative that aims to transform the walls in Mumbai into a living memorial to Bollywood”. Founded in 2012 by artist Ranjit Dahiya, B.A.P aims to “pay tribute to Indian cinema through street art”.

I saw my first B.A.P artwork about a year back late one evening on an organised walk around Bandra. All the light in the dimly lit Chapel Road area came from this smile. I know, I sound clichéd like many of the paeans sung about her. But it is true. Madhubala is gorgeous and there can be no one like her.

For some reason, I never wrote about that excellent walk I went on, though I kept meaning to. And when I saw more Bollywood-based murals recently during one of my visits to Bandra last month, I knew I couldn’t delay writing about them any longer.

Continue reading “Bandra’s street art: Bollywood on the walls” →

Nagrana Lane, Street Art, Graffiti Art, Bandra, Mumbai Ink Brush N Me

Bandra’s street art: Nagrana Lane’s secrets

Posted on April 12, 2014August 26, 2015 by sudhagee

Discovering this set of street art was sheer luck. Serendipity indeed.

It was around 10 am on a Saturday morning in Bandra last month. I had just finished seeing and photographing the set of artwork on the compound wall of St. Peter’s Church on Hill Road. I still had those images of on the theme of child sex ratio and sex selection on my mind when I stopped near a roadside tea stall to put away my camera gear.

On noticing my camera, one of the men standing there said in Hindi, “Don’t put your camera away. There is a lane full of ‘paintings’ like this a little further down the road.”

“Do you mean the ‘paintings’ on Chapel Road?”, I asked.

“No, no. There is another chhota road here which has paintings. Very beautiful paintings.”

“Thanks. I’ll have a look.” I didn’t tell him, but I was a little dubious about this piece of information. I had walked down the road many times and never come across any lane like the one he had mentioned. Also, my good friend Google had never mentioned it, in the sense that all image searches would lead one to the wall art on Chapel Road.

Still… as I walked down the road, I kept an eye out. And then I saw it. If I had not noticed a flash of turquoise blue and red and then looked again, I would have missed it. What I had always assumed was the entrance to a housing society was actually a lane so narrow that if I had stood with my arms spread out, I would have touched the walls on either side.

Continue reading “Bandra’s street art: Nagrana Lane’s secrets” →

Bandra’s street art: The writing on the wall

Posted on April 10, 2014August 26, 2015 by sudhagee

Bandra has suddenly become the place to go to for me. Thanks to a combination of work and a friend moving to this area, I have made more trips to Bandra in the last month than in all the 21 years I have lived in Mumbai ! The visits to Bandra have also been more relaxed and I’ve had a great time walking and discovering interesting facets of this beautiful and charming suburb.

Take Bandra’s graffiti or street art for instance. I’ve been aware of them, read about them in newspapers, seen a few in passing, but never really stopped to have a look at them. So, a couple of weeks back, when I came across a series of them painted on the compound wall of St. Peter’s Church on Hill Road, I stopped. I looked. I read. I photographed. And now I’m sharing the best of them with you.

All the images I saw were on the theme of falling sex ratio and gender selection in India and part of a campaign initiated by Population First on the girl child called “Laadli”. According to information given on the campaign’s website, this is “a means of creating mass awareness and raising public conscience against the reprehensible practice of sex selection.” One might wonder, why such a campaign is being run in posh Bandra, in Mumbai even. Till you read what the campaign website has this to say: