Bandra – My Favourite Things

The St+art invasion of Bandra and a curated walk

Posted on August 20, 2015August 27, 2015 by sudhagee

On a Saturday morning in November 2014, I participated in a special, curated walk — perhaps the first of its kind — on street art. Organised by the St+art India Foundation, the walk was to showcase the culmination of almost three weeks of work done by 20 renowned artists from India and abroad in and around Bandra in Mumbai.

I had closely followed the progress of the various artworks on my Facebook and Twitter feeds. And each time an artwork was “unveiled”, the itch to go and see them for myself only intensified. So when the announcement of a curated and guided street art walk popped up on my Facebook feed, I immediately signed up for it. But then, the excitement gave way to scepticism.

Let me elaborate. I love street art — it’s vibrancy, its uniqueness, its colourfulness, and the fact that they don’t follow any set rules. But most of all I love how all the street art I have seen have been serendipitous and delightful finds. Something, I thought that a curated walk would not be able to give.

Bandra St+Art, Mumbai. Street Art — Location: Pali Village | Artist: Fomas

Still, the lure of seeing the St+Art in Bandra prevailed over my scepticism and I made it for the walk, as did 10 other people.

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3 churches and a basilica: Exploring Bandra’s Christian heritage

Posted on October 30, 2014 by sudhagee

It’s a little before 7 on a muggy Saturday morning in March earlier this year.

At Bandra’s Basilica of Our Lady of The Mount, otherwise known as Mount Mary, the morning service is in progress. The stalls outside the Basilica are already open for business. At that time of the morning, there are hardly any people out on the roads; an occasional rickshaw, car or jogger pass by stopping for a quick prayer before going on their way.

Mount Mary, Churches of Bandra, Mumbai — A jogger stops to say a quick prayer outside Mount Mary

I had wanted to attend the morning service at Mount Mary, but the bus that got me to Bandra from Navi Mumbai got delayed. Not wanting to enter the church midway through a service, I decide to wait at the Oratory of Our Lady of Fatima, which is across the road from Mount Mary.

With me is a friend and together we plan to explore Bandra’s Christian heritage that morning by visiting some its places of worship. I pick up a pamphlet on the history of Mount Mary from one of the stalls outside the Basilica and settle down on the steps of the Oratory to read.

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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. 🙂

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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.

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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.

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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: