Goodbye Trains and BEST, Hello Cars. About 450 new vehicles are added to Greater Mumbai roads, each day.
Thane - Belapur Road
Goodbye Trains and BEST, Hello Cars. About 450 new vehicles are added to Greater Mumbai roads, each day.
Pedestrian Underpass. Kharghar Station
Breaking or B Boying
The break dance style that emerged in Inner City America is now filtering down into Mumbai Suburbs and small towns across India. Though it has been around for some time simply as break dance, with Michael Jackson as the ambassador, the energetic, adrenaline-filled evolutions of the acrobatic dance form and the name has become popular thanks to the talent shows on television.
In the Hindi General Entertainment space, it's Zee TV's Dance India Dance, hosted by Mithun 'Disco Dancer' Chakraborty that has made the dance form popular. Just like similar programmes on almost all regional language entertainment channels across India.
The graffiti here advertises a Dance School in the education hub of Kharghar on the Harbour Line, close to the proposed international airport.
Md Ali Road
Sign board maker: If it was a Mumbai society, Obama's floor would've been Manmohan Singh's roof. His roof, Sarkozy's floor
Navroji Hill Road No 4, Umerkhadi
Work Space Mumbai: Street-side Tambola (Bingo/Housie)
You've seen hijras clapping at traffic lights, outside shops, flagging down vehicles on unlit stretches of highways, or outside the huts that lined Tulsi Pipe Road before BMC backed by people with paintbrushes drove them away to places that's out of car's reach. But the much maligned hijras also do other things to make ends meet. Like this enterprising hijra (in blue and as well-dressed as the women around) from Umerkhadi, close to Sandhurst Station who was holding a Tambola session on the pavement. And definitely more participation than the show named Bingo! that Abhishek Bachchan hosted.
You've seen hijras clapping at traffic lights, outside shops, flagging down vehicles on unlit stretches of highways, or outside the huts that lined Tulsi Pipe Road before BMC backed by people with paintbrushes drove them away to places that's out of car's reach. But the much maligned hijras also do other things to make ends meet. Like this enterprising hijra (in blue and as well-dressed as the women around) from Umerkhadi, close to Sandhurst Station who was holding a Tambola session on the pavement. And definitely more participation than the show named Bingo! that Abhishek Bachchan hosted.
Work Space Mumbai Series.
Western Express Highway
For the buckets of rain that drenches this city at this time of the year and the lack of proper drainage, and the sheer number of vehicles we drive, our roads are pretty decent. That's because some wise guy about 2 decades back set the concrete-isation of the roads rolling. I wish other cities in India would do the same too.
The rain, sea, humidity and the heat are not very kind to the roads, the city and the people who live here. If we humans were to abandon the city, it will take Mother Nature just a couple of monsoons to reclaim this city and return it to the original islands. However there's a good chance that the concrete roads will remain.
Anik-Wadala Link Road
Ek duje ke liye pose
This picture I clicked is in Tehelka's Independence Special cover story called Love Across The Lines.
It's for a story about a couple, Murtaza and Shylaja who are originally from Bangalore and live in Mumbai with their infant son, Rehan. It's a love story that began high up in the sky where they met each other on a flight. No wonder they threw the rules up in the sky and got married across the lines. Read their wonderful love story and several others, here.
I also got to spend a wonderful, nostalgia filled, rainy afternoon with the couple and their son in their apartment. It's not everyday that I meet people from my home town, especially those who shared the same growing up experience as me. Thank you Murtaza and Shylaja for the wonderful chai-a and photographs.
Other photographs clicked on assignment, here.
Bhakti Park, Wadala East
Sold and parcelled. There's a lot of open space out there on the Eastern waterfront occupied by salt pans, mangroves and refineries that will soon be populated by us.
Juhu Tara Road
Footpath to celebrity. It's possible in Mumbai.
Sunil Pal grew up in a railway colony in Central India, close to Nagpur. As a youngster, this Maharashtrian boy was fascinated by Hindi movies, especially the comedians. He listened to tapes of comedians like Johnny Lever and it was only a matter of time before he was in Nagpur with his small acts that he presented as part of local orchestra groups.
But the lure of Mumbai was strong. His next home was a footpath in Santa Cruz (W). He used to work at a roadside tea shop which was also him home. He used to scan Loksatta and other newspapers for orchestras and bands and approached them with his acts. He was lucky to get a few breaks and he built on it until he could find a roof above his head in a chawl. He now earned enough to quit his job at the tea stall.
This also gave him time during the day to sit and write. He used to frequent the New Jumbo Cafe where he used to observe life and cook up jokes for the evening shows. Here are his scribbles behind the menu card.
It was in Mumbai that he met his inspiration, Johnny Lever who liked his act and directed Pal to his brother who helped hone his skills as a stand up comedian. Hundreds of shows later, he slowly developed the confidence and skills that that would help him leapfrog into the Mumbai life he always dreamed of.
His calling came when he became part of the Laughter Challende show on Star One. Satellite television took him to millions of homes across India and he has one person to thank for the instant connect. It's his imitation of a drunk taxi driver who used to frequent Cafe Jumbo past midnight, fully drunk. Pal's imitation of the drunk was an instant hit and it helped him win the first Laughter Challenge, beating Raju Shrivastva who was one of his guides and mentors on the stand-up circuit. That's the reason Pal has a bar counter turned into a shrine in his living room for the drunk taxi driver. However, Sunil Pal himself does not drink alcohol, even though he endorses a gut burning country liqour brand.
What sets Sunil Pal apart is that he took his hit dialogue from his act in Laughter Challenge to a new height. He went on to write, produce and direct a movie named 'Bhavnao Ko Samjho'. He brought together 51 stand-up comedians in the city to star in the movie, a task that got the movie into the Guinness Book Of World Records.
Sunil Pal's son, Saral plays with a poster of his movie.
The original print of the movie occupies a corner in Sunil Pal's office. The film, wholly produced by Sunil Pal didn't do very well in the box office. But the video sales are believed to be good.
Sunil Pal. Stand up comedian, Writer, Director and Producer. Today, he lives in a spacious apartment in Juhu, a short distance from the footpath he called his home when he landed in Mumbai over a decade back.
It was in Mumbai that he met his inspiration, Johnny Lever who liked his act and directed Pal to his brother who helped hone his skills as a stand up comedian. Hundreds of shows later, he slowly developed the confidence and skills that that would help him leapfrog into the Mumbai life he always dreamed of.
His calling came when he became part of the Laughter Challende show on Star One. Satellite television took him to millions of homes across India and he has one person to thank for the instant connect. It's his imitation of a drunk taxi driver who used to frequent Cafe Jumbo past midnight, fully drunk. Pal's imitation of the drunk was an instant hit and it helped him win the first Laughter Challenge, beating Raju Shrivastva who was one of his guides and mentors on the stand-up circuit. That's the reason Pal has a bar counter turned into a shrine in his living room for the drunk taxi driver. However, Sunil Pal himself does not drink alcohol, even though he endorses a gut burning country liqour brand.
What sets Sunil Pal apart is that he took his hit dialogue from his act in Laughter Challenge to a new height. He went on to write, produce and direct a movie named 'Bhavnao Ko Samjho'. He brought together 51 stand-up comedians in the city to star in the movie, a task that got the movie into the Guinness Book Of World Records.
Sunil Pal's son, Saral plays with a poster of his movie.
The original print of the movie occupies a corner in Sunil Pal's office. The film, wholly produced by Sunil Pal didn't do very well in the box office. But the video sales are believed to be good.
Sunil Pal. Stand up comedian, Writer, Director and Producer. Today, he lives in a spacious apartment in Juhu, a short distance from the footpath he called his home when he landed in Mumbai over a decade back.
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