MUMBAI PAUSED: June 2013

Sector 17, Vashi

The Art Of Killing Trees.

Wherever I go,
I see dead trees.
and a nest
with birds in it
waiting for me
to get possession
of my nest

Eastern Freeway - Purdah

Some of the best views from the Eastern Freeway are blocked by these simple curtains. That's because the freeway runs above huge tanks of the Public Sector oil companies. It would have provided an awesome view of the bay and Mazgaon dock. Luckily you do get a good view of that as you near the large cranes of Mazgaon.

Here's the other side of the road.

Eastern Freeway + Monorail

Eastern Freeway meets Mumbai Monorail.

Meanwhile below the freeway near the Dockyard

Eastern Freeway

Eastern Freeway. Chicken Lane

Living on a prayer.

The walls of the road leading to the tunnels are still being strengthened. That's the reason a couple of lanes are still closed on the freeway. If you are driving down the road, watch out for falling rocks. If you live there, pray.

A good headline in the newspapers that forced the freeway to be opened before it was ready or the ground around it settled would be if the rock fell on one of the editors of those newspapers. And the spineless government officials who are risking the lives of people because they are afraid of the people who print our newspapers.

Eastern Freeway

Eastern Freeway

सीधा VT
सीधा VT
सीधा VT
They repeat
one after the other
like the cars
streaming
into the tunnel
And when my
turn comes
I look up
from my viewfinder
and repeat the same
Seeda VT
Seeda VT
a man looks up
sees my headshake
is South India
but he understands
shakes his head
and
repeats
सीधा VT
and it echoes back
to where
it started

Eastern Freeway

Car Culture in Mumbai: Eastern Freeway

Slow moving traffic behind the barrier that hides the incomplete parts of the Eastern Freeway.

The Freeway was meant to open after the rains when the roads that were just laid and the exit at Shivaji Chowk was redesigned to handle the traffic but the newspapers thought otherwise. They wanted the Freeway opened before it was fully ready and had their way. It is now open for cars. It is not open for the main people it was built for - the trucks that use the Mumbai Port.

The Eastern Freeway would open up the Port for more business because it links to the NH4 that connects the Deccan and NH3 that goes to the Northern Deccan and towards MP and Agra.

Vashi

When it rains,
the peacocks dance
for every drop
a hundred colours

Mulund (W)

Urban Gods of Mumbai.

Dr B R Ambedkar photo at a naming ceremony,

Sion- Panvel Highway

Prayer for Mumbai

Good morning from Mumbai where the moist air is heavier than the clouds as it rises from the sea. Like that large bird filled with all it could eat before a long flight in the mud flats near Airoli, Bhandup, or Shivdi, climbs slowly over dry land for a long flight dropping large drop, giant drops of rain that slice the air, devoid of the smell of the sea unlike the rest of year. Like knife through a soft part of a body and with a dull thud falls in brown muck churned by countless feet and the strange, reptiles and amphibians that outnumber the people in the city come out of their secret homes to surprise everyone with their strange eyes and colours, crawl up damp walls and crash against fluorescent power saving lights and go about lives like the people with damp umbrellas, underwear and hair.

Good morning from Mumbai where the sun will come out for brief moments to see if the city still exists. Hoping that the people would have left the city, if the islands are back to their original shapes and the water in between do not smell of their shit, chemicals and greed.

Good morning from Mumbai where the clouds call for redevelopment, pasting notices asking us to just vacate this place and give three years to demolish your homes with their fury and build in its place a city where trees towers and the mangroves will be the parks and the tide will flow free like traffic on a Sunday morning.

Chembur

May floats in muddy June

May floats in muddy June
As hope slowly rises
in a dry well
To meet the thirsty round mouths
of florescent plastic pots
Wash all traces of
the Indian summer
that waits behind dark clouds
for the season
where it will again suck
the life out of the earth
and colours fiery blossoms

There's only one season: The season called change.

This image was shot with a mobile phone and an app called VSCO Cam (you can read more about it here: http://vsco.co/vscocam). It is one of the many new apps in the market today. Some of the most interesting developments in photography software are in mobile apps and for Rs 55 and in this case for free, you can experiment with images that are shot and viewed on phones, hand held devices and desktops. It also means that all of us can shoot on the go and create wonderful imagery that was the realm of professionals who could afford superior cameras and expensive software to edit images. However, it helps to have a keen eye that can be developed over time. Also, you can tell stories visually in ways you never thought possible and in your own style.

If you think that you do not know how to tell stories, here's a tip to start - imagine that you have a photo that you want to show to one person. It could be your young child, your parents, or your best friend and if you were to show or tell your story, how and what would you say it in a simple way.

Experiment and have fun, it's always springtime in the world of photography and there are new things blooming everywhere.

Eastern Freeway

The Eastern Freeway near the Chembur/Pune Highway Exit a day before the monsoon struck.

Opp Deonar Slaughterhouse

Yesterday's news.

Yesterday's news
has a flavour.
An aftertaste
of overnight effect.
Clear
like water
in a clay jar
the dust resting
at the bottom.

In the age of nowness, there's never been more room for yesterday's news. Digested, chronicled and heralding a new day with news that is verified.

There's a joy in watching people read newspapers the old fashioned way on a katta. Look at this katta opposite the slaughterhouse in Deonar. Tamil, Marathi, Urdu, Hindi, on one plane. You can peek into the other's newspaper but you cannot understand the script. But you can see the images. Some of them are the same as the one in your newspapers. Most are from elsewhere, local matters that connect that person to home just like the ones in yours do not make sense to him.

Also read:
In Mumbai Boss, images of the surviving newspaper reading stands of Mumbai. View the photo essay here.

Vashi + Parel + Sion Panvel Road

The Art of Killing Trees. Part 2

The builders of Mumbai and in the rest of India have perfected the art of killing trees. Here they have stumped some the trees out. That's nothing compared to the other dirty things they do but this is also just one of the things they have perfected.

Meanwhile on the roadside near NH4 Octroi Naka, a nest hidden among the branches faces the pre monsoon showers come in.

May flower in June.
Grey skies instead of blue.
When the rains come
will the little ones
be ready to fly?