Bookshelves Mumbai.
Bablu, a driver who works for a hotel near Powai and lives in a home bordering the Mithi River (If you want to buy it from him, it will cost you 1.5 lakhs) has one book on his book shelf. It shares spaces with other necessities.
Filterpada
Bookshelves Mumbai.
Bablu, a driver who works for a hotel near Powai and lives in a home bordering the Mithi River (If you want to buy it from him, it will cost you 1.5 lakhs) has one book on his book shelf. It shares spaces with other necessities.
Deonar
Tee Shirt Reading in Mumbai: Security.
This is a Bajrang Dal T shirt that has its campaign line: Seva. Suraksha. Sanskar.
Food security, land security, job security, security from "others", whatever the organisation it seems that each and every organisation is built on a strong base of fears which they use it to further their cause. Some real, most of them unreal but almost always used by one organisation against others.
However, when it comes to actual life taking security issues like govindas falling to death yesterday, drinking, driving helmetless and dying, falling off trains, or basic safety precautions, which affects all of us, we do not care.
Western Express Highway
Maximum Decibels. Maximum City.
If you go to desolate places in Mumbai, desolate by Mumbai standards that is, you will hear the rumbling echoes of drums. These are the drummers of Mumbai preparing for the upcoming festivals.
In you look closely at the boys on the pipelines, there are kids playing drums on branch pipeline that goes towards Mahim
Filterpada
Children at play.
This talented young who made a Ganesha out of clay in his playground on the banks of the Mithi River has a message for you. Why not use these simple clay Ganeshas this year?
Filterpada
Drummers of Mumbai Series: Future drummers and Ganpati Idol makers of Mumbai.
Children can create things out of anything. Here they recreate the the original joy of the first maker of the Ganpati idol and the person with a stick to create the music that we can all dance to.
Navi Mumbai
Newspaper Reading in Mumbai. Part 2.
Airoli Vartha ( Airoli News)
Langauge: Marathi.
Everything you need to know about grassroot politics in Navi Mumbai in this local, locality newspaper.
Newspaper Reading in Mumbai
One of the the newspaper stand from where I pick up newspapers
Newspaper reading in Mumbai. Part 1.
Unity in diversity. Remember those words from our school textbooks? Those are the words that best describe the newspaper stands in Mumbai.
In Mumbai (and in other metros too), you get newspapers that represent parts of the city, regions of Maharashtra, different states, countries, the diaspora, castes, religions, languages and everything that makes us united in diversity. Here are a few of the newspapers I picked up from newspapers stands in Vashi and Chembur over the last month. I will never stick to one newspaper again.
A typical Mumbai newspaper stand. News and career advancement.
Karnataka Malla.
Language: Kannada.
Mumbai Edition.
Language: Kannada.
Mumbai Edition.
The headline is the 200 koti or crore haul from trucks in Mumbai.
The news is mostly Mumbai, then national and a page for Karnataka politics.
The entertainment page is all Sandalwood or Kannada movies and the last page is full of wedding anniversary announcements And obituaries. 90 percent of them with the surname Shetty and the rest with villages from the old Kanara districts of Karnataka. It looks like this newspaper is read by the Tulu speaking folks of Mumbai who use Kannada as their language when it comes to reading news.
Pic 2: The mandatory advertisement for buses that take you home.
The news is mostly Mumbai, then national and a page for Karnataka politics.
The entertainment page is all Sandalwood or Kannada movies and the last page is full of wedding anniversary announcements And obituaries. 90 percent of them with the surname Shetty and the rest with villages from the old Kanara districts of Karnataka. It looks like this newspaper is read by the Tulu speaking folks of Mumbai who use Kannada as their language when it comes to reading news.
Pic 2: The mandatory advertisement for buses that take you home.
Ratnagiri Times.
Language: Marathi
Language: Marathi
The umbilical connection to Konkan districts of Ratnagiri, Sindhudurg and Raigad and Kolhapur across the Shayadri. The news on the day I clicked this image: Rain here, rain there and everywhere! It's pouring pause pause without pause Published every Sunday and available across Samyukta Maharashtra -Maharashtra, Goa and parts of Karnataka.
Police Times. Weekly newspaper.
Language: Marathi
You will find variants of Police News in every language and region of India and they are equally popular everywhere. The images are the same everywhere too. The tone similar. Murder, robberies, old men troubling all others sexually and young runaway couples found dead.
The readers of Police News are superstitious it seems from the only non crime or sex related columns isthe extra large horoscope. The other ads are lottery results and increase the size of your penis ads. The cost of the newspaper is Rs 8. Four times the cost of a regular newspaper.
Police News (Kannada language).
Bangalore
Crime sells and in far away places. The Kannada dose of KDgiri (KD is the short form for Killer dog and is the Kannada word for gundas or rowdies popularised by sandalwood in the 80s). It costs 10 rupees and that's two rupees more than the Marathi version.
The news is similar but mostly about crime in south Karnataka. It is published from Jalahalli which also happens to the suburban village I grew up in and which was gobbled up by Bangalore.
An illustration from the magazine.
The Mumbai editions of the two big newspapers from Kerala. Malayala Manorama (established 1888 it proclaims) and Mathrubhumi or motherland.
Apart from the major Kerala districts, they have editions from Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Delhi, Dubai. Manorama has editions from mangalore and Bahrain too. The main headline in Manorama is the coup in Egypt. Ahmedabad and the Ishrat Jahan news is second. The main headline in Matrybhoomi is the fire is the big fire in Fort yesterday.
An alternate page design suggestion for a Malayalam newspaper.
The most interesting pages in the Malayalam newspapers are the obituary listings.
In Manorama they are listed district wise for Kerala and covers the whole page on small print. It is an important announcement for most Keralites with its Japan-like percentage of older people. To announce death on the Kerala newspaper so that the people you know from your original village or from wherever you worked in the world will know the next day and will be informed.
Sakshi Daily
Langauge: Telugu
Langauge: Telugu
The most widely available Telugu newspaper in Mumbai is Eenadu but you also get a Mumbai edition of Sakshi. The newspaper started by YSR's son Jagan and must be the most colourful newspaper started by a politician. It is the youngsters whom I have usually seen reading this one and they seem to like it.
To be continued...
Vashi
Pillows of the people who sleep deep.
Every morning, we see these bottles lined up along clean footpaths. They look like empty bottles but they are not. This is where the worries, hopelessness and other sleep spoilers seek refuge as the men sleep on the footpaths or wherever they have found a bed and sleep without worrying about the mosquitoes and the other little worries of our lives.
Also,
This weekend we celebrate Gatari Amavasya. The Gutter New year. The day and night when people who do not touch alcohol during the month of Shravan will do their citizen's duty and give money to the state exchequer as excise duty for the month in one day and sleep.
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