St Savta Road

Carrom on wheels. See the full Carrom Clubs of Mumbai Series. Here.

Off Samanth Bhai Nanji Road, Dongri

Carrom Clubs of Mumbai Series: Fraud Carrom Club, Dongri. Two B-grade film Muslim underworld boys with skull caps, thick black eye liners, black mole, a dance bar girl in navel-revealing outfit and an angry looking female gangster. A stereotype Dongri created for a Bollywood action film around a carrom table.

Here are the real local Dongri boys who have been called in to control the crowd. The crowd is made up of workers from the local workshops, travel agents who specialise in the Gulf route, Hajj and Iraqi Shia pilgrimages, Arab traders who stay in cheap lodges in the area, Malabari shopkeepers, and lots of kids who are enjoying the summer holidays.

The local boys, dressed in jeans, caps and like ghetto boys anywhere in the world, they look like youngsters who spend more time playing games in cybercafes or exchanging stuff on their mobile phones. But they do speak colourful Mumbaiya like in the movies.

See the full series: Carrom Clubs of Mumbai.

Malwani

This is one of the many Carrom Clubs in Malwani, a large slum in the western suburb of Malad. It sits on the first floor of a house and can be reached by a large metal ladder. The low asbestos roof and small windows can make it as hot as an oven all day long.

Carrom Clubs of Mumbai Series

Malwani

Concentration.

'Carrom in India is not a sport. It is a culture and will never be about the grants and the awards.'

Inspired by the movie Striker, set in Malwani in the 80s, Rishi Majumder explores the reasons for the popularity of the game in the latest issue of Tehelka. This photograph I clicked in Carrom Club in Malwani, Malad (W), appears as part of the story.

Read the original story here.

Carrom Clubs of Mumbai Series