MUMBAI PAUSED: Jacob Circle

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Jacob Circle

The use of red on the streets of Mumbai by the informal food industry.

Migrant Gods of Mumbai - Koti Chennayya of Tulunadu

In the popular Udupi restaurant at Saath Rasta called Shree Ram, they have this image of the legendary heroes of Tulunadu or the places where Tulu is spoken in what is presently Mangaluru, Udupi and Kasargod districts of Karnataka and Kerala.

Koti and Chennayya lived in the 16th Century and have shrines in their name across that region. This one had the name of a shrine in Udupi.

Mumbai has a large population of Tulu speakers including the people who run the Udipi restaurant business and that's part of this city's hertiage.

Meanwhile, they serve Samosa here with a South Indian chutney and they are famosu for their sweets.

Mumbai Monorail Photographs

I finally took the Mumbai Monorail, the poor cousin of all public transport systems in the city. After a long wait. the public transport system that connects Chembur and Mahalaxmi was opened recently on a Sunday that also happens to be Ambedkar Jayanti. It was filled with exciting boys and a few girls. I was happy to be part of the boys, enjoying the ride. The most beautiful part of the monorail is that we can sit right behind the driver and watch the journey unfold.

A few observations

- The years when it stood idle and gathered dust is visible
- It should probably have been longer and a metro connecting Ghatkopar or Kurla on one side and maybe to or via Dadar West
- Maybe it should have been in another part of the city altogether

The Mumbai Skyline from the Mumbai Monorail

Saath Rasta

Antop Hill

Wadala Depot / Bhakti Park

Saath Rasta Dhobi Ghat

MithaBol - A linguistic map of Mumbai

Telugu

This was my first visit inside Dhobi Ghat. A place I have only seen from the bridge and I could see why it fascinates people. I was lucky to be there on the day on Ashada Jatra or Pochamma Panduga Bonalu as the Telugu speaking residents/workers of the Saath Raasta Dhobi Ghat (this the rear end on the eastern side) call the festival.

Bonalu is a corruption of Bhojanam (meal) and could be translated as feast. There were goats (see video) that were waiting to be slaughtered.

The men and a few women were all in their traditional and festive best for the occasion. The music was loud (listen to the Telugu song in the video)

They were getting ready to go to the Pochamma Temple in Kamathipura which has the community's most important shrine in Mumbai.