Bombay Meri Jaan

Bombay you will be told that the only Indian word as a city is understood in the West. Other Indian metropolises like Calcutta, Madras and Delhi are like oversized villages.

It is true that Bombay has many more high-rise buildings than any other Indian city: when you approach it by the sea it looks like a miniature New York.

It has other things to justify its city status: it is congested, it has traffic jams at all hours of the day, it is highly polluted and many parts of it stink.

But mostly what makes Bombay stand apart is its huge swarms of yellows bellying horns and invocating the aroma of the Arabian Tales...

Dhobi Ghat - Sunflowers.

I don't think there's anything on this planet that more trumpets life that the sunflower. For me that's because of the reason behind its name.Not because it looks like the sun but because it follows the sun.

During the course of the day, the head tracks the journey of the sun across the sky and help the metaphorphosis coming true.

A metamorphosis of a young washerman becoming a Sunflower! 

Dhobi Ghat - The Wandering Souls

“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing 
and rightdoing there is a field.
I'll meet you there.

When the soul lies down in that grass
the world is too full to talk about.” 
                            ― Jalaluddin Rumi

Dhobi Ghat - The Wandering Souls

"What are you seeing? Are you able to see our wandering selves out there in the cold blue water, floating like pieces of meteors, within the canvas of our universe? Yes our Universe! 

That Universe where you have left us all alone, cold and frozen, unattended and soiled. And like an unknown sapling we wake up to find us floating. Floating deep, between the chambers of births and deaths. We could feel ourselves half asleep. We could hear the sounds of another world, hidden between the crevices of darkness and light. 

Under the faint light of awakening, could hear you reading out from the Book of Hades. Were you reading or chanting? Chanting a Hymn to awaken the spirit of the Underworld? The whiteness of our living was unsure until we are here. Here, where we are exiled. 

Peculiarly couldn't ask, whether this exile was meant to die or to wake up after we were dead! 


Now, as we are lying without a body, we are no more entwined to the destiny of lives you have gifted us once. Our Souls spread over the planet and leave no mountain unclimbed, no valley undiscovered, no sea unsailed, ventured even into an inner sanctum.

Maybe a Sanctuary! 

Our Souls mingle and leave no relationship unattempted, no emotion unfelt, no pleasure and pain unexplored. Our Souls plunge into their minds and leave no tale untold, no image unpainted, no melody unheard.

For the first time in our entire dissipated and borrowed life, our Souls transcend their fantasies and leave no idea unthought, no natural law undescribed, no wisdom undefined. 
And even pass over the thinkeable and witness ineffable realms of other worlds and their inhabitants. 

Curiously, without any idea of what we are, we have become the embodiment of the purpose of existence.” 

Dhobi Ghat - Rhyme & Rhythms

The thing about Bombay or Mumbai is you go five yards and all of human existence is revealed. It's an incredible cavalcade of life, and I love that.

I love that scent of buzzing human movements and it so much reminds me of the Bees. I can fairly imagine Bombay as The Queen and us acting like bees tending the time as a beehive. We are all moving and at times this movement becomes the metaphor of Stillness.

And maybe if you're staying in Bombay you would have observed that how the city has beautifully carved herself into frames. Frames of life! A life full of renewed life force extinguishing every night and springing up yet again each morning.

Such display of continuous deaths and births are rarely seen in any cities I have ever lived in. Maybe Newyork is such I am being told. But I am sure the waves and textures of human colours are unmatched and unique from everywhere.

And the most remarkable part is the huge mellowed heart of the city.She places the grotesque and the ugly next to the refined and subtle and yet it creates a Rhythm. Her indomitable spirit and desire to exist supercedes every lil' imperfections she carries.

Dhobi Ghat - Blue's Playin

Dhobi Ghat (Mahalaxmi Dhobi Ghat) is a well known open air laundromat in Mumbai, India.The washers, locally known as Dhobis, work in the open to wash the clothes from Mumbai's hotels and hospitals.

I was always fascinated with the stories of Dhobi Ghat and more so seeing the film with the same title.

It was just 6.30 am in the morning and the scent of Dhobi Ghat with chlorine, dim light, half clad men beating the clothes in a rhythm with splashes of water wrenching the blue's out, was enough to produce a music that could only match with Billy Joel in his saxophone.

I was standing there quietly and watching the clock taking me back to somewhere in between the 60's to 70's.There was this humming sound of the drier, in distant, giving it a feeling of Time Machine. I could feel some curious eyes trying to catch my glance but they were too busy to clean all the mirths of the city than watching me through my lens.

I could see tons of shirts and trousers shedding their blackness and getting whiter. I was thinking how men have learnt to clean the dirts and whiten their lives at the expense of other fellow men.

I was wondering where do all these dirts that are getting cleaned travels to? Does these travels to the inside, within the darkest corners of the city ? How will the city clean itself?

I think too much! Let me watch the Blue's for now...

Salaam Bombay - The Lonely Boat

Salaam Bombay - Let us run away (Love in the time of Trucks)

In the '80s, listening to Elvis and others on the radio in Bombay - it didn't feel alien. Noises made by a truck driver from Vasai, Colaba, seemed relevant to a middle-class kid growing up on the other side of the world.That has always fascinated me.

And what most fascinated me is the thought of having a Truck, that would one day help me pick up the neighbour gal i love and run away. Run away far from the madding crowd and just look at her face properly. For Once!

Salaam Bombay - What will you wear?

Bombay is the Retail capital of India from the previous partition era with its huge array of goods and spread of market.What makes it unique is the diversity of such markets making the city a paradise for all sorts of people.From the riches to the poor.

In an interview with The Newyork Times Karl Lagerfield from the House of Channel said that the emergence of fashion begins largely from a popular culture and he rates Bombay for such inspiration only after Newyork and Paris.

A good flea market is a shopper’s and fashion designers paradise and Bombay is definitely one of that!

The flea or the street markets in Bombay offer a good deal of opportunities for the shopaholic to indulge in luxuriant shopping. Who would miss a chance to buy the most stylish and fanciful attire that too at a good bargain?

Shopping at the flea markets of Bombay is as essential as visiting the Gateway of India! So here is a small insight of the shopping paradise of the city of Bombay 



1. Colaba Causeway-

This is one place where you would get everything, quite literally! Handicrafts, clothes, books or jewellery; anything that you could possibly think of. And when you get tired drop-in at the Leopold’s Café, one of the most famous hangout areas in Mumbai.-

2. Linking Road-

A vibrant amalgamation of traditional and modern, this place is one of the most crowded places of Mumbai. Avoid visiting this market on Sundays if you don’t like congested areas.-

3. Crawford Market-

Nestled in a historical colonial building, this is one of the oldest markets of Bombay. Fruits and vegetables are its specialties. There is also a special area devoted to pets of all kinds.-

4. Fashion Street-

This place has the highest fashion quotient in Bombay and the locals can swear by the same. With over 150 stalls, Fashion Street is quite popular amongst the youngsters.-

5. Chor Bazaar-

Initially, this was not actually a thieves market!The mispronunciation of British changed the name of this place from Shor Bazaar to Chor Bazaar and then eventually it lived up to its name! If vintage is your taste, strive through the crowded lanes of this market to get your hands on some of the most unique items of all times. -




Street Walk in Colaba, Bombay. Film Photography, Provia.

Salaam Bombay - The Character of a House (The Magen David)

This house is supposedly older than the first British settlement in Bombay Presidency and dates back to early 1700's when Bombay was governed by the Portuguese and owned by the famous Jewish Trading family.

Now the emblem on the house is called The Magen David ( Shield of David, or as it is more commonly known, the Star of David ) which is the symbol most commonly associated with Judaism today, but it is actually a relatively new Jewish symbol.

It is supposed to represent the shape of King David's shield (or perhaps the emblem on it), but there is really no support for that claim in any early rabbinic literature.The symbol is not mentioned in rabbinic literature until the middle ages.

Scholars such as Franz Rosenzweig have attributed deep theological significance to the symbol.For example, some note that the top triangle strives upward, toward G-d, while the lower triangle strives downward, toward the real world.

Some note that the intertwining makes the triangles inseparable, like the Jewish people.Some say that the three sides represent the three types of Jews: Kohanim, Levites and Israel. Some note that there are actually 12 sides (3 exterior and 3 interior on each triangle), representing the 12 tribes.

While these theories are theologically interesting, they have little basis in historical fact.

The symbol of intertwined equilateral triangles is a common one in the Middle East and North Africa, and is thought to bring good luck. It appears occasionally in early Jewish artwork, but never as an exclusively Jewish symbol. The nearest thing to an "official" Jewish symbol at the time was the menorah.