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 - 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...

White Desert Story - Metamorphosis!

"I didn't know who He was or what He was until I saw him transformed into a Blue Butterfly and coming out from one of those windows.

Was there any proof to the lies ? Well the Blue's of one of those windows lying quite and strange brings a certain amount of truth to an otherwise abandoned tales of Metamorphosis..."

Short Story of a City - Bicycle Thieves

When i saw the Bicycle, waiting in a corner of a busy street of the old city of Ahmadabad, i couldn't help but remember Antonio Ricci. 

Do you remember Antonio and his beloved Bicycle? How happy he was riding throughout the city of Rome and putting up colourful posters around the city? 

And why me? Like Antonio, i was,too, already thrown out of a job from the company i help founded.

And like Antonio i was happy too founding the pillars of my dreams and build a company painstakingly until one fine day i was asked to quit. And with that my love for bicycling into work remained a distant dream. 

And to top it my bicycle was stolen too, the very next day from the company premises. My beloved bicycle. 

And after days when i saw this bicycle, i was wondering what would have been the fate of the owner of this seemingly old worn out bicycle? 

And seeing the bicycle alone for so many hours made me feel so sad for Antonio and his child. Maybe i was sad for me and my boy Ishaan too. He wanted to drive with me in my lost bicycle. 

Maybe someday i will buy it again and make my boy ride with me. And in the mean time if you happen to pass by those streets of Ahmadabad do try to look for that bicycle. It must be there waiting, lonely and sad. Maybe waiting for its owner to take it back to where it belong. Maybe...

P.S Even if you are not visiting Ahmadabad, but do try to see Antonio Ricci in "The Bicycle Thieves", a seminal work of neo-realism film would have fatally undermined Vittorio De Sica's intention of presenting an authentic snapshot of everyday life in postwar Italy. 

Short Story of a City - Ahmadabad

“A Traveler's life had two lives now: the life he would have and the life he would forever wonder about.” 

White Desert Story - The Widows.

White Desert Story - The Childhood

“and when all the wars are over, a butterfly will still be beautiful.” 

The Character of a House - Ruins of a City, Old City, Ahmadabad

"Something always attracts us towards the ruins, because ruins remind us our fundamental problem: The problem of impermanence! Amongst the ruins we see the very end of our road! Whatever shows you the simple truth, it is your Master Teacher; whoever repeatedly recalls you of the plain truth, he is your good master!” 

Hungry Tides - Memories of an unforgettable land.

How had it happened that when choosing the men and women who were to be torn from this subjugated plain, the hand of destiny had stayed so far inland, away from the busy coastlines, to alight on the people who were, of all, the most stubbornly rooted in the silt of the Ganga, in a soil that had to be sown with suffering to yield its crop of story and song ? 

It was as if fate had thrust its fist through the living flesh of the land in order to tear away a piece of its stricken heart .

- Amitav Ghosh, Sea of Poppies (Ibis Trilogy, #1)

White Desert Story - In search of Water...

“Give me the waters of Lethe that numb the heart, if they exist, I will still not have the power to forget you.” 
― Ovid, The Poems of Exile: Tristia and the Black Sea Letters

Metaphors of a City - Ahmadabad

सहरनामा", An Abstract of a City - Short stories of a city called, Ahmadabad.

"कहानीया, बस , तीन लफ्जो की होती है,
लेकिन, क्यों और कैसे ।
बाकी सब बाते है।। "


All stories are a lie.In bits and pieces... 





- Night Walk in Ahmadabad with Cine Prime Lens DS 50mm, 1.5T. 

सहरनामा", An Abstract of a City - Short stories of a city called, Ahmadabad.

"ढूंढता रहता हूं ऐ ‘इकबाल’ अपने आप को,
आप ही गोया मुसाफिर, आप ही मंजिल हूं मैं ।"



"I loved the city.We were anonymous, and even then I had the sense that cities were yielding; that they moved over and made room.

I loved the spread of the lonely night. Loved how the dim faint yellow bulb, waiting for a shape to walk in, sometime, and bring a fresh array of noise. 

I could never imagine how much I loved noises, until the silent lips of the unknown man, looking out for words. Words he wanted to utter but no one to hear..."





- Night Walk in the old city of Ahmadabad with Cine Prime Lens DS 50mm, 1.5T. 


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.

Abstracts of a City - Ahmadabad

White Desert Story