Sunrise at the race course

Crow welcomes the sunrise at the race course.

Bend your branches down along the ground and cover me
When the shadows fall, shade the birds from cold and sorrow.

Minerva Cinema

Novelty Cinema

Mahalaxmi Station

Maratha Mandir

City Centre Mall

Barber

Big Bazaar in the Mall

Mall

Students browsing books and waiting for bus home at fountain.

Bookstall at the end of the fountain.

Pavement bookseller - What the other half reads - Carl Sagan, Born to Win and Dictionaries.

Bombay Central Express is the name of the bus that won't stop because of the crowds waiting for it at the bus stops of Bombay Central.

Pushing a cart on the roads of Bombay is not an easy job.

Streets of Mumbai are lined with trees, as you can see from this picture.

Bridge over crowded streets

I meditate therefore I am not he - Archus Chinchotia of Bhuleswar.

Chasing shadows in the afternoon sun, for it is essential to know the shadows in order to understand the sun - Alburaka.

In the shadow of the afternoon sun, a young student of Jai Hind college seeks answers.

House with a tin pot under the pipal tree with a ladder to the top.

The Fall of the Wall, it's just another brick in the rumble.

Dignified Taxi Driver

The Nausea is not inside me:
I feel it out there in the wall, in my pans,
and everywhere around me.
It makes itself one with the supari,
I am the one who is within it.
- Bald Panwalla quoting Satirical Sartre.

Like everything metaphysical the harmony between thought and reality is to be found in the grammar of the language.
Ludwig Wittgenstein

"Philosophy is not a theory but an activity" quoth the young boy outside the aarey PCO booth.

"I sit astride life like a bad rider on a mobike. I only owe it to the gravity's good nature that I am not thrown off at this very moment." -- Jockwink Wickedsatan.

I don't know why we are here, but I'm pretty sure that it is not in order to enjoy ourselves.-- Ludwig Wittgenstein.

Dog checking out the motorcycle wheel. "For a truly dogmatic dog nothing is tragic." -- Bigwig Canine.

If he were to speak, we would not understand him -- Wittgenstien.

"Of what we cannot speak, we must pass over in silence." -- Ludwig Wittgenstein.

Playing in the streeeeeets of Opera house.

Stocktraders and diamond merchants looking lost outside Panchantrata (Opera house).

Panwalla (made from Betel nut) at Opera house.

Hot sandwiches made on a coal sigri (stove) behind Roxy.

Har koi chahe do bhiga zameen

A tired man taking a short nap on the steps of Churchgate station
after a grueling rush hour journey from Borivali.

Shoe shiners at VT Station

Manmad Express outside CST (VT) station.

Tin housing in by the railway line

Byculla Station is not crowded in the afternoon.

Cricket match proceeds in Chinchpokli, the hole in the wall is a path for people to cross the train tracks over the garbage dump.

Portable plastic paraphernalia shop in a train.

Sion Station

Housing under the powerlines don't have electricity in Kurla

Road by the railway line near Vikhroli

Housing next to train tracks in Sion.

Kurla as seen from the train

Lady seller working hard on a train.

Boy at the Vidhyavihar platform talking to his dad.

Assorted crowd in CR II class ladies compartment going to VT.

Vidyavihar Station (Vidya=knowledge, Vihar=house) as seen from the train.

Chikko seller's basket in a Central Railway Ladies compartament.

Fallen tree blocks Ghas Gali in Agripada, Bombay, after the heavy rains of 30 July 2005.

Fallen trees in Mumbai can't stop the traffice (after the heavy rains of 30 July 2005)

Vendor of colourful hand bags at dusk near AtoZ in Mumbai.

The nightcalm is turning into breeze of chaos - stack of enclosures, The dawn of plastic night begins with a small spark, and then there is nothing. Just plastic dreams, at Fountain.

Rose colored glasses,
They only see what they wanna see and my,
Heart always crashes without my rose colored,
Rose colored glasses, when hearts break like glasses at dusk, only the dead float like lamps.

Reincarnations of the departed souls

"No one is ever satisfied where he is," said the switchman. Everybody is going somewhere.

"Men have forgotten this truth," said the fox. "But you must not forget it. You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed. You are responsible for your rose..."

"It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important." -- Time wasted is time existed.

"What is essential is invisible to the eye," the little prince repeated, so that he would be sure to remember. - The Fox

Pawna Dam, says the sign in Hindi and Marathi

ST Bus enroute to Rajmachi

Family by the lakeside, Bordi

Lost in the forest of Bordi.
The little prince went away, to look again at the roses.

"One only understands the things that one tames," said the fox. "Men have no more time to understand anything. They buy things all ready made at the shops. But there is no shop anywhere where one can buy friendship, and so men have no friends any more. If you want a friend, tame me..." -- Little Prince

"Where are the men?" the little prince asked, politely. The flower had once seen a caravan passing.

"Men?" she echoed. "I think there are six or seven of them in existence. I saw them, several years ago. But one never knows where to find them. The wind blows them away. They have no roots, and that makes their life very difficult." -- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Existential Proofs

"The proof that the little prince existed is that
he was charming, that he laughed, and that
he was looking for a sheep.
If anybody wants a sheep,
that is a proof that he exists."

- Antoine de Saint- Exupery

The time in mumbai is 8:55am. Time to close shop. Tada.

Holy man is invisible on the steps of Kamala Nehru Park leading to the Governor's Bungalow.

Mobile shopkeeper heading up Walkeswar on his cycle.

From Chowpatty to Walkeshwar to Teen Batti to Mt Pleasant Road in Malabar hill.

Tranquil Arabian sea and Tifr.

Chowpatty

Wilson College, Chowpatty, Mumbai.

Lady Blue at the Yellow Chowki

Boy playing ball in the morning sun at Chowpatty beach, Bombay.

Hotel Ambassador, Churchgate

Churchgate

Fountain

Beggar ignoring the mercedes at Fountain signal.

Phirozshah Mehta Road, Bombay 400001, like the road sign says.

Fountain or Fort

RBI (Reserve Bank of India)

Man and the Bank (RBI)

BEST also serves those who stand and wait in the sun.

A view from the top of Old Custom House, Mumbai.

Old Custom House

Colaba

Dishing it out in mumbai

BSE (Bombay stock exchange) home of Harshad Mehta.

Elphinstone College, 156 Mahatma Gandhi Road, Fort, Mumbai (Bombay) 400032 Maharashtra India; opened in 1835.

The Churchgate to Flora Fountain (the Roman goddess of flowers) which was erected in 1869.

Bombay University from Churchgate

Eros theatre opposite Churchgate, Bombay.

Parking in the shade of the Pipal at Hotel Ambassador, the revolving restaurant of South Bombay.

Hotel Gaylord, Churchgate, Bombay.

Bombay Central Station

Moksha poster on Grant Road bridge

Wada shop and the students in context 

Tea, to Make, is a full days job at a Bhajia and Wada shop outside the train station. 

The Glitterati and the workers meet at the tea and bhajia stall in Mahim 

Lady crying under the Banyan tree, with unmoved man and Sai Baba's portrait on the right. 

The Wall, a Jean Pant Satire in Dadar. 

Lemonade stall at Dadar station, with train at the station. 

I'm the man on the silver ferris wheel

I'm a wheel, I'm a wheel
I can roll, I can feel
And you can't stop me turning
cause I'm the son, I'm the sun
I can move, I can't run
But you'll never stop me burning

I come down with fire
Lift your spirits higher
Someone's screaming my name
Come and make me holy again
Tide's rising at Mahalaxmi temple
I'm the man on the silver ferriswheel
I'm the man on the silver ferriswheel

I'm the day, I'm the ray
I can show you the way
And look I'm right beside you
I'm the night, I'm the right
I'm the dark and the light
With eyes that see inside you,

- Man on the silver ferris wheel
at Mahalaxmi Temple Mumbai,
Rain bow

.

Stone cold

Every night I have the same old dream
about you and me and the stones
So many changes, so many lies
I Try to run, you try to hide

From everything that I feel inside
But I can't escape you or your frozen eyes...
Searching in the darkness
Fading out of sight

Love was here and gone like a thief in the night...
Stone Cold...
and I thought I knew you so well
Stone Cold

Can't break away from your spell
Another dark and empty night
Walking down the empty streets
filled with old familiar strangers,
But you are so distant, so far away

Your words like ice fall on the ground
Breaking the silence without a sound
Oh familiar strangers with nothing to say
Just kiss the ground you walk on,

Searching in the darkness
Fading out of sight

Love was here and gone like a thief in the night...
Stone Cold...
and I thought I knew you so well...
Stone Cold

Can't break away from your spell...
You leave me Stone Cold
Searching in the darkness

Fading out of sight
Love was here and gone like a thief in the night...
stoned in love, stone Cold,
and I thought I knew you so well
Stoned cold, kissing the Stones Cold

I thought I knew you so well
You're stone cold...ice cold
Can't break away from your spell

- Rain bow

Life of a travelling salesman is all walk and little stops as shadows lengthen in Dadar 

Armageddon

The sun remains,
the rocks remain,
Remember me

I'll live on somewhere in your heart
You must believe
Remember me

No way I can change my mind
I don't have the answers

If you could see through my eyes
the stones will turn to fire of the sun,
And though I have to leave you now

I'll miss your touch
You call my name
I am with you forever

- Rain bows

Now is the summer of our disk content

Made glorious by this summer sun,
The ladies do the washing under the pipal trees
on a bright summer morning, while the boys go to work.

One bright summer morning,
the street was deserted and road
turned to stone, stone, stoned.
Every soul was dead as the stone.

Family sauntering from VT to Metro thru Azad Maidan near Strand Cinema.

Boy on a horse at a night carnival near JJ Hospital.

Old man at a sweet shop at corner of chor bazaar.

Gimme gimme gimme a nan after midnight

Diners of the stalls,
Girl you gotta love your nan,
Lit by kerosene lamps,
Children eating Bhel and Bhajias.

Welcome to the fresh Garlic sale at night in front of a Farsan shop in Bhendi Bazaar, garlic warms the winter nights of Mumbai.

Lady flower seller in the corner of a vegetable store, Vikhroli.

Zebton and Perfect Electronics, the city is wired

Water shop on wheels at Grant Road

Pearltronics and a roadside electronic shop.

Electronic shops at Grant Road

Cabbie in close up

Cabbie in search of a destination

Nothing comes between a man and his drink at Raju Juice center, except the flies.

Raju Juice center

Faircity, Ferris wheel lit by fluorescent tube lights.

Ajay Jay Walking the Night at Nana Chowk, Grant Road.

Night on the Ferris Wheel, Diwali Fair at Mahalaxmi Gardens near Heera Panna, Haji Ali.

The Register and Courier at Grant Road, no it is not the name of a newspaper of Mumbai.

If it wasn't for the nights in white, zebra stripes lit by sodium lights at Navjivan Society crossing.

To load a handcart on a hot morning

The three scrap dealers are wondering how to keep
the junk wood from falling off their cart
near Ghas Gali, Agripada.

Afternoon siesta under a mobile shop on the footpath at Nagpada. 

Mother bringing her child back from
St. Ignatius High School Sane Guruji Road,
Jacob Circle, Gadge MHRJ
Chowk, Mumbai - 400 011.
SSC Board.

The secret garden

The hanging garden at corner of Novelty,
in tin cans, oil cans (green plastic pots)
above Ghasitaram shop.

People leaving Qureshi Dairy after lassi. The boy in red is standing at a strange angle defying gravity?

The ice man cometh on a bullock cart

Bullock cart delivering ice to Qureshi Dairy
for making its famous lassi, at Grant Rd,
Novelty for more than 40 years have these
people rushed to quench their thirst on
the sweet lassi.

Housing from 1911 at Novelty.

Taxiwalla at Pannalal Terraces No.1, built in 1911 - so says the sign behind him at Novelty, Grant Road.

Bus #66 opposite Apsara heading to Dadar.

Nair Medico open 24 hours

Red Light

Jive Walking to the music of the traffic at flora fountain.

Red light, Red’s the color.
Hot light, It’s the fever I got.

- Fame

Broken down Charni Road Station, used by a million mumbaites daily.

Fabina Suitings, Fashion ki Duniya me Phela he Nam, says the ad behind the lady at Charni Road Station

Channawalla and Singwalla (roasted chickpea and peanut seller) on footpath near Charni Road.

A-1 Electronics Centre, 26-B New Queen's Road Opp. Roxy Cinema Mumbai-400 004

Maruti with a broken rear view mirror and hanging lamps

The Hungry gawar, rosgollas, and poori of Samrat (near Eros).

Marine Lines 1984

Western Railway Train at Marine Lines 1984

Discussion at 66 Number bus stop Agripada

Celebrating Sholay

Club HP sells unleaded Petrol in Agripada

Police men in White and Khaki help out a Cabbie fix his engine at Marine Lines crossing before sunset.

Women rushing to shop at the posh departmental store Asiatic opposite Churchgate Station.

Revolving restaurant Ambassador (Natraj) at Marine Lines opposite K.Rustom. The best ice cream makers in the west, see article by Kalika Bro-Jorgensen in the afternoon newspaper Midday. I read the paper because of the "Round and About" Column by BusyBee on the last page, he was the R.K.Narayan of Mumbai.

Marine Drive as seen from Malabar Hill

Calm is the sea on the road from Walkeshwar to Chowpatty. Two friends walk down the sunny road to the sandy yellow beach.

Setup for some kind of rally or concert at Chowpatty, Teen Batti profiled in the evening sun.

Lengthening shadows of lovers in the summer sunset at Marine Drive. Mandatory profile of Air India, Oberoi, TIFR behind the calm Arabian sea.

Broken Mercedes at Chowpatty sands after a wreck.-- I keep your photograph; I know it serves me well, I wanna hold you high and steal your pain, You're gone away, you don't feel me here anymore, Lyrics of Broken by Seether.

Sandra takes the train from Bandra.
Romeos wait for another day.

Orange stripped train in Bandra!

IITians take the WR train to Andheri
and then BEST bus #337 to Powai.
Bandra is usually forgotten in the rush.

Bhavani Junction this is not.

Train and the truck.

Happy commuters thank their stars the trains are never late.

College girls heading to Andheri in 2nd class.

Ladies going frist class in western railway, notice the casual nonchalance grip on the door.

The Mahim creek looks beautiful on a rainy day, if only you can also smell the lush green water of the bay!

Much sweage has flowed to the bay of Bandra.

Bandra Station

Gaiety Galaxy theatres, Bandra.

There she goes on the bridge over troubled waters (actually smelly creek it is).

Up ahead in the distance, train crossing bridge to Kurla?

House by the line

Vegetable Lady in red in the CR 1st class.

Ten is a crowd on a rainy day.

And now a Central Railway train, see the lady vendors sitting at the door.

More people in red and blue.

Crowded train in the trees.

Train spotting

Ladies in waiting near Neera stall.


I see the early glow
I hear you say hello
I watch the shadows fall
I don't see you at all

- ONJ. ELO in Xanadu.

2nd class and 1st class hang on together on a trip

School boys go first class, all this and brains too.

Lady in blue, Paschim is Western.

Binaca smile at the door

Ode to Andheri Train

The Day before your Andheri Train Came
[Written by a Mantralaya clerk, inspired by Abha].

I must have left my house pretty late
because I always do
my train, I’m certain
left Andheri station just when it was due
I must have read the Times
going into Churchgate
and having gotten through the editorial
no doubt I must have sneezed
I must have cleared my desk
around a half past ten
with comics to be read
and heaps of forms waiting to be filed
I must have gone to lunch
at half past eleven or so
the usual idlis, the usual mosumbi juice,
and still on top of this
I’m pretty sure it must have rained
the day before you came

I must have sipped my seventh
cup of tea at half past two
and at the time I never
even noticed I was dazed
I must have kept on sipping
through the business of the day
without really knowing anything
I slid a part of me away
at three I must have left
there’s no exception to the tea
a matter of routine
I’ve done it ever since I finished school
the train back home again
undoubtedly I must have
read the evening midday then
oh yes, I’m sure my life was
well within its usual strain
the day before you sang

I must have opened my fridge door
at six o’clock or so
and stopped along the way
to buy some idli dosas food to go
I’m sure I had my dinner
watching some street fight
there’s not, I think, a single
episode of chaya geet that I didn’t see
I must have gone to bed
around a quarter after ten
I need a lot of sleep and so
I like to be in bed by then
I must have read a while
the latest one by Sant Tulsidas
or something in that style
it’s unholy, but I had no sense
of praying without aim
the day before you sang bhajans

And turning out the light
I must have chanted and
cuddled up for yet another night
and rattling on the roof
I must have heard the sound of rain
the day before you came
asking me to be on platform one
half past seven

It is Western railway.

Rear guard on 630C

Going home

That must be Kurla station, judging by the red platform.

Another one bites the dust

Train on the move

Matunga train

Birds eye view of passing trains

Ignoring the train is one way to miss it.

Dadar station is the fashion capital of the Suburbs.

Waiting waiting

Nature's call and night soil.

Shortcuts by the tracks.

And another station in sight.

It says "12 coach rake".

That looks like the fast train to Kalyan, see the grill in the front to protect the driver from rockers.

There comes another train to Dadar

Farms by the railway line in matunga

Crowd spilling out of Dadar platform waiting for a local train.

Smoke from a cattle shed on a rainy day in Mumbai


A million lights are dancing and there you are, a shooting star
An everlasting world and you're here with me, eternally

- ONJ/ELO in Xanadu

Crossing the rainy tracks at Dadar, no umbrellas?

Dadar station in monsoons.

What's that guy doing on top of a moving truck?

Trucks on the Eastern Express highway

A Creek in Chembur

Wadala road

An Old Man crossing the street in Vile Parle.

I'm the day, I'm the day;
I can show you the way

- Rainbow.

Feel the city breaking and everybody shaking,
And we'are staying alive, staying alive.
-- BGs.

Jive Walking

Well, you can tell by the way I use my walk,
I am a computer man, no time to talk.
TV is loud and computer warm,
I have been ragged around
Since I was born.

And now it's all right. it's ok.
And you may look the other way.
We can try to understand
The Maharashtra times effect on man.

-PGs.

Someday love will find you
Break those chains that bind you
One night will remind you
How we touched
And went our separate ways
If he ever hurts you
True love won't desert you,
You know I still love you,
Though we touched,
And went our separate ways
-- Journey.

Students check out a travelling saleman in Saki Naka

The Ballon Seller in Andheri.

It's like the Yellow Balloon
On a rainy afternoon
And love's a Yellow Balloon
Love's a Yellow Balloon
It's like the Yellow Balloon
And love's a Yellow Balloon
It's like the Yellow
-- Lee

Boy gets his bath on the road outside
his house, under the peepal tree.
The Matunga road seems to be lined with Peepal tree.
Notice the covered cycle in the patio.

The city is a jungle, you better take care
- ABBA

Saraswati (left) and Sai Baba (right) flank two men window shopping under the peepal tree.

Can you recognise the distinct leaves and profile of this tree (ficus religiosa)?
The figs are eaten only by the sparrow that live in the trees.

Man with bucket on a cycle.
Grand dad sleeps on the road,
with his cycle resting over his head.
His daughter wondering how he can sleep
in the evening din of the traffic.

Big brother fixes the bed with a screwdriver,
while mother (right) goes shopping for the kid (center).
Dad washes the dishes (behind the bed) in Matunga.

And I dream of the rain as it falls upon the leaves - Iron Maiden at Cross Maidan.

When evening falls in Matunga,
She will run to me,
Like whispered dreams,
we believed we catch the rainbow
at Agrawal classes.

- Frank Alvares to Usha at HarGanga Mahal Dadar.

Two sisters climbing the ladder to their small
home on first floor, over the electric box #600,
under the banyan tree in Matunga next to the railway line.

Locked houses in Matunga.

But life's not a wheel,
With chains made of steel
--Rainbow.

Son of indifferent mother watches a sadhu bless a student of Agrawal classes at Dadar station.

Railway bridge at Dadar, it goes over WR and CR lines, and a house shaded by a peepal tree.

Waiting for the bus, (note that the roads have left hand driving),
and the wheelchair at the vegetable shop on the right.

Flora Fountain in Summer.

Ribbons of blue
Now remind me of you
Ribbons of red
Are the way that my heart bled
Memories so clear
Are still ringing in my ear - Boney M.

A chawl in parel, note the flower boy on the bike.

An evening sunset on a chichpokli chawl,
note the elegant traders, the recycle shop,
and maruti zen in front of the chawl.

Shoe polisher and the moonshiners

The shoe shine family has lost its business to the lottery seller.
Notice the lady of the house (so to speak) in despair,
behind the shoeless red coat selling lottery tickets.

Intense man zooms on his Kinetic Honda
oblivious to the multi-layered housing
near Matunga Western Railway line.

Selling anar (pomegranates), apples,
sitaphal (custard apple), jhibra (cantaloupe)
at Dadar market.

The floor is covered with vegetables
to be picked up by the BMC truck.
Notice the towel-hat.

Gupta Jr's Binaca geet-mala smile.

The Gupta Store at Agripada in Mumbai at night

Gupta General Store selling Vadilal
icecreams, rimzim, 1 paisa cell phones.

The city is a prison, you never escape,
You're forever trapped in the alleys,
Look into the shadows and
you'll see the shape of me.

Mahalaxmi Station on the bridge at night.



I'm alive - and the world shines for me today
I'm alive - suddenly I am here today
Seems like forever and a day, thought I could never feel this way
Is this really me? I'm alive, I'm alive, I'm alive.

-- ELO

Portable Banana shop

Banana shop the fastest food in the East, lady buying curd, man admiring jewellery.

Fruit seller reading the newspaper under a parking sign at Mahim

Old lady at Mahim Store

Mahim Tryst

Hero meets zeno at Mahim Pipal tree.

Pipal tree (Ficus religiosa), a native tree of India,
held sacred by the Buddhists,
who believe that Gautama Buddha received
enlightenment under a Bo tree at Bodh Gaya.

The Bo tree attains great size and age;
the leaves, which hang from long,
flexible petioles, rustle in the
slightest breeze. A single tree
houses a hundred crows in Mumbai.

Temple at Mahim

Mahim crossing

Lady in green at Mahim
Church.

Aster Lights at Mahim Church

Crow crossing in Mahim

As the crow flies in Matunga

Dog and Home under the Pipal tree (Ficus Religiosae) at Mahim Bus Station

Mots and the trees

Train in the shade of the gul mohur tree.

Caesalpinia (Yellow Copper Pod) tree dressed in a purple coat

Old Man waiting for Godot by the Train

Ist Class WR

II Class WR

Home is a red signal by the train.

SBI Opera House

Holy Cross at Lamington Road

Limbo Pani

Crows

Banyan Tree (Ficus bengalensis) grips the wall

shoe shiner with a walkman

Tea stall (and one more here)

Fruitwala

Religious Panwalla

Sunday newsreader

Lazy dog

Hungry watchman

Sunday Brunch at Churchgate

Grant Rd at Night

Pani Poori

Signs of Phones

Bombay Central

Garib

Restrooms

School time

Local Train

Hanging Garden at Grant Rd

Walking tall at Charni Road

Half Best

Half of the Best (it sure beats travelling in a truck).

Aptech at Agripada

BSE from Fountain

Fountain bluebus

Fountain crossing

Milkman at Fountain Bus

Cyclist

Opera House bus stop

Handcart transporting drinks

Handcart

Hadgadi

Bombay Central

Old lady at the Market

Mumbai

Photos/Pictures from Mumbai Bombay INDIA.