streets of Mumbai

walking around by the streets of mumbai

By Francisco Morais

September 22^nd, 2017

Chowpatty beach

One of the most famous public beaches adjoining Marine Drive in the Girgaon area of Mumbai, India. The beach is famous for Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations when hundreds of people from all over Mumbai come to immerse the idols of Lord Ganapati in the Arabian Sea. It is also one of the many places in the city where the Ramlila is performed on a stage every year. An effigy of Ravan, that is erected on the sand, is burnt by the end of the 10-day performance. One can find several bhelpuri, panipuri, ragda patties and pav bhaji vendors on the beach.

“In the old days there were one thousand castes and destinies in India. These days, there are just two castes: Men with Big Bellies, and Men with Small Bellies. And only two destinies: eat—or get eaten up.”

The White Tiger - Aravind Adiga

Transport

Mumbai suffers from the same major urbanization problems seen in many fast growing cities in developing countries: widespread poverty and unemployment, poor public health and poor civic and educational standards for a large section of the population. With available land at a premium, Mumbai residents often reside in cramped, relatively expensive housing, usually far from workplaces, and therefore requiring long commutes on crowded mass transit, or clogged roadways. Many of them live in close proximity to bus or train stations although suburban residents spend significant time traveling southward to the main commercial district.

“Please understand, Your Excellency, that India is two countries in one: an India of Light, and an India of Darkness. The ocean brings light to my country. Every place on the map of India near the ocean is well off. But the river brings darkness to India—the black river.”

The White Tiger - Aravind Adiga

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Dhobi Ghat

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.

A sprawling open-air concrete Laundromat of sorts, Dhobi Ghat is where hundreds of men scrub clothes against concrete wash bins using rocks and boiling pots of water and bleach. They then hang them out to dry in an area covering several city blocks.

“This mud was holding her back: this big, swelling mound of black ooze. She was trying to fight the black mud; her toes were flexed and resisting; but the mud was sucking her in, sucking her in. It was so thick, and more of it was becoming created every moment as the river washed into the ghat. Soon she would become part of the black mound and the pale-skinned dog would start licking her. And then I understood: this was the real god of Benaras—this black mud of the Ganga into which everything died, and decomposed, and was reborn from, and died into again. The same would happen to me when I died and they brought me here. Nothing would get liberated here.”

The White Tiger - Aravind Adiga

on the streets...

Mumbai is a city of great contrasts in all ways, making it a fascinating city to study visually and explore. The realities of the city offer an array of visual contrasts of both new and old world: modernity, development, and old world traditions as well as diverse socioeconomic conditions that span a wide spectrum of human realities.