Aamchi Mumbai

Background: This was published on 08 September 2006, after I had acquired a copy of Jehangir’s book, “Above Bombay”, which is according to me a book that should be in the home of every individual who loves the city. I had earlier written about the book and its photographs in the piece, "How Green is My Matunga".

How Green is My Matunga

Thanks to Jehangir Sorabjee’s Above Bombay book, I could see how green Matunga is

Bhavin's WritingsBhavin Jankharia

The original archived link is here. The Mumbai Mirror link is not seen.

The two photographs that I invariably turn to, when I am showing off Jehangir Sorabjee’s aerial photo essay of Mumbai, “Above Bombay” (photos courtesy Eminence publishers), are the ones on pages 162 & 163. I had first written about these photographs last year, when I couldn’t help but describe my visceral reaction to the picture on page 163 showing a Beybladish, multi-pronged Maheshwari Udyan (King’s Circle), shot from a helicopter hovering above Don Bosco, as well as the one on page 162, showing the Circle as if it was the face of a wrist-watch, the two limbs of Ambedkar road forming the strap of this watch.

It's amazing how the green Circle has been planned, with its seven arms radiating unequally in multiple directions. If you are facing north, Ambedkar road makes up the 6 and 12o’clock positions with the other roads occupying the various other o’clock positions; 7, 9 & 10 towards the West and 3 and 5 towards the East.

This imagery specifically stands out, because in both these photographs, there is a virtual absence of traffic, except for a few cars facing northwards on the wrong side of the Circle, but with a huge preponderance of people, lining both sides of Ambedkar road and the entire circumference of the Circle. There is one truck, seen opposite Amar Petrol Pump, with an orange statue-like structure jutting out from it. From the height that the photograph was shot, it just about faintly resembles the idol, whose final day this was, the truck on its way to its Shivaji Park destination, where the idol would be laid to rest. 

Jehangir couldn’t have chosen a better day to shoot King’s Circle, perhaps the only day, when people-power takes over the roads and the pavements. The photograph does full justice to what the Circle looks like on the evening of Anant Chaturthi. What it is unable to capture though is the energy at ground level.

Last year, we took the kids to be part of this jamboree. At all times, I had one or the other kid on my shoulders (Ganapati-bapa style), trying to make sure they wouldn’t miss the fun. The number of eating carts had doubled, no probably tripled, and there was everything from pav-vada to Chinese American chopsuey, to “golas”, “buddhi-ke-baal”; kulfi and ice-cream vendors with any number of people selling cheap plastic Chinese toys and a variety of balloons. 

There were people and people and people everywhere. One image stood out. Outside Monarch, was a bunch of kids, sitting silently on the pavement, with their legs dangling onto the road, probably from the neighboring BJ Home, eating ice-cream cones. Towards Dadar, Ambedkar road was clogged, with Ganpati-laden trucks and hand-carts, trying to make their way through the throngs of people crowding them, with intermittent cries of “Ganpati Bapa Morya” along with the latest “dhin-chak” music, interspersed with people blowing horns, for no reason whatsoever.  An equal number of people were settled on the large divider, some enterprising women having brought their plastic chairs and stools to sit on…the mistresses of all they could survey. 

As on all Anant Chaturdashis, the Circle was throbbing with an indescribable energy, drawing from and then in turn enveloping everyone present, as if part of a huge orgy, in honor of Mumbai’s favorite deity.

I am sure there are other pictures in this book, which invoke similar visceral responses in other people. But for me, its all about pages 163 and 162.