Mindless Mumbai is a Photo Blog from Mumbai, India by Kunal Bhatia. Art Architecture Food Street Urban Festivals Travel People Portraits Signs Photojournalism Candid

up there


shastri nagar, lokhandwala complex

fruits of sewage


see this snap on flickr here.

inspite of having lived in mumbai all my life, the city still springs up a surprise now and then.

for the annuals, in the painting workshop our agenda was to document via a painting (eventually drawn along the walls, soffit and floors of the main stairwell of the college bldg) activities that happen along the oshiwara river. what was once a river is now a nullah (a very wide, usually open gutter / sewer line, meant to collect only rain water from the strom water drains, but ends up with a lot of sewage and waste dumped into it).

we walked along the 'banks' of our 'river' , passing through a Christian crematorium, Muslim kabristan, a Hindu shamshan ghat, clusters of slums, low income group housing, high density unorganised industrial units and galas, disputed land ownerships, a marriage hall, and even land with methi, palak and chowli cultivation!

found this tree at the end of a long day spent walking through the above. it was in an industrial gala, at the very edge of the plot, abutting the compound wall which separated the nullah from the premises. couldn't believe my eyes to see this bountiful tree right next to a highly polluted, smelly and black coloured river of waste.

in some ways it shows the resilient nature of life in mumbai. come what may, life here will no just survive, but blossom, as in this case!

more about the experience of walking along a nallah, here
and this pic on flickr here