all set for 200EIGHT

here's wishing a fabulous 2008 for all of us (hey, i'd like to direct some of the good wishes to myself too, hence the us). i'm spending new year's eve with extended family at extended family's home; what's your plan?

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spotted these pretty girls at shoppers stop, juhu

all set, and ready to go

well, mindless mumbai is here with a revamped look for 2008:
- the template has been tweaked to allow for larger display of photographs on the main page itself
- an option to follow / bookmark / favourite this blog with all the popular websites (del.icio.us, technorati, digg, facebook etc): see RHS bar
- translate the blog in 8 languages: see RHS bar
- a new rating system to rate each individual photograph (example: see the stars at the end of this post) and another to give an overall rating to the blog: see RHS bar
- a new chat box, for anyone to leave a message: see RHS bar
- a new randomly generated header image snippet, clicking on the snippet will take you to the random post: see top most bar
- and obviously, a new photograph every single day

have a great 2008!!!

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photo clicked at chor bazaar, neighbourhood kids riding a parked scooter; credit goes to kalpit ashar for urging me to take this photo

city lights

put this picture up as my desktop background, and on first look people ask me which city is this? guesses pan the world from singapore to new york. only on taking a closer look do people realise its mumbai.

the city's skyline can be as stunning as that of any metropolis. one just has to probably just dig around a bit more for spectacular sights. mumbai has its own unique character, its about time the powers that be stop harbouring shanghai dreams.

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pic shot at girgaon (yet again!). taken northwards, in the foreground is the inner city area, in the background are the upcoming high rises of central mumbai.

adaptive public spaces

mumbai is infamous for having very few public spaces. a direct result of this is that people adapt to the existing architecture around them to claim a spot for themselves. this is predominantly seen in case of hawkers on footpaths, the homeless sleeping on dividers, railings being used to dry clothes etc.

this photo is from within a residential society in juhu scheme. the society constructed a metre high wall along its spare gate to prevent water gushing in from the road during the monsoons. this low wall now serves as a seating spot for hawkers, rickshaw drivers and urchins. the gate and the side walls form the perfect backrest, and an adjoining tree provides adequate shade...

time for celebration

mindless mumbai is now a part of city daily photo blog , a global photo-blogging community of over 250 photo-bloggers, from all the five continents posting a daily photo of the city that they inhabit. for a complete list of all the participating cities, click the + sign next to the continent, in the menu on the right hand side frame of this blog. cheers!

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pic shot at girgaon. a hindu wedding ceremony, complete with a musical band, a decked up venue and a horse for the baraat (a wedding procession conducted by the groom's side of the family). more wedding pix coming up this january

girgaon.. yet again

another one of the chawls in girgaon... i guess i'll never grow tired of these spaces. even randomly clicked pictures here capture a lot in the frame.
previous girgaon posts here and here
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come to think of it, if there have been just two previous posts about girgaon, then there have been too few... you can expect more in the coming days :)

christmas goodies

wine and chocolates, in my refrigerator

pizza hut - issues with cleanliness

pizza hut doesn't seem to be very particular about hygiene. this pic was sometime in january, at the juhu-tara road outlet. used plates stacked up on the floor, along with pizza pans, right outside the elevator, bang next to the dustbin.

today at the lokhandwala outlet, the ketchup bottles had traces of ketchup all over the caps, and the oregano and chilli-flakes containers were greasy. can't they wipe all these clean before a new group of diners seat themselves?

twilight - mumbai sleeping #2

construction workers sleeping under a mosquito-net, atop the shuttering of an under-construction floor slab

out of my window

early morning sunlight coming in. the box-grills may look ugly from outside, especially when each grilled-window on an elevation has its own design, but from the inside they are a great way to bring in some greenery. of course, with the double walls and flower beds in the newer constructions, box-grills aren't needed.

walkathon

a photo to go with this post
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this was at yari road, last december

wollies

as i mentioned some posts ago, chor bazaar is very photogenic. this particular street had vendors selling only winter wear: pullpvers, shawls, wind-sheaters, scarves, sweaters, jackets, monkey caps etc. wonder what transformations occur in the summer season...

mumbaidevi mandir

the shikhar (spire) of the mumbaidevi temple in the background on the right, with the intersection of mumbadevi marg and abdul rehman street in the foreground.

mumbadevi temple is one of the sites for the steel workshop, a joint exercise between us and a group of students from nottingham university, uk. once they go back home, these sites will be subsequently used by them for their design project over the next semester. bustling is a good word for the streets in this area. poor joe didn't know what to click on site today, in his words, there was just too much happening all around for him to think rationally...

palmer family reunion

print on a t-shirt for sale
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at chor bazaar

ring of fire

chandelier
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@ venkatesh balaji mandir, banganga, walkeshwar
more banganga pix coming up soon

stacking

while the auditorium gets ready, the chairs were kept outside

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photo clicked in college

annual exhibition of students' work

its time to put up the annual exhibition in college again. this time though there seems to be a lot of confusion, both among the instructors and the executors. the post is of last years exhibition, that dipie and me were in charge of.

graveyard

overlooking into the graveyard at girgaon

reinforcement

a cylindrical reinforcement cage used in pile foundations

spiritually organised parivar

sign at versova beach

broaches

another pic from chor bazaar. scroll two posts down to see the earlier one.

on the median

what do we do when we've got to wait for someone? we sit right on the divider ofcourse!

after 4 years of being in krvia, we have the confidence to seat ourselves on any seat-able surface. this includes foot paths, bus roofs, chajjas (concrete weather shades over windows) and now road dividers

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at churchgate, while waiting for the rest of the class and the group from u.k. to return. from l-r: divya, saloni & jeet

chor bazaar

went to chor bazaar for the first time today, along with the group of students from nottingham university. chor bazaar is one of the sites for the steel workshop. the variety of curios, objects, books, photographs, spare parts, machinery, tools etc being sold is mind bogging. we also encountered a cock-fight in one of the gullies.

need to come here many more times, especially during one of the pre-dawn markets. and the whole area is very photogenic!

domestic airport - ii

tensile structure outside the domestic airport. we went to pick up a group of foreign exchange students today, the international terminals are far worse than the domestic ones.

see an interior shot of the domestic terminal here

chawl

another pic of a chawl in girgaon, this time with the structural system made of steel.

see another girgaon pic here

face painting

results of face painting, one of the pre-annual events at krvia (my college)

red

steps lit up with LEDs...

see another pic in this series, titled "blue"

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photo clicked at cinemax, infiniti mall, lokhandwala

rhyme in a rick

saw this sign in a rickshaw it reads:
main sundar hoon, mujhe najar na lagana
jindagi bhar saath doongi, pikar na chalana

cloud number nine

sometimes the feeling on loneliness sinks in terribly... but look around, and there is always a companion; in some form or the other, in some manner or the other...