a proposal for redevelopment of oshiwara's antique furniture market in front of versova's residential towers.
(proposal by maitri shah)
architecture - built and imagined
apartments by the bay
nariman point's tetrapods, the back bay and apartments at cuffe parade.
part of a new series: mumbai_scapes.
where do you feel like going today?
cosmetologists, pulmonologist, surgeons, skin specialists, sex therapist and marriage counsellor - all under one roof.
school friends
met up with ashim and vipul today, two old buddies from school. it's always nice to catch up with what's happening with each other.
the 26/11 mayhem
two years have passed since the mayhem of 26-11-2008. some wounds may have healed, but a lot still needs to be done. photo shot at a protest march at the gateway of india, in dec 2008.
nikon and canon at kumud's
hoping to start with a couple of photography projects soon. shot earlier this year at dn road, fort.
alien landscapes
this photo is of the entrance plaza to the municipal garden in mindspace, malad. the astrology-theme of the park lends itself to the planet sculptures. the alien landscape blends well with the IT office buildings in the background that rise like islands and fence themselves off from their surroundings.
[update: hello folks! mindless mumbai is back :) my thesis jury went well. the project was titled: "the other eye - a space for photographic culture". and i'm hoping to work on my photography skills in the coming months.]
photo-id #16850
on a hiatus :( _but, back in november :)
i have my final thesis jury coming up in a month and a half (yikey yikes!), or so says the buzz. and as hard as it may be, i will have to cut down on diversions. mindless mumbai will be on a hiatus till the end of october. for all the regular readers of the blog: thank you so much for your visits and appreciation.
in the meanwhile, the mindless mumbai archives have a lot of photographs that one can browse through. a couple of way to do this: via the cloud of labels; the drop-down list of posts sorted by date or the pretty versatile search box (all in the sidebar on the right). then there's also the header photos (on the very top of the page) - they cover only a fifth of the total archives, but it's good fun to keep guessing what the complete photo would look like.
i'd end with some very kind words by a photographer-film maker from melbourne, australia:
"Thank you for such beautiful pictures of Mumbai. When I say 'beautiful' I don't mean Katrina Kaif type of pretty. I mean real... such as Gul Panag! It is undoubtedly the best, most revealing, intimate, expressive and honest series of pictures I've seen of Mumbai..."
see you in november.
update, 12oct: seems like mindless mumbai won't be back till 21st nov. in the meanwhile, if you'd like to get in touch, drop me an email at: mindlessmumbai[@]gmail[.]com
raining cats and dogs
it's been raining cats and dogs over the last few days. and just like wipers clear the wind shield, there's always the need to clear one's head before moving ahead. photo clicked on the bandra worli sea link on a rainy sunday morning.
update: mindless mumbai pics were being imported as notes on my facebook profile, but were not updated on my facebook photography page. tomorrow onwards, no more notes on the profile; instead im aiming to update the kb/photography page more regularly.
love and the city #5 - coupling away at marine drive
previous photos in this series:
love and the city #1: love
#2: love and the city *
#3: love and longing *
#4: still together *
and i know that i've gone a little overboard with the watermarks on this one. but when the biggest media houses in the country calmly siphon off photos from the net without any sort of credit, one can't help but be paranoid.
* the nicer ones
a matter of the divine
a road side shrine, or perhaps a part of it, in south mumbai's business district. i looked around for an icon or the likes of a deity, but couldn't find any. perhaps the divine make their appearance only at certain hours. it's also odd to have those two bottles of oil and the cotton wickers just lying there. on second thoughts, perhaps i didn't look up to see if there was some one smiling down at me.
spotted bang opposite the keneseth eliyahoo synagogue in fort.
locked and sealed
the office of the archaeological survey of india at vasai fort - locked and sealed. exemplifies indian bureaucracy quite well.
pretty pretty face
today is 'raksha bandhan' - "The festival is marked by the tying of a rakhi, or holy thread, by the sister on the wrist of her brother. The brother in return offers a gift to his sister and vows to look after her .. " - from the wiki page.
since it's a day where the sisters have all the rights to hog the limelight, here's a pic of my cousin sis, mamta bhatia. looking very pretty pretty :)
im still grappling with achieving sharp focus with the 50mm opened fully wide. most often i end up missing the focus while using auto focus, or i end up shaking just a wee bit, but enough to lose the sharpness. but i think the soft blur works for this one.
mindless mumbai featured in daily news and analysis, india
mindless mumbai was featured in daily news & analysis, an indian national daily on 18th aug, 2010. if you've been in touch with me on my facebook page you may know of this already. if not, i was to blog about this a while ago, but was caught up with jury work. so here it is now.
and since a couple of people have asked me - someone from the DNA team must have stumbled upon mindless mumbai; i did not contact them. they sent me an email the previous evening saying that they'd be featuring it. the column in which it appears is a weekly column that lists blogs related to mumbai. it comes every wednesday on page 4 of the main supplement.
a way of seeing
i've not posted anything since the last two days, because i had an interim-review of my thesis project on friday. a review helps since it brings up alternate ways of looking at the project. this photo was clicked at a photography-exhibit at the piramal centre in ncpa.
tresspassers not welcome
while trespassers aren't welcome anywhere, this particular house and the sign on its wall seem rather serious about it. as if, if you do anything wrong, the mean-angled house on the corner shall swallow you up.
now is it just me or does someone else also get the same vibes from this? perhaps it is just me at this ungodly hour. anyway, this house is in khotachi wadi which is easily amongst the most photogenic places in the city. for more photos from this neighbourhood, just hit it up in the search box on the right.
still together
an older couple sits besides each other cosily, while the younger one appears a bit separated. shot at marine drive on a sunday evening. see related photos from that evening: love and longing; and a moment of solitude. for more photos, enter "marine drive" in the search box on the right. stay updated on 
celebrations
double celebrations: the indian independence day and my grandmother's birthday share the same date - aug 15.
xerox-wallah
at the local xerox-wallah. the correct term would be photo-copier, but in india the 'xerox' company's name is generified to the act of photo-copying. wallah is a common suffix in hindi applied to all sorts of characters - vendors, handymen etc. so we have a chabi-wallah (the guy who makes spare keys), phal-wallah (a fruit seller), band-wallahs (a music-band group), photo-wallahs at many tourist places and so on.
romancing the rails
rail journeys hold a special place in my heart. i can never tire of the peculiarities of routes and journeys, people and places, signboards and directions, passes and timetables, times and delays, sounds and sights..
im beginning a new photo series - of trains, tracks, trams and tubes across india & europe. updated weekly, one can view and comment on the photos on my facebook page: facebook.com/kunalbhatia.photography
ps - no login nor a facebook account is required to view the photos
pps - all kinds of feedback is welcome
one brick at a time
patience and perseverance: aligning, bedding and setting in place - one brick at a time. over and over again. at a construction site, in jan 2008. to explore more photographs about work, construction and architecture, enter a term in the search box on the right. stay updated on 
lines and repitition
try the new (and hopefully better) search box in the side-bar on the right to search for more photos from "khotachi wadi". stay updated on
of windows open and windows shut
neither completely open nor completely shut. a little of both. like most things in life. a bit of this and a bit of that.
team work
i observed these two pigeons for a couple of minutes - one was perched near the broken glass piece and kept sticking his head inside the frame trying to get at something. his friend meanwhile provided cover - by watching the street for any trouble. they make for a good team.
looking sideways
"objects in mirror are closer than they appear" while those in the front are often further than they appear.
sandhurst road railway station
a rather empty sandhurst road railway station along the harbour line. largely built during the turn of the 20th century, many of the railway stations along mumbai's harbour line are interesting pieces of architecture - the line runs above the roads at many places and consequently the stations are elevated. many of them also make extensive use of steel sections and griders which complements the industrial character and feel of the areas around the (former) mumbai docks. i just read the wiki page of this station - "The supporting pillars of the edifice bear the inscription "GIPR 1921 Lutha Iron Works, Glasgow" and consequently remembered that i had posted a photo of one such pillar, way back in 2006. though it's not shot very well, it can be seen here.
blue guarding blue
a camouflaged-blue mumbai police van outside the very blue keneseth eliyahoo synagogue in south mumbai. security concerns require increased patrolling at some sensitive spots. view this photo on flickr here.
the august 2010 theme day at city daily photo is bright colours. to view photos from participating cities across the world, go here.
