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

architecture - built and imagined

architectural model and housing buildings in mumbai by kunal bhatia mumbai india photo blog

a proposal for redevelopment of oshiwara's antique furniture market in front of versova's residential towers.
(proposal by maitri shah)

apartments by the bay



nariman point's tetrapods, the back bay and apartments at cuffe parade.
part of a new series: mumbai_scapes.

pretty pretty ladies

friends smiling night portrait street lights car lights in mumbai by kunal bhatia

pretty pretty ladies standing by the street

where do you feel like going today?

signboards signage signs of doctors dentists labs clinics in mumbai by kunal bhatia

cosmetologists, pulmonologist, surgeons, skin specialists, sex therapist and marriage counsellor - all under one roof.

school friends

school friends two male men boys looking pointing night street portrait in mumbai by kunal bhatia

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

protests after mumbai terror attacks 2008 in mumbai by kunal bhatia

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.

table for two

empty table in mac donalds at VT CST in mumbai by kunal bhatia mumbai india photo blog
a table for two, at the VT / CST mac donalds.

an evening stroll

muslim women on en evening walk outing in marine drive in mumbai by kunal bhatia

an evening stroll

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

BMC municipal garden in mindspace malad in mumbai planet sculptures and software parks office buildings

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

wind shield and wiper of car on bandra worli sea link on a rainy day in mumbai by kunal bhatia mumbai photo blog

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

three couples in love at marine drive in space starved mumbai by kunal bhatia mumbai photo blog

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

taking a left

vehicles at a traffic junction on marine drive in south mumbai by kunal bhatia photo blog air india building

at a traffic light on marine drive.

a matter of the divine

road side shrine in mumbai on footpath religion by kunal bhatia photo blog

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.

lines and planes



on looking up, the other day.

locked and sealed

indian government office shut locked sealed in vasai fort in mumbai by kunal bhatia photo blog

the office of the archaeological survey of india at vasai fort - locked and sealed. exemplifies indian bureaucracy quite well.

buddies

children friends buddies at juhu beach in mumbai by kunal bhatia photo blog

an old photo, from june 2007. goes well with today's mood. k+s

ps - the link to the mentions page in the sidebar was not working. it's fixed now :)

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 featured in a newspaper dna india by kunal bhatia photo blog

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

image photograph seen through a camera in mumbai art exhibition at piramal centre by kunal bhatia photo blog

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.

work, work, work

construction worker labourer on a construction site in mumbai by kunal bhatia mumbai photo blog

one night before a jury - work, work and work. reminds me of the good ol' days.

tresspassers not welcome

house in khotachiwadi in mumbai

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

family at marine drive recreation outdoor street photo in mumbau by kunal bhatia photo blog

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

57rs for 15hrs

mscgm pay and park sign in mumbai by kunal bhatia photo blog

an mcgm pay and park sign in south mumbai.

celebrations

granny grandma grandmother's birthday celebrations cake cutting in mumbai by kunal bhatia photo blog

double celebrations: the indian independence day and my grandmother's birthday share the same date - aug 15.

xerox-wallah

photo copying xerox machine in juhu scheme in mumbai by kunal bhatia photo blog

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

andheri railway station in mumbai by kunal bhatia photoblog train photos railways railway stations tracks rail bahn

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

construction workers laying bricks at site in mumbai by kunal bhatia photo blog

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

chawl in khotachi wadi in mumbai by kunal bhatia

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

what lies ahead

mahim interchange after bandra worli sea link by kunal bhatia

not so sure where am headin, but i gotta keep on going...

of windows open and windows shut

vernacular architecture window in khotachi wadi in mumbai by kunal bhatia

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

pigeons peeping into a window in mumbai by kunal bhatia

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.

not working



after a long, long day i'm brain-dead. only way up is to come back tomorrow.

looking sideways

car side mirror on bandra worli sea link driving in mumbai by kunal bhatia

"objects in mirror are closer than they appear" while those in the front are often further than they appear.

sometimes two heads are better than one

biker helmets hanging on a wall in mumbai by kunal bhatia

sometimes two heads are better than one. photo shot at d.n. road. view the series on flickr or on facebook.

"looking at photography"

line of photographers in a row in mumbai by kunal bhatia

sandhurst road railway station

sandhurst road railway station in mumbai by kunal bhatia

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

mumbai police van outside the jewish keneseth eliyahoo synagogue in fort in mumbai by kunal bhatia

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.