of another time and another world

bombay gothic in the mumbai university's fort campus. see an interior shot of the library here.

mumbai university library

the reading room at the mumbai university library.

custodians of knowledge

the state central library in andheri/e was a pleasant surprise - neat, clean, air-conditioned reading rooms, a decent range of books, staff that's polite to talk too, green lawns accessible for outdoor reading and more. open to all, at no charge.

the reading room was filled with a whole lot of college students immersed in their exam books; but otherwise there didn't seem to be anyone using the library's collection. i think word about the library needs to spread around. article here.

the staff was quite accommodating and allowed me to snap some shots; some even willingly posed in front of veneer-clad, moulding-framed cabinets with tinted glass and shelves that are yet to groan under the weight of their contents.

study centre

a couple of days back i had posted about a study centre in girgaon. while the text was quite descriptive, the photograph wasn't. i found another photo of the same in my arhives and am posting it today. for a write-up, see the original post here.

study-space

at a 'study centre' in a garden in south-central mumbai. now for those wondering what a study-centre is, the idea is thus: there are lots of students in this city who may not be privileged to have a study-conducive environment in their houses. the reasons could vary from dense living conditions (consider 6+ people living in a 225 sq ft tenement), noisy neighbours, lack of electricity etc.

this setup occupies the corner of the s.k.patil garden in girgaon. it's furnished with individual desks-and-chairs under a PVC-canopy with tubelights and fans. a separate adjacent pavillion provides a tiny space for a class or a group-discussion. in case the gate is locked up, one only needs to climb over the wall to get in. this photo was clicked on a rainy july evening, hence the spartan crowd. we learnt that its completely occupied in the exam-season.

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clicked with my old nikon point-and-shoot while studying the girgaon neighbourhood for a college project, in july 2008. girgaon is a neighbourhood in the inner-city precincts of mumbai. it's relatively well off when compared to other inner-city areas such as null bazaar and offers a microcosm of a particular way of living to document and study. more girgaon / girgaum photos on mindless mumbai: central mumbai skyline, and photos of chawls 1, 2, 3.

update: see a better photograph of this study-centre here.

the final bed

at the jagannath shankar seth electric-crematorium in girgaon, south mumbai.

refill

every now and then i question whether this blog ought to show more of the 'touristy' mumbai: the famous buildings, beaches, religious spots etc. but then this would become like most other collection of the city's photos. (to be honest, i've already posted a lot of such shots).

but the last couple of posts have been very, what shall i say, they've been frames that are quite cut off from their surroundings. could they have been shots from any other city?

anyway, with that in mind, i was going through the photos on the computer; but i still didn't want a very postcard photo. so, i settled for this one. its flora fountain at fort. more about the fountain here. notice the truck in the background on the right? that's refilling water into the fountain on a hot summers day.! shot this some time in may last year.

i like such shots where a bit of value-addition to the over-seen-visuals of places / objects is present. i also think that the fragments that i was talking about earlier actually count for the uniqueness of each place. i just don't know what happens when they're framed in complete isolation of their surroundings. what do you'll think? am i making any sense?

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8000+ visitors
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photo id: 6783

look inside

didnt know what to post today. found this pic in some folder. its always good to look within oneself, isn't it?
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these are hume pipes, if i'm not mistaken

cross currents

sparks are flying all around...

(maternal) grandfather - grandmother park

nana-nani parks dot many parts of the city, and are usually the result of some ngo / citizen group / ALM's efforts in adding to the open green spaces. because many of them come up on fragments of land that may have originally been dumping grounds / barren fields, these parks are of varying forms. like this one, in 7 bungalows; at 250 long and 8 metres wide, this park is sandwiched by roads on both sides, and was granted permission to be built, only on the condition that the municipal corporation can break it down to expand the road, as and when required. it charges 2 rs as an entry fee that helps maintain the walking track and the greenery. of course there is the debate of parks being open to all sections of society, and whether they should charge any entry fee at all, but that calls for a separate post
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"nana-nani park" translate to grandpa-grandma parks...the maternal ones, to be more precise
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i'm exhausted right now, so apologies if the above description was incoherent. have a construction submission on thursday, a design jury on friday and a thesis jury on saturday. won't be able to visit any cdpb blogs till the weekend. have fun photo-blogging everybody...
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5000+ visitors!

b.e.s.t.

BEST's buses are mumbai's road-based mass transit option. they are extremely popular especially to get to and fro from the railway stations; quite safe (for the commuters within the buses atleast, while for the other vehicles on the road it's a separate story...); and very economical. but their cash resgisters seem to be in the red for ever, and they've now started selling a lot more advertisement space within the buses. hopefully things will get better...

commerce and markets

have been tied up with study trip works' final presentation for urban design. our group is dealing with commerce and markets in mangalore. past two days have been really hectic, not to mention the disagreements over layouts and graphics. but at the end of it, i'm quite happy with the work dipie and me done. it does qualify as fourth year level work and hopefully increases content value of the overall class's study.

photograph is of the market along parle east station road. the areas around the railway stations in mumbai are important commerce zones apart from being transport nodes, and almost all stations have markets just outside them. i'm guessing that because these roads were never planned to hold markets, the road systems outside stations remain congested with commuters, shoppers, auto rickshaws, taxis, BEST buses, hawkers, vendors etc. all this leads to very very slow moving traffic....

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i got the header image working again. a random image from the blog should show up every time you visit mindless mumbai, and its click-able ie if you click on that image, it'll take you to the post wherein that photo is blogged
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4500+ visitors. thanks!

theme day: when people think of mumbai they think of ...

when people think of mumbai they think of businesses and money, of bollywood and glamour, of people and work culture, of expensive realty and inadequate infrastructure... but in all this, one is never alone, there will always be a crowd ahead / behind / around you ...

today is the monthly theme day, and for feb 2008 the theme is "When people think of my city, they think of . . ."

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what do others think of their cities? visit these participating blogs from across the globe, and find out:

Portland (OR), USA - Menton, France - Monte Carlo, Monaco - Memphis (Tennessee), USA - Manila, Philippines - San Diego (CA), USA - Anderson (SC), USA - New York City (NY), USA - San Diego (CA), USA - Mexico City, Mexico - San Francisco (CA), USA - Mumbai (Maharashtra), India - Mainz, Germany - Weston (FL), USA - Minneapolis (MN), USA - Turin, Italy - Las Vegas (NV), USA - Hobart (Tasmania), Australia - Bicheno, Australia - Durban, South Africa - Joplin (MO), USA - Nashville (TN), USA - Stockholm, Sweden - Kyoto, Japan - Tokyo, Japan - Brussels, Belgium - Chicago (IL), USA - Montpellier, France - Seattle (WA), USA - Mazatlan, Mexico - Saint Paul (MN), USA - Sharon (CT), USA - Sesimbra, Portugal - Toulouse, France - Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina - Susanville (CA), USA - Maple Ridge (BC), Canada - Saint Louis (MO), USA - Prague, Czech Republic - Helsinki, Finland - Pilisvörösvár, Hungary - Lisbon, Portugal - Mexico (DF), Mexico - Trujillo, Peru - Dunedin (FL), USA - Albuquerque (NM), USA - Port Angeles (WA), USA - Cottage Grove (MN), USA - Saint-Petersburg, Russian Federation - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - London, UK - Baziège, France - Jefferson City (MO), USA - Greenville (SC), USA - Selma (AL), USA - Mumbai, India - Naples (FL), USA - Norwich (Norfolk), UK - Silver Spring (MD), USA - Setúbal, Portugal - Stayton (OR), USA - Bellefonte (PA), USA - Sofia, Bulgaria - Arradon, France - Montego Bay, Jamaica - Athens, Greece - Austin (TX), USA - Singapore, Singapore - West Sacramento (CA), USA - Jackson (MS), USA - Wassenaar (ZH), Netherlands - Budapest, Hungary - Rotterdam, Netherlands - St Malo, France - Chandler (AZ), USA - Melbourne, Australia - Port Vila, Vanuatu - Cleveland (OH), USA - Nottingham, UK - Kansas City (MO), USA - The Hague, Netherlands - Crystal Lake (IL), USA - Wrocław, Poland - Chateaubriant, France - Cheltenham, UK - Moscow, Russia - Monrovia (CA), USA - Saigon, Vietnam - Toruń, Poland - Grenoble, France - Lisbon, Portugal - New Orleans (LA), USA - Sydney, Australia - Boston (MA), USA - American Fork (UT), USA - Boston (MA), USA - Montréal (QC), Canada - Wichita (KS), USA - Radonvilliers, France - Buenos Aires, Argentina - Christchurch, New Zealand - Rabaul, Papua New Guinea - Wailea (HI), USA - Aliso Viejo (CA), USA - St Francis, South Africa - Port Elizabeth, South Africa - Seattle (WA), USA - Pasadena (CA), USA - Vienna, Austria - Orlando (FL), USA - Torun, Poland - Delta (CO), USA - Santa Fe (NM), USA - Minneapolis (MN), USA - Haninge, Sweden - Paris, France - Stavanger, Norway - Niamey, Niger - Le Guilvinec, France - Bogor, Indonesia - Saarbrücken, Germany - Auckland, New Zealand - Wellington, New Zealand - Budapest, Hungary - Juneau (AK), USA - Bucaramanga (Santander), Colombia - Glasgow, Scotland - Chicago (IL), USA - Jakarta, Indonesia - Adelaide (SA), Australia - Sydney, Australia - Riga, Latvia - Subang Jaya (Selangor), Malaysia - Terrell (TX), USA - Terrell (TX), USA - Inverness (IL), USA

travel

grandparents are off to CA today; was at their place helping them back an running last minute errands. going to miss them a lot for some time now; but i know they'll have a good time, so i'm glad they're going...
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note to self: "time to get serious about college work", says mom. "it seems that you've been on a vacation for a year and a half now" !
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photo clicked at mumbai airport in may 2007
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and its tarun's 13th b'day today. happy b'day brother !!!
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and a look at the visitors' counter tells me that we've crossed the 3500 mark. thanks all!

framed

pedestrian foot-over-bridge at marine drive. this was peak hours on a weekday, 11:00 am. just shows how deserted marine drive can get during the day. in that sense, it comes alive as a promenade only in the evenings.
for a promenade stretching across 4 km, its quite a .. um.. bore.. shall we say. across the entire length of the promenade, theres really not much variety of spaces / events for people to engage in.
for an aerial view of the promenade, see my jan 2008 daily photo theme post here

cinema hall

we went to chandan today, to watch a movie. chandan is amongst the few single-screen cinema halls left in this part of mumbai. everywhere, single-screen halls are being redeveloped into multiplexes with malls, food courts et all. while they do provide more "comforts" and choices, it all comes at a very hefty ticket; and nothing beats chandan's prices for budgeted college students. also for some reason i feel each single-screen cinema hall has an identity of its own, while the multiplexes simply look like clones of each other, with jazzy forms made of glass, steel and colourful polycarbonate.
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some readers have been enquiring about the term 'mindless' in mindless mumbai. i've given my explanation in a brief description of the blog on the RHS frame
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inspiration to add mindless mumbai's web address to each photo, and to try and disguise it within the imagery comes from not a secret blog by quin[tarantino]

graveyard

overlooking into the graveyard at girgaon

spiritually organised parivar

sign at versova beach

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

by the meter

only once one is out of the city for a while does one appreciate some of the most mundane and inane benefits of living in mumbai. take the rickshaw meters for example. in mangalore and more so in bangalore, every time we had to catch a rickshaw, we'd have to argue and hassle about the fare before we got in. the concept of charging the passenger a fare as read on the meter seems to be non-existent, at least when it comes to non-locals.

and as per the official rule book, in bangalore rick fares go up one and a half times post 9 pm and double post 11 pm! do they think that the city is a three yr old kid who is supposed to be confined to home three hours before mid-night?