Sunset at Juhu

This I think has to be the busiest beach of the world. You go there in the eveningand it feels like a Kumbh mela with half ogf the world converging at just one spot.

No globe

This is a lamp in out housing society. This has white globe on it which is missing in this shot because it was broken.

A bike and her mommy

Parked in our building. I love the way the small bike is leaning on the big one as if to get emotional support

Auto Drivers

These are the auto rickshaws of Bombay. The drive very rash and if you hapen to be driving in Bombay you will find them as annoying as a pimple on the bum. Contrary to popular belief these drivers will often say no to you if they are not interested in going there. I have often been frustrated when noone of them would agree to go to Andheri Kurla road where my office is located.

Majas Bus Depot

This is Majas Bus Depot and this was visible from our staircase. Now the fourth building of Kalptaru is under construction that will block this view. I don't know whether to call myself unfortunate that I will not be able to get the view of Majas Depot and Aarey Colony or cal myself fortunate that I did get a view to begin with in a place where cutting down trees is not an issue and any piece of land is used for real estate development.

A little more about the buses. I am not sure when the BEST bus service started in India but you can see the buses are based on the red London Buses. The double-decker buses are also exactly like the London buses are or should I say used to be before they evolved. The BEST buses are the way they used to be.

real estate mumbai bombay majas bus depot

Triclour and country's future

On the morning of Republic Day (26th January 2007) our society hoisted the tricolour Indian Flag. This is Manu (my son) on the right and Ritam (Manu's friend) with our national flag.

As a child we used to eagerly wait for this day and used to watch the parae on television without fail. After the parade, there used to be a flypast by the Indian Airforce fighters, helicopters and transport planes and our home was on the way to India Gate from their air strip and the planes used to fly past our terrace. So the moment the parade was over, we used to rush to out terrace to watch the planes.

Gradually the excitement surrounding the parade faded, we still watch but only parts of it and in Bombay, there are no planes flying above out house.

Tools of Trade

This is pretty much the investment required for opening a basic cobbler's shop. As I have said, the investment in getting the shop is nil. Same is the case for any business opened on the roadside on encroached land.

Objects in the Rear view mirror

On Sundays I usually take some pics. If I find something interesting at home, I take pics of that or may go out. Most of the times I don't go out too far and just roam around in our housing society. On one of those days I took this picture of the reflection in my motorcycle's rearview mirror.

Security Guards

The manpower in India is quite cheep. You will have to shell out a decent amount of money for skilled people but the unskilled labor can be hired pretty cheep. An example of that are the guards in our society. There are about 8 guards in the society. If there are eight of the, there is not need to say that they are not paid a lot. To make things worse, the work conditions are pathetic too. They have to work in a shift of 12 hours-from 8 till 8.

If we were living in a economy where manpower is not so cheep we would have figured out some other way to keep our buildings safe.

Horn OK Please

This is a three wheeler goods carrier. All vehicles that are used for carrying goods are walking art galleries. This one is a very moderate one saying Horn OK Please. SOme of them have all sort of pictures painted on them. It is so popular in some places that there was an ad targeted at these people. In the ad they showed a truck driver who bought a Mitsubishi Lancer with his savings and on that too he painted a tiger, a peacock and what not.

Cobbler

This is a proud cobbler who sits outside our building. I asked him if I could take his pictures and he asked me if he could get the negative. I told him there is no negative but I will get a print for him. I took a close up of him as that is what I thought he wanted but he proved me wrong. "Take a picture from a distance so that all this stuff is visible to".

Branched

The building on the right is Leela Business Park where my office is located.

My glamourous neighbour

This is Mr. Aloke Dasgupta. He is working as a cameraman in the Hind film industry since the last six decade. His first film as a cinematographer was "Chalti ka naam gaadi" in 1949. It featured the thre brothers Ashok Kumar, Anup Kumar and Kishore Kumar as brother in the movie too. His last big movie was Vijaypath with Ajay Devgan and Tabbu about 10 -12 years ago. He feels the new people in the film industry feel a little uncomfortable working with because of his age so he is not doing any big movies. He is now concentrating on regional cinema like Gujrati and Bhojpuri movies. I just wish I have the same enrgy as him when I am his age.

There was a time, I used to be hot...

This is a Premier Padmini. This is the name under which Fiat cars were sold in India till the Indian market opened up and hundreds of new models came to India. The market share of Ambassador (Morris Oxford) and this car slipped very quickly and forced Premier Autoimobiles India to stop producing this car. Now their plant in Kurla, Mumbai is also shut down. There was a time when the buyers would wait for months after booking this car but now this car is waiting to be salvaged in the form of a Taxi or be scrapped

Fiat Premier Padmini car Taxt Morris Oxford Ambassador Mumbai

Do not throw garbage here

As if the sign was not necassary, they have put a guard there to make suer that no one throws garbage here.

A wonderful smile

This is Mr. Hiranandani. He was the first person who we became friend with when we moved to Bombay. He is like the information desk of our building. He knows everyone and everything about everyone and whatever is happening around us. In other words, our local "google"

hiranandani potrait mumbai india bombay andheri greenfields old man senior citizen smile google

Wanna ride

A rickshaw driver outside my home. Rickshaws are economic mode of transportation but at the same time they can be quite dangerus too because they way these people drive them and also because you have only three wheels and not four.

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Mumbai Sunrise

Taken from the plane while I was returning to Bombay from Delhi last year.

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Better Tommorow indeed

Please define "tommorow" before you expect me to bear all the problems you are creating for me. I have been seeing this board ever since I moved here more than three years ago. Someone shares the same frustration and blackened the "better tommorow". Do you know they keep cutting the bushes ahead of this board so that it is visible. I guess in a few more months they will relace the board too with a newer and better one.

All for a view

This man would do anything to get a nice view, even put his life in danger. This was taken when our office building was still under construction.

Kalla Khatta

Take a big block of ice, grate it so that you get tiny little flakes. Then you stuff that tightly in a glass and shove in a stick. Now you pour sweet coloured flavoured water from one or more of these bottles and take the thing out of the glass. It is quite tasty and is what one can call animprovised or localised verision of ice-cream. To enjoy it, you don't bite it but suck it. By doing so, the ice will get flavourless. When that happens, you dip the whole thing in the glass once again for it to absorb some more of that sweet flavour.

Like most street food it is quite unhygenic but yummy.

Lotus Suites - An Ecotel Hotel

Lotus Suites, a hotel on Andheri Kurla Road. Has a reataurant called cirkus-cirkus where you can see live circus while having a meal.

Mumbai from air

This is a shot from the plane when it takes off from Mumbai airport and takes a U turn to head back to north India.

Kalptaru Estate

I could see the Majas Bus Depot from my building but nor for too long. Kalptaru is making a building that will block the view from my building on the east side.

Survival Instinct

This is a tree that shows what survival instinct means. It is right nest to JV Link Road, in front of a temple. For widening of the road, the area around it has been dug. You can see on what kind of a tiny patch of land it is growing. I have seen it surviving these conditions for at least 2 years.

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Juhu Chaupati at night

These are the stalls lining the Juhu Beach selling pao bhaji, kala khatta, kulfi, pani puri and what not.

Window Cleaner

A woman was in her bathroom when she saw a window cleaner outside her window. She looked at him with a shocked expression. Noticing this the window cleaner said "What's the matter. Have you never seen a window cleaner before?" This one though is not on a bathroom window but out office.

A crow on the tree

Although I like the trees to be green but they do provide wonderful photo opportunities without leaves too.

A lamp shop in The Hub

The Hub is a shopping complex on Western Express Highway in Goregaon, Mumbail This shot was taken inside a shop selling lamps. What you see in the background is a under construction building

A movie set?

I see this construction from my house across Powai Lake and am not sure what it is. From what I can see, the front looks like fully construted and the back seems to be propped up with bamboos.

So this is where the milk comes from!

These are the "tabelas" or the stables where cows are kept This is a part of Aarey Milk colony visible from my home.