Thousands of words

I'm mainly doing this to remember what outside feels like. Also to post the cache of photos I have of places or things that don't merit a full article.

I didn't know until recently that Holi celebrations involved bonfires!

Sunset over Vashi lake.

The lake is surrounded by a path where people walk and jog. In general, as you would imagine, Navi Mumbai is more spacious and less crowded.

Spire of Afghan Church, a stone's throw from TIFR.

The "Afghan" in Afghan Church refers to the fact that it was built to commemorate the British soldiers killed in the Afghan War.

At a Durga Puja Pandal. The atmosphere was a new level of charged and festive.

A random wall in Bandra.

My friend showed me a magic trick in Bandra: a hideaway from which the bustling sounds of traffic are almost inaudible, even though it is between major roads.

Boats!

An art installation in a park near Churchgate station.

The High Court, where I visited the museum. Unfortunately, photography wasn't allowed inside.

From a foot overbridge near Grant Road station.

Inside IIT Bombay - brought pleasant recollections of KFI.

The view from the CS department at IITB. How they get work done is beyond me.

TIFR held its annual Science Day celebration on February 23. It seems like ever so long ago, when schoolchildren and science-loving adults descended upon TIFR from all over Mumbai.

The next few photos are from an exhibition by Khaki Tours, where they tried to recreate pictures painted by James Wales in the 1790s. The exhibition was in a small room (South Bombay things!) with lots of people, so I didn't get great photos. 

Malabar Hill.

Sion Fort.

Elsewhere in Sion Fort.

Belmont.

I hope all of you are staying safe, following doctors' guidelines and finding ways to keep yourselves occupied and upbeat during our time indoors. And again, I hope I can get back to posting newly taken photos sooner than later!

Contagion in a connected world

I am not writing this in Mumbai - I managed to fly out just hours before CM Uddhav Thackeray's new restrictions on Maharashtra kicked in. Domestic flights will stop tomorrow. It really was the nick of time.

It takes something like this to make one realise how connected the world is. Every item you own has passed through so many hands. So many people had to work together to produce your breakfast. And of course we need each other in ways that are less tangible. We need to come together to celebrate faith, or our favourite teams, or protest injustice. And we understand the value of these when they are gone. 

And of course, one comes to understand which services are absolutely essential. Which kinds of labour we label "unskilled" but cannot do by ourselves. I really, really hope we come out of this with a new respect for these people and that ensure their lives are henceforth easier. Even if that means upending the present way we do economics (and politics).

Well, this is a blog about Mumbai. As you probably know, the city is under full lockdown, understandably grinding to a halt with trains halting their wheels. The roads were empty on Friday itself, we even passed smoothly over the Sea Link, on the way to the international airport that seemed a shadow of its usual buzzing self. 

My institute has basically suspended its functioning, with classes happening over Zoom and less formal interactions taking place over Skype and Hangouts. There are some adorable moments like random domestic noises in the background, that many people are relating to worldwide. (Yeah, I don't know how I would get through this pandemic without social media.) It is a new not-normal, and I'm sure we won't go back to an identical old normal. I hope it is the right things that change.

Wash your hands, stay home if possible, treat people with kindness, hope I can get back to Mumbai-related posting soon!

The Dark Horse

Earlier this month was the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival: a celebration of music, dance, drama, literature, visual arts and more art forms across different locations in South Mumbai. 

The immediate comparison, in my mind, was to Chennai's Mylapore Festival, and they sure do share a sense of local excitement and spirit. However, the KGAF is more modern in flavour and attracts a slightly different kind of crowd. 

The main draw was the street connecting the Kala Ghoda statue and Lion Gate, which was filled with art installations and stalls of various kinds. The installations ranged from photographs celebrating the city, to representations of classic childhood toys, to representations of houses. Many incorporated ways to interact with it using technology, such as QR codes with facts and special points to take selfies. The stalls sold mostly clothing, jewellery, art and decorative items. Of course there were food stalls as well, and one thing I was glad to see (and use) was seats in a gallery along one side of the street. 

I also managed to catch a few events: one was a high-production-value Hindi adaptation of The Tempest, in Horniman Circle garden. It was an interesting watch! For starters, Prospero and Alonso were women. One suddenly thinks of the play differently when thinking of it as a mother and daughter who had to leave their home and build a life on the island. Ariel was two spirits, with a playful and agile dynamic. Caliban was foreign and frightening, and drew the most applause. Also, Ferdinand was very jacked. 

Of course, the medium made all the difference: the characters feel more relatable speaking in a conversational, local language. Unfortunately they didn't use this to explore possible themes (colonialism, gender) any deeper than the text.

Also, here is an unabashed plug of Mumbai Maths Circle. It is aimed at school/college students and maths teachers who would like to discuss puzzles and interesting mathematical ideas, with no thoughts of exams. Take it from me, even if I'm biased - maths is great fun! 

The Past and the Pudheel

I must clearly be passing well as a local since bus conductors have taken to talking to me in Marathi. Luckily "dahaa" is close enough to "dus", and "pudheel" (next) is familiar since it is in every audio announcement, but I don't think I can handle anything more complex just yet. 

-

Mumbai has many museums - for example, museums for RBI, BEST, CST, Churchgate, Gandhi - but the oldest among them is the Dr Bhau Daji Lad Museum in Byculla. It shares a complex with a zoo, which is definitely a bigger draw! 

One superb thing this museum does is to hold free (no prior registration either) hour-long tours every Saturday and Sunday, in English as well as Hindi and Marathi. They are conducted by trained volunteers. 

Our particular guide was a doctor in training and had admirably committed to using his position to urge his listeners to be observant, historically literate, but most importantly empathetic, in these divided times.

The museum was built in 1862, then known as the Victoria and Albert museum. It was renovated in 2003 by INTACH. (More history here.) The guide pointed out the gentle green used to colour the inside walls, which contrasts well with the bronze and silver exhibits. There are ornate metal decorations everywhere, some painted in near-pure gold paint.

In the centre there is a regal statue of Prince Albert, flanked by the Muses of Science and Art. Accordingly, the exhibits on either side are broadly categorised into practical/technological ones and art/ornamental ones. 

We didn't spend much time on the ground floor; it has more 'typical' museum exhibits: weapons and miscellaneous items from various centuries and parts of India. The guide picked up a couple of things to talk about in depth, rather than a speedy and superficial tour of the whole place, but he went on several tangents along the way! (About gender, communalism and so on. His intentions were undoubtedly good - what is the use of history if not to prevent us making the same mistakes? But I personally would have preferred he instead fill that time with lesser-known facts about the museum or its contents.)

More fascinating for its local flavour was the first floor. It had figurines of the various communities that came to occupy Bombay along various points in its history; also of Indian communities in general. There were maps of Bombay through the ages. It also showcased Indian rural life, from its fields to its professions to its children's traditional games. 

Don't miss his belly.

This is a legitimate profession.

Amma and Appa: Please dress like this sometime.

The museum also has film screenings, exhibitions and talks round the year - will surely catch one of those sometime!

It's all happening here!

As the music season in Chennai winds down, here is an account of some of the event venues I have visited so far in Mumbai.

Shanmukhananda Hall: The first thing that strikes you is how high-security the place is. There are posters detailing what to do in case of a bomb blast. Visitors are patted down, unsettlingly intimately, and stripped of their water bottles!

For Chennaiites: the auditorium is roughly comparable to Sir Mutha concert hall in Chetpet, in size. Minimalism was not their intention in decoration - practically every inch of the space right outside the hall is covered in pictures of Carnatic musicians, of musical instruments, biographies and the like. There are multiple likenesses of MS Subbulakshmi, and a golden statue of Saint Tyagaraja which I very much doubt he would approve of. The sound and seating are good though. I had gone for (some of) a day-long Hindustani event with ragas corresponding to the 8 prahars. The stand-outs were Kalapini Komkali, Parveen Sultana and Venkatesh Kumar. I hope this is a springboard to appreciating Hindustani music more!

Chembur Fine Arts: This is a lot closer to the typical Chennai sabha, although the pillars and general decor made me also suspect it might double up as a wedding venue? I had the pleasure of welcoming my veena gurus to Mumbai here.

National Centre for Performing Arts: I only visited the Experimental Theatre, for a fusion concert by Sanyog. It was a small, intimate hall, with the interior and exterior ambience befitting the location and the ticket price! 

Piramal Museum: I was here for a talk by the peerless Chithra Madhavan, about temples as cultural centres. The museum is small but hosts varied pieces of art from different parts of India. 

(The last painting is a Mughal-era painting of Draupadi and her attendants, commissioned by Akbar's minister and commander Abd al-Rahim Khan)

Ruparel College: This is one of the regular venues for TIFR's outreach programme, Chai and Why. The talk I had attended drew a varied audience of curious children, their parents and some young adults. It's a friendly atmosphere, with regular interruptions for questions, and of course a chai break. More institutes should do such a thing! 

I do have a wish-list (spoiler alert: it includes Wankhede stadium), so do watch this space.