City of structure : Dharavi, Mumbai

Dharavi requires no introduction. It has achieved fame through its grandeur within the gangster folklore of India and its sprawling presence in the heart of the city. Dharavi is inseparable from the modern history of Mumbai. Much like in the case of the Mahabharata epic, where it is said that what you can't find in the Mahabharata, you can't find anywhere else, one could confidently state that if you can't find something here, you may not find it anywhere else. In the near future, Dharavi may be replaced with a luxurious township, but it will be challenging to erase the memories of this place.

City of Structures: Powai, Mumbai

My first visit to Powai was to see a friend while I was studying in the city. Despite hosting the largest IIT campus, it was then just a modest suburb. The second time, I ventured to Powai was for a job interview as a programmer at an export house. Ultimately, I made the decision not to accept the job in that city and instead relocated to my sister's place in Delhi. It took me a quarter of a century before I returned to that location. By then, the area had undergone significant transformations, but the slums had managed to retain their distinctive character that is unique to this city. The most beautiful aspect of Mumbai's slums reveals itself at night. Amidst the interplay of light and shadow, the slums transform into a mesmerizing wonderland.

City of structures :Hidden lives behind the towering walls; Mumbai

The concept of cities worldwide is built upon a foundation of hidden elements. These include concealed wires, concealed drainages, concealed pipes, concealed walls, and concealed wealth. Despite the constant intermingling and connections in cities, individuals often prefer solitude or the company of their own community and friends. Tall walls are consistently erected, creating boundaries that separate one from the rest.

City of Structures: Mumbai VT

Two Queens and a City

In this city, which is over four hundred years old, two queens from different eras of history have left a lasting impression, symbolizing the epitome of popular imagination: Rani Padmini from the 14th century and Queen Victoria from the 18th century.

Rani Padmini has found her reincarnation in Mumbai's most celebrated premier Padmini taxis, while Queen Victoria lives on through the Gothic-style architecture of the city's most populous railway station.

Strangely, both of these queens are intertwined with the lifeline transportation of Mumbai, each with a unique legacy that stands unparalleled!

City of Structures: Endless Ladders - Mumbai VT

 We often find ourselves in cities to climb the ladder. Every city offers countless opportunities for advancement, and everyone aspires to climb the rungs of success in life.

As cities grow vertically, they also sprout long, spiraling ladders. Strangely, people seldom use them. These ladders often wind alongside the elevators, the quicker route to the top, adorned with a bold red-lettered warning: 'In case of fire, do not use the lift; use the stairs...' – a profound philosophical note.

Cities of Structures - Church gate

In cities, dividers hold significant power. They shape your journey towards destiny, dictating the pace, flow, and the crowd. Dividers split roads into two equal and opposing halves, directing one towards the east and the other towards the west. They also determine the orientation of shops and buildings along the roads, so if the roads run from east to west, the buildings will face north and south, creating directional symmetry. The only exception is pedestrians, who walk either from east to west or from north to south, with dividers broken by zebra crossings to facilitate this organic movement.

In cities, dividers also become a business opportunity, serving as spaces for advertisements, from real estate companies to local leaders' promotional messages. Dividers also provide a livelihood for balloon sellers and contribute to the city's green initiatives.

During the morning and evening rush hours, as the city inhales and exhales residents from the outskirts, dividers become especially influential. Between 8:15 am to 8:30 am in the morning and 5 pm to 6:30 pm in the evening, when the city transforms its roads into a bustling movement of vehicles and people, dividers define the pace, anger, and frustration of the city. Being stuck on one side of the divider can interrupt appointments, cancel business deals, and strain relationships, while the other side of the divider remains silent and free.

The stories of dividers are endless, like any other structures in the city, yet dividers continue to occupy a prominent space within it.

City of Structures: Mumbai VT

 Windows are beautiful. Sometimes small, sometimes sleek, and most often transparent; these windows tell many stories. They become metaphors for freedom, liberation, or, at times, the last glimmer of hope in imagination and literature. Sometimes, from the sanctuary of sanity, they offer a peek into the insanity of the world outside, while other times, they open up from claustrophobic rooms to the serene breeze of the world outside.

Unfortunately, in most cities, these wonderful pieces of architecture are never opened. They remain shut and covered, due to the fear of pollution, the fear of noise, and the fear of prying eyes, reducing them to mere wall decorations.

However, during the night, fortunately, the walls that hold these windows seem to vanish, and like jewels in the dark, these little sleek, transparent pieces of imagination start to shine in the night city sky. Illuminated from within, these windows define the aesthetics of the night city sky. And as the night deepens, slowly, one by one, these windows become one with the dark night outside, unseen... Windows are beautiful.

City of Structures: Mumbai VT

 Old and the City

Every city will have this reminiscence of an age, a lost glory walking down the memory lane, unknown, unseen, or invisible. It could be a dhoti-clad, Gandhi-topi-wearing old man among the jeans-wearing youth, or an old white Ambassador car among the swanky high-end luxury imported cars, or an old dilapidated, color-worn colonial architecture amidst the niche steel and glass skyscrapers. Whatever the form, aging will cross your path at every moment in Indian cities.

One may not notice them until one becomes old, one may not find them until one retires, one may not engage with them until one starts wearing out. The city is patient; it will wait in those old pockets in park corners, coffee houses, temples, pension counters, and hospitals. It will wait patiently to cross your path one day or maybe every day...

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Cities of structures: Mumbai CST - Invaders

Three things the Indian city skyline will not be able to escape now are pigeons, Sintex tanks, and cables. Among those painstakingly constructed aesthetic dreams of architecture, this troika invades. Their droppings and placement conquer our mindscape, visual logic, idea of serenity, beauty, and architecture...

City of structures - BSE Mumbai

The narrative of the urban skyline is captivating. High above the hustle and bustle of life below, the summits of buildings resemble serene, contemplative Buddhas. Though they embody someone's hopes, dreams, or creativity, they maintain their quiet composure, unless, of course, an industrial chimney disrupts their tranquility.

Much like a dancing daffodil, where each petal conveys a unique tale, the rooftops of the city each possess a story to tell – a bygone history, a present filled with activity, and a future brimming with potential.

Within every corner, there lies a subtle interplay of politics, sorrow, and joy, along with traces of greed and exasperation.

A collation of traditional, colonial and socialistic structures (communist russian era ). A foregone past occupying contemporary Indian sky passing on one to the other

- Mumbai Church gate