Mornings of Mumbai - Dadar flower market: The captures

18th February, 2015
7:30 AM
Dadar flower market,  Mumbai

Words make you imagine,
and pictures make you visualize.

All that I wrote,
is all what I felt.

And all that touched,
is all what I clicked.

The smiling  mother daughter team making and selling gajras, amidst all the crowd grabbed my instant attention....

After travelling each morning at four from Mankhurd to Dadar, along with her husband and daughter she weaves gajra of juhi, mogra and tagar flowers to earn their living... After a day long of efforts the amount they earn is inversely proportional to the smile she and her daughter is wearing in the previous click...

These pretty tiny garlands of 'tagar' hold a religious significance and women match the woven threads with their sari... but every morning when you find them fresh near your homes do remember someone sat all night to make them so that they are ready to be reach you fresh each day...

And as you walk along, you see a whole spread of colours, hanging, heaped and laid scattered...

Street along the flyover lined with vendors...

Single space, multiple functions and over lapping activities... this market is the perfect example for that... 

Marigold is highest selling flower in terms of volume...10 rupees and they gave me a bag full of them... they may cost you around Rs. 40 per kg

Along with the makeshift vendors, there are few florist that you will find all along the day.. 

And along with heaps of marigold, you will find piles of lotuses too...

And as I was moving around I found these two guys, selling roses and who were more than happy to pose for me... (While you are on streets clicking its rare to find such smiles voluntarily posing for you )... so why not grab the opportunity !!!

Rs. Ten for a bundle of twenty roses.... !!! Anyone's interested...

If you thought that the market is only for traditional flowers, let me correct you it has an amazing collection of exquisite flowers to offer...

Kuruva leaves, the ones these women are selling are used for packing of other flowers...

As sun attains a certain inclination and is out of the horizon completely, market begins to wrap up... waste flowers and stalks in tons are sorted and filled into the municipal trucks.. and by nine in the morning the market is wrapped up as if it never existed....

While walking along the market and observing and women engrossed in their sales, a definite pattern of allocation surfaced. All the low value activities and the ones which required making of the final product like gajra and garland involved women labour. Whereas all bulk selling and trading involved men. It is unsure though whether its intended that way or organically evolved. But the energy every individual brought to the market is worth the experience. 

 

Mornings of Mumbai - Dadar flower market: The market

18th February, 2015
6:30 AM
Dadar flower market,  Mumbai

3:00 am in the morning and the action begins,

Vendors with truckloads of flowers start pouring in.

A kilometre of stretch around and under the flyover,

Are now filled with heaps and baskets full of flowers.

As the clock continues to tick

Customers too start pushing their way to make their pick.

From bundles of roses to kilos of marigolds,

From assorted flowers to designer bouquets,

                 

From decoration to preservation,

And from fresh ones to few days old,

For puja or for shaadi,

For birthdays or for anniversary,

For a specific variety or just for random buying,

For personal use or for further selling,

Whatever the purpose and the need is,

This market is the perfect place to be!

If best and fresh is something that you are looking for,

Then make sure you are here in the morning at eight or before

Because as the morning advances

The wrap up of the market begins

Corporation garbage bins replace the supplier trucks,

And Sweeping staff the hustling customers.

As I see tons coloured petals and stalks getting cleaned and the vendors unwind,

The thought of composting comes to my mind.

With the seed of another thought to ponder,

And capturing the market and its vibrancy all over.

I buy a few stalks of roses,

And make my way to a place I call home !!!

Mornings of Mumbai - Dadar Flower Market: The journey

18th February, 2015
5:15 AM
Vashi railway station, Navi Mumbai

Dawn is about to break, and sun is yet to peep out,

Roads devoid of horns, and calmness all around.

As I board the train and while I embark the ride

Crowded coaches at six take me by surprise.

And while the train heads Dadar,

All that I witness further makes me wonder!

How pleasant is the view of Vashi creek,

Shores of which are dotted with innumerable white migratory fleets.

And the not so pleasant scene along railway track,

Lined with people discarding their biological crap.

From cramped lanes and weathered shanty houses to sky kissing towers,

The route had all the extremes to offer.

While my eyes wandered out and gazed around,

The destination arrived unnoticed and a push from the back got me down.

With the vividness of the journey in heart,

There I reach Dadar to explore its signature wholesale flower mart...

Storm of flowers and riot of colours,
Six thirty in the morning and unbelievable horde of people!!!

Mornings of Mumbai

A lot is said and written about ‘The city that never sleeps’ but then unless you don’t live it each day by no means you can fathom what this ‘Maximum city’ is all about. After relocating to this city, for months I went exploring aimlessly. As I shoved my way across its streets and maddening crowd one thing that struck me explicitly was the unremitting transformations in the character and mood of the city. It almost felt like a  fabric wherein its people, its suburban railways, other form of private and public transport, its streets, its real estate are intricately woven together to form a very complex labyrinth. At times while crossing a shanty settlement by train or while passing by sky kissing towers, this city seemed like a mystery to me. A mystery where in it appeared as if the city is offering you it’s entire range of ingredients and it’s left to us as how do we combine them, merge them and use them in a way best suitable. As they say ‘mumbai main toh sab bhagte hi rehte hai’, may be this is one of the reason. Everyone is occupied and running around to gather and bring together ‘their’ ingredients.

Amid these ingredients that this enormous city has to offer what captivates me the most is its ever-changing mood. And few moods are such that they are not visible upfront and one has to actually move out of their comfort zone to experience them. Each morning when most of us are pushing ourselves out of the bed there is a section of society who are keeping things ready for us -may it be your dudhwala or the car cleaner or your puja flowers and newspaper delivery guy. Such activities are innumerable and they silently and seamlessly take place without we having even a hint of it. With this came the idea of ‘Mornings of Mumbai’.

‘Mornings of Mumbai’ is a photo explorative effort to understand the dynamics of each morning in this ‘city of extremes’.

An early morning walk sometime in October 2015

Moraj Junction, Navi Mumbai

5:30am - Palm beach road - Before the dawn breaks... 

6:00am - How about few more naps before the day begins...

6:05am - Last five minute nap as the sun rises...

6:10am - The dawn

As someone takes a lazy nap, there is someone waking up to the rays...

6:15am - The morning action begins... time to sort...

Early morning feast... 

A foggy morning and time to warm up and burn some calories

6:45am - All sorted... time to deliver some hot news at the doorstep...

 Time for some hot news with some tea... Wanna join :)

 

Mount Mary Festival, Mumbai - The celebration of hope and faith

Mount Mary Road

19^th September, 2015

Groups of people walking towards the Mount Mary church

The most sought after festival of Christians after Christmas in Mumbai is unarguably the Mount Mary festival, held at the Mount Mary Church, Bandra. The festival is a week-long affair accompanied by a fair held on the Mount Mary road near the church complex.

The wax miniatures and two young lads 

The fair largely has stalls selling wax dummies of various things like a house, a baby or that of a limb, boat etc. The whole idea is, for all that you wish for, buy a dummy of the same and offer it to Mother Mary. It’s a faith with which people come to the festival that Mother Mary will fulfill their wishes.

What surprised me the most is that it seemed less of a Christian festival than a celebration of faith. And this was evident from the crowd which visited the festival. It had more number of Gujaratis, Maharashtrians, Punjabis, etc. than Christians.

The idols of  Lord Jesus

The beautiful interiors of the Mount Mary church

While a whole lot of people walked on the demarcated pathway, for me it was a blissful cloudy afternoon, walking up the Mount Mary road, feeling the south west monsoon winds and the intermittent glimpse of the sea and rushing waves from the narrow aisle formed by the towers along the road. And the religious ambience around added to the whole experience.  

The serene environs and the wild waves forming the backdrop

Juhu Beach - As the sun sets...

An evening of February 8, 2015...

Colourful beach wear and decorative shacks,

Swanky beach side bars and feet tapping music.

When its beaches, all of these is what we think,

But then there's much more to it than just these sumptuous things.

Some scattered candyfloss vendors,

And some astrologers on the move.

One selling smiles on a stick,

And other making you grin with his fancy future picks.

Some ‘bhuttawalas’ here,

And colourful ice gola stalls somewhere.

One warming up the evening with its roasted corn and tangy spice,

And other freezing the taste buds with a plate full of flavoured ice.

As the young folks rejoice the waves,

Kids try their hand over the sand and its cave.

While some couples share love over a coconut,

There are friends posing for a groupfie against the sea, the shack and the hut.

The beach and the sand may seem the same each day.

But these small little activities make it a place that is different every day.

Eyes Closed

Eyes closed,  

With darkness within,

Dark enough to exhort to search,

Search for light, Light that is contained inside,

Light that surrounds outside, which cannot be seen, but can only be felt,

With eyes closed...

Eyes closed,

With prayers within,

Prayers to get strength,

Strength to differentiate,

The right and the wrong,

Even with eyes closed...

Eyes closed,

With dreams within,

Waiting to get alive,

To live a moment,

A moment to remember and recall,

With eyes closed...

A lot to see and lot to feel,

With eyes closed…

Just be with yourself and listen,

With eyes closed...