I have settled into the bayside suburb of Bandra, otherwise known as the Queen of Suburbs. It is home to Shah Rukh Khan and other lesser known but glamorous people and lots of fabulous restaurants and cafes. It is also home to poor fishing communities, some beautiful churches and lots of street side stalls. Whilst the two sides of Bandra are worlds apart, they seem to co-exist side by side along the seaside.
Every morning before the summer heat sets in I walk down to the bay and take a walk along the newly manicured path on Carter Road. Between this path and the famous Bandra Bandstand is a fishing community that I walk through. It is here that I see the real Bandra, away from the glitz and Mercedes Benz, this is where real life happens.
These are some of my photos that I have taken of early mornings in Bandra.
Where there is space and some water there is always someone washing clothes.
Along the Carter Road path each morning, groups of children meet to learn. I am not sure if this is a properly registered school, but it is definitely organised.
This was a rare moment where there wasn’t a long queue waiting for her pooris.
A very common site anywhere in Mumbai, a rickshaw driver having a nap.
I am not sure where these two fellows were going, but they certainly looked like they were dressed for something.
A common breakfast bar with samosas and chai on offer.
These poor birds were slowly being offloaded at the various butchers that line the small laneways.
The morning catch ready for sale.
Bathing, washing clothes and collecting water, all part of daily activities by the bay.
This bridge is built in the sea for a freeway, space is a luxury in Mumbai and it now encroaches well into the sea.
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While the pictures are nice, what do you mean by ‘…It is here that I see the real Bandra, away from the glitz and Mercedes Benz, this is where real life happens….’.
Are the life of wealthy, upper middle class, middle class not real…are they not working hard enough to build the Mumbai that is…are you suggesting half of Bandra is a reel life planted for outsiders to enjoy…it is so superfluous how some people are projecting India as real only when they come across poor parts of the country.
I live in United States, but I never go to poor neighborhoods and say ha there you go real America…or you would not project real Australia as areas where aborigines live…mostly in poverty…
please stop projecting real India is when you encounter poor people or neighborhoods…they are just a part of India as everyone else…
Thanks for your comment and I do take your point. Yes middle class India is also real, but it feels more surreal to me.
Theyre working hard for THEMSELVES. and no one else. and stashing their money into banks around the world. antwerp has more gujrati diamond traders than jewish ones. but their entire diamond polishing operations are out of mumbai and surat. which effectively means theyre exploiting the two poorest continents in the world for all that it’s worth. and thats just one example. there’s oligarchs laying waste to entire swathes of our countryside while pillaging the land for coal/ gas/ minerals and choking the farmer off his farmland. Mumbai is now 65% slumland because these robber-barons and their greedy cohort have managed to turn india as i knew it into some kind of horrific brazil-meets-banana republic nightmare. Maybe you should return to india for a few and observe closely, before you go around hitting people with a stick for recording their observations.