Murals, Markets, and the Sea

Murals, Markets, and the Sea — Bandra, Crawford & BKC

The ironies and energy of Bandra’s street art, the Gothic chaos of Crawford Market, and the glass towers of BKC.

By the end of Year Two, I’d stopped trying to “understand” Mumbai. That was a fool’s errand—like trying to photograph humidity or convince a crow to share your samosa. Instead, I learned to follow the city where it led me.

Sometimes that meant turning down a narrow lane in Bandra because a burst of color caught my eye. Other days it meant getting stuck in a Crawford Market spice stall during a rainstorm. And sometimes it meant walking through the glass-and-steel desert of BKC, feeling like I’d wandered into a corporate simulation.

Bandra West: Street Art as Urban Memory

Bandra West had by now become my visual playground—the neighborhood equivalent of a never-ending roll of film. Here, murals weren’t decoration; they were conversation.

On Chapel Road, I’d pass Frida Kahlo staring at me from a two-story wall, only to be followed by Bob Marley a few blocks later, and then a local political satire rendered in spray paint so sharp it deserved a health warning.

My small 35mm rangefinder was perfect for these streets—light enough not to draw attention, but reliable enough to handle the moody shadows of Mumbai’s narrow lanes.

What fascinated me wasn’t just the art, but how it coexisted with daily life. A mural of a Bollywood heroine might have a laundry line strung across her forehead. A bright, abstract explosion of colors would share a wall with a paan stall. It was gentrification and grit in the same frame.

Photography Tip 1: In crowded alleys, keep your camera close to your body and your elbows in—people flow around you more easily.

Sometimes, entire walls would vanish overnight—painted over or hidden by construction tarps. The murals were as transient as Khotachiwadi’s balconies, as fleeting as monsoon light. I began photographing them as endangered species.

Celebrate Bandra: When the Neighborhood Throws Itself a Party

Every other year, Celebrate Bandra transformed the suburb into a multi-block festival. It wasn’t as loud as Ganesh Chaturthi or as highbrow as Kala Ghoda, but it had its own energy—a mix of street fairs, concerts, art walks, and food pop-ups.

One evening, I listened to a jazz quartet in a park while a group of kids, clearly unmoved by jazz, turned the grass into a football pitch. A food truck sold me a dosa with truffle oil (yes, really), and the man behind me in line pitched me an app idea he called “the Uber of storytelling.”

I shot the festival in both film and video—film for stillness, video for movement. The digital rig caught a street theatre actor scolding a barking dog mid-monologue. My medium-format film camera gave me a perfect frame of two elderly women in pearls eating pani puri like it was high tea.

Travel Tip 1: Festivals can be hot and crowded—carry a small water bottle and sachets of electrolyte powder.

Photography Tip 2: Pre-focus your lens for quick candid shots; in busy environments, moments vanish in seconds.

Bandra didn’t need to pretend to be anything—it was already itself, contradictions and all.

Crawford Market: Gothic Arches and Onion Drama

If Bandra was art, Crawford Market was theatre.

Built in 1869, designed by William Emerson, and decorated with carvings by John Lockwood Kipling, it was a Gothic landmark that now served as the city’s loudest grocery store. Inside, chaos reigned—vendors shouting over each other, cats weaving between crates, and chilies so red they looked digitally enhanced.

Travel Tip 2: Learn a few words of Hindi or Marathi; “kitna?” (how much?) and “dhanyavaad” (thank you) go a long way.

With my Mamiya C330 at waist level, I captured:

• a butcher slicing meat with tabla-like rhythm,

• a fruit seller arranging papayas into perfect pyramids,

• a boy napping under a table stacked with bananas.

In the center, the famous Kipling fountain sat like a forgotten relic. Its stone carvings celebrated rural life; now they were surrounded by plastic bags, sugarcane husks, and the occasional parrot cage.

Outside, I stumbled into a protest—fish vendors from the adjacent Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Market resisting relocation plans. Banners flapped against Crawford’s stone façade, megaphones crackled, and a woman offered me tea mid-chant.

Photography Tip 3: Always ask before photographing protesters; it’s both respectful and safer.

It was the kind of scene where history and present politics blurred, and you couldn’t tell where the theatre ended and reality began.

Chor Bazaar: Where Memory Goes Shopping

From Crawford, it was a short hop to Chor Bazaar, and I rarely resisted.

The so-called “Thieves’ Market” was more about memory than theft—yesterday’s treasures waiting for tomorrow’s owners. I found typewriters without ribbons, gramophones without horns, and Bollywood posters from films no one remembers.

Travel Tip 3: Bargain politely—start low, keep smiling, and enjoy the ritual of negotiation.

Photography Tip 4: Wide lenses help capture the density of markets without needing to step back into traffic.

One dealer tried to sell me a Rolleiflex for a price that made me suspect it was either magical or stolen from a time traveler.

In Chor Bazaar, bargaining was performance art. You offered half, they countered with double, and you met somewhere that left both of you suspicious but smiling.

BKC: A City Within a City (With Better Air-Conditioning)

And then there was Bandra Kurla Complex—BKC—the corporate crown jewel.

After the sensory overload of Crawford or the humid poetry of Bandra’s alleys, BKC felt like stepping into another city. Roads were smooth, sidewalks existed, and the buildings looked imported from Singapore.

I came mostly for client video shoots—start-up interviews, co-working space promos, the occasional “culture piece” for a corporate blog. But I also wandered with my digital gear, curious about this curated reality.

Travel Tip 4: Always carry small change—many places won’t have change for large bills.

Photography Tip 5: In modern business districts, security may stop you—use a smaller camera or smartphone to avoid attention.

Every café here seemed designed for Instagram. Every lobby had a sculpture. Every meeting room had a “creative wall” covered in Post-its. It was Mumbai with a filter on.

Yet, from certain angles, the real city peeked through—a lone tea stall under a banyan tree, a delivery boy napping against marble, the distant hum of traffic beyond the towers.

The Sea as a Constant

No matter where I roamed—Bandra’s promenades, Crawford’s chaos, BKC’s glass bubble—the sea was always there.

At Bandra Fort, I often ended my days shooting long exposures of the Bandra–Worli Sea Link. In my frames, it looked permanent, but in truth, it was as vulnerable to time as the murals in Bandra or the balconies in Khotachiwadi.

Travel Tip 5: The Arabian Sea looks inviting—don’t swim. Currents are strong, and pollution levels are high.

Photography Tip 6: Use a tripod and long exposure at dusk to turn Mumbai’s restless sea into smooth, painterly tones.

The sea was Mumbai’s truest witness—watching every celebration, every demolition, every failed development plan. My cameras came and went. The tide stayed.

End of Year Two Reflections

By the close of my second year, I had hundreds of negatives and terabytes of footage. But more importantly, I had patterns:

• Bandra gave me reinvention.

• Crawford gave me resistance.

• BKC gave me a strange, curated calm.

And between them all ran a current of festival energy, architectural memory, and the city’s instinct to keep moving forward—even if it meant stepping over its own history.

Travel Tip 6: Carry a scarf or light shawl—it’s useful for sun, dust, and temple visits.

Photography Tip 7: Anticipate movement—watch people’s patterns for a minute before pressing the shutter.

I didn’t yet know how to assemble these fragments into a coherent story. But I knew the city wouldn’t wait for me to figure it out.

So I loaded fresh rolls of film, backed up my hard drives, and turned toward my final year—knowing it would take me deeper into places I’d only glanced at so far: Dharavi, Andheri, Kurla, and the long goodbye from Malabar Hill.

Travel Tip 7: Expect delays—traffic, weather, and processions will rearrange your plans.

Photography Tip 8: In crowds, shoot from the hip to avoid blocking others and to capture candid expressions.

Travel Tip 8: Keep a photocopy of your passport and visa separate from the originals.

Photography Tip 9: Use higher ISOs in dim interiors—grain is preferable to blur.

Travel Tip 9: Eat street food where there’s a crowd—high turnover means fresher food.

Photography Tip 10: Back up your memory cards or film rolls daily; nothing survives Mumbai’s monsoon if it gets wet.

Travel Tip 10: Let the city set the pace—Mumbai isn’t for control freaks, it’s for the adaptable.