An oasis stashed away: Five Gardens

It's amazing how a row of buildings stacked up by the jam-packed Ambedkar Road at Dadar-Matunga nearly hide ribbon-like smooth roads behind them. If the 'main road' gags and chokes with traffic every day, the road that runs parallel to it runs free like a little girl.... A girl who runs straight into a park, and oh! She has five of them to choose from! The satiny strip, or Adenwala Road, that shoots off as a ray of the Kings' Circle garden, ends at Dadar Parsi Colony, further breaking into little stream-like paths that encircle the famed Five Gardens. Barely a mile away from the main road now, the lush green grass that spread in front of me almost felt as though it was all untrue. It took me some walking around, some looking up at the sky through the branches of rain trees and some comforting chirps from birds to tell myself that it was indeed a succour of sorts for my parched eyes.

Eponymously named, Five Gardens has a smaller central garden surrounded by four large gardens. Each of them looks vastly different from the other. I was walking in around this particular one because I reached here first, and it was the greenest of the rest. Also, better maintained, almost like a golf course. Five Gardens is one of the fortunate treasure houses of rain trees which are approximately over 50 years old! While they make for a wonderful home to birds and squirrels, they also make great resting places for Fox bats. Look around at the tops of these trees if you happen to pass by - they look like little black plastic bags hung on high branches. This picture is a personal favourite for the star light; almost in a voice-from-the-skies manner! The Dadar Parsi Colony has been famous for buildings, small 'n' cute in build, typical of those owned by the gentle Parsis. Of late, though, old constructions have been demolished to give way to high-rises which look monstrous in comparison to the others around. Sooner or later, urban demands will have had swallowed them too. But they all seem to have a common advantage, that of a view to kill for! I had to stand at the mouth of Adenwala Road for this shot, right in the middle at that. It is almost reminiscent of a dense forest, the road, what with the lush arch that is formed by the rain trees on either side. Like I said, the quiet that this road offers is in contrast to the hustle-bustle of the main road that it meets at its other end. The rock layout beneath a large tree reminded me of the roads in Rome. If nothing, they make for splendid subjects for my newly acquired ultra-wide angle lens! Of the five, two gardens serve as parks - while one is a flat ground for some cricket, the other has park equipment for children... swings, slides, a sand pit, the works. The cricket ground even has an open gym of sorts; you will often find the odd muscleman doing his pull-ups and the like. A secluded area, it is also ideal for couples to sneak in a few private moments; not an excellent idea anymore since moral police can be a major cause of concern. Students from nearby colleges have their fix of chaat and gola, while it makes for an ideal expanse for trainers to give their canines a good run.  Morning walks, evening jogs, laughter clubs, poetry societies or a photographer... we'll always have Five Gardens.

Just another dawn for Flora Fountain

Great architectural works have always been one of my favourite subjects to shoot. It is not just the work itself, but the people who have built it, the thought that has gone into its making and its impact on the environment around it that I find just as fascinating. I have my roots in South Bombay, and walking out of the overpowering VT Station (now CST) or running about on the area by the Gateway of India make up for images from my childhood. As a kid, these places were just that – functional places for us to use, or as ornaments for us to gape at with awe. We took them for granted then, and in a way, we still do. I hit South Bombay one morning, this time to spend some time to capture Flora Fountain, a work of art, almost negligible in its purpose. But stunning all the same.

My knowledge of Flora Fountain as an architectural piece is straight out of Wikipedia. However, it pains me to see this splendid  work of art as something that has been crying for help for years now, almost as though Flora, the Goddess of Spring has been jailed by the coat of white oil paint.

What Flora (am I permitted to take this liberty?) does need is perhaps some regular scrubbing and oodles of TLC, and she will do just fine. If only I were allowed to simply roll my trousers up and step into the so-called pool around it, I would. Is anybody listening?

I find it amusing (and depressing too) that we are yet to build anything just as striking in the post-Independence, modern India. Indeed, we have been too busy to decorate our buildings with motifs and embellish them with anything remotely pretty, let alone create something like Fountain. The least we could do is maintain what we got so easily.

Despite having silently borne the effects of insensitive handling by the changing powers-that-be, the attractiveness of the structure still manages to hold attention. The grime has not dulled the beauty of the mythological figures that surround Goddess Flora perched right at the top, and the lions at the bottom of the arches look just as ferocious as real ones do. Oh they would, wouldn't they? They are keepers of a woman so beautiful... so what if she has been relegated to a memory of an era gone by?

Morning glory: Dadar Phool Market

There is a method in the madness. And I can only say that now, after I made my much awaited visit to the flower market in Dadar. I did know that the crowds that make up for the buyer-seller community belie the fact that the sun is yet to wake up. What I didn't know was that by the time I got to the place, which was around 6 in the morning, much of the 'maal' or goods had already been sold out! Nonetheless, I was witness to the frenzy that is Dadar Phool Market at dawn, nestled in a noisy, narrow alley by a railway station in Central Mumbai. Here are some of my experiences in pictures.

Competitors standing at whispering distance from one another, showing off their best garlands. These garlands are woven with cotton thread, and use 'mogra' or jasmine and the firecracker flower or 'aaboli', along with fragrant leaves to add colour. This style of garland weaving is commonly found in South India, and is traditionally used by South Indian temples and homes in Mumbai.

A quick tea break between shouting matches for this seller... nothing like a strong cup of tea or 'kadak chai' to wake up the best of us! She was selling the Yellow Indian Marigold or 'shewanti', a flower popular for its bright hue. The shewanti is used to weave larger garlands, and can be bought by the kilo for a relatively low price as compared to the other flowers.  

This boy undoubtedly made my day - and quite early in the day at that! He had a basket full of purple daisies on sale, just like any other of his vendor friends... but what set him apart was his smile. A warm, calm smile that hid any traces of a childhood lost in labour. We asked him if he went to school, and he replied in the positive. Win!       

Cords that bind. This seller is probably the most sought-after guy - he is the only one who sells threads (used to weave garlands) to nearly the entire market! Seen in the foreground are flowers that set the frame afire... yellow and orange marigold.   

Apart from 'loose' flowers and garlands, shredded flowers or petals are also in high demand. These come a little cheaper than the flowers themselves; in fact, rose petals get sold out the most thanks to their uses in cooking, medicine and so on. Shredded marigold flowers come next, which are used to make flower rangolis or as (budget) offerings in temples.    

I couldn't resist the lure of these daisies, and finally bought myself a dozen. But not without haggling with the vendor.... I could not have broken the tradition of bargaining for a few rupees before the buyer and seller settle down for a price that makes them both smile. Much like the goods of their trade.