Cities
Reading Mumbai | Shilpa Gaurish Chandawarkar
LA 56 |
|
| Mumbai is a multi-faceted city with different shades of cultural, historic and natural layers that co-exist in perfect harmony with each other. Its character has changed over the very many years of its existence, influenced by the people it provides a home to, just as they have in turn shaped it into the city it is today. The city has been the perfect backdrop to an ever-changing culturally rich landscape and to the assortment of the various arts that one can see unfolding around every corner.
|
|
 |
|
As an introduction to an issue which focuses on the ecological and socio-cultural nuances of Mumbai's landscape, the intent of this piece is to derive frameworks that introduce the readers to the multiple aspects that constitute and define these attributes.
An intricate patchwork, Mumbai's geography is the result of the fabric of seven separate islands woven tightly together with threads of rivers, lakes, hills, creeks and estuaries interlaced with mangroves, paddy fields and trees, further embellished with built forms signifying different slices of the city's native communities and imprints of its colonizers. An elaborate network of roads, running parallel to the steady rail infrastructure, adds a layer of patterns to this fabric.
Surrounded by the seas and defined by the landforms, Mumbai, the 'maximum city'-a melting pot of cultures, attitudes, histories, and geographies-is a constant, complex conversation between the space and its people, built heritage, roads and vehicles, books and art and films and so on. This is the city of dreams for a country that houses a population of over a billion people, with its tangible chaos and intangible spirit.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
