Artist Chittaprosad’s 1950s depiction of a labour camp speaks to Mumbai’s fast-changing present
· Scroll
Photographic and artistic representations of Bombay’s pasts tend to acquire a patina of nostalgia for times when things were seemingly different from the present – when streets were clean and uncrowded, or when natural features such as beaches could be enjoyed at leisure and in comfort. Such representations had already acquired a nostalgic aura by the 1990s, when the city’s population had grown dramatically, and many of the grand buildings in areas like Flora Fountain had fallen into a state of disrepair.
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The transformation of the city through ‘redevelopment’ over the last twenty-five years has accelerated change to an extent where even the cityscapes of the 1990s seem impossibly distant. Houses have become buildings, which, in turn, have become towers. Flyovers, sealinks, freeways, monorail, coastal roads, bridges to the mainland and now the underground metro have completely transformed both the appearance of the city as well as the experience of navigating it.
Such is the pace of change that a particular vista of the city cannot be guaranteed even over the short cycle of a real estate sale. Brokers now routinely issue disclaimers disavowing the continuity of the view from the flat that a potential buyer might have between initial viewing and completion of...