My Hood

These are photographs of the area around our apartment building in Bandra, a suburb that was founded by the Portuguese in the 17th century. In one of the pictures, Misha is sitting on the pathetic ruins of what used to be the Portuguese Bandra fort. They lost out to the British soon after moving into this area, but kept Goa until the 1960s.

The area is historically Catholic, and the neighborhood we're living in is called Mount Mary Hill, after the (originally) 17th-century Basilica of Mount Mary standing at the top of it (pictured).

Since we're right by the water, in the evening, the area is filled with families and couples who come from nearby areas to stroll by the ocean and look at the sunset. Local slum dwellers sell chai, grilled corn and other snacks (one of these salespeople can be seen in the picture.)

There is a kind of park, an amphitheater which we presume hosts cultural performances, and flocks of predatory Hitchcock-type ravens that can, in fact, be seen all over Mumbai, greedily grasping anything from dead mice to metal sticks.

The bridge in the bottom photos is a recent multimillion urban project that has made the life of a lot of commuters, including Misha, easier since it was built half a year ago--called the Sea Link, this very scenic route connects the suburbs with the center of Mumbai and costs around $2 to use both ways; it's only affordable for the business crowd and hence usually quite empty. In recent days, Misha reports that it's also been getting very flooded with the onset of heavy monsoon rains (more on which later)--somewhat surprising for a bridge, but, hey, we're in India.