Charni Beach Bombay, Early 1980s.

Bombay, early 1980s.  This was taken from the Hanging Gardens, near the Tower of Silence on Malabar Hill, where the Parsi still left the bodies of the dead to be picked over by vultures.  

The beach is Charni Beach, and in the top right you can just see the famous Marine Drive. It curves behind the large beach in the foreground.

Marine Drive is now a high rise area.  Real estate prices along the esplanade are among the highest in India, and fourth in the world at US$2100 per square feet.


This is Marine Drive further round the beach:

Cafe Royal Bombay

India in the early 1980s was almost in a time warp. Although it was almost 40 years since the British left, much of the Raj remained. It was still just possible that former British colonial officers who decided to remain were still toiling away in some distance office.

The architecture remained the same, there was virtually no high rise in bombay at that time, and the traffic was very quiet.

I took this one afternoon from the Regal Cinema at Colaba, Bombay, just near the Wellington Fountain. Across the road stands the famous Bombay Cafe Royal, established in 1919.

The Cafe Royal still exists:  "Cafe Royal has been serving hungry patrons since 1919, which makes it one of Mumbai's oldest restaurants. Interestingly, the land on which Cafe Royal stands today was once used as a shed to park horse carriages for the Maharaja of Mourvi. What started back then as an Irani tea and samosa place gradually grew into one of the most famed fine dining restaurants with a live orchestra. Today Cafe Royal is once again bringing back the magic of the past and operates essentially as an all day cafe, specializing in Sizzlers and a variety of continental delicacies."

Bombay workshop, early 1980s

In the early 1980s I found myself in Bombay - when it was still called Bombay.  I would wander the streets taking photographs. Sadly most of them have gone, but I still have some.

Here an enterprising machinist has set up a little workshop in a tent at the aside of the road. He is actually on the pavement, and the ditch at the back is an open sewer/drain running though the tent.

Inside the tent was a very old electric powered lath You can see how he has made an illegal tap into the power pole.

The owner lived and worked in this tent, oblivious to passing traffic and people.