Shalini Sehgal

Designed by William Emerson in 1865 on the orders of the first Municipal Commissioner of Bombay from 1865 to 1871, Sir Arthur Crawford, came alive The Crawford Market. It was one of the first closed markets that came up in India in 1869 and was donated to the city by Cowasji Jehangir. After Independence, the market was renamed as the Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Mandi after a Maharashtrian social reformer and was the hub for wholesale fruit and vegetable market, until March 1996 when the trade was relocated to New Bombay. The Market, built in Norman and Gothic architectural styles is situated just opposite the Mumbai Police headquarters and to north of Victoria Terminus railway station, with the busy J.J.flyover intersection on the west. Spread over 5500 square feet, the building has two major wings and a central Clock tower adorned with intricate Victorian motifs, a weathervane, tall multiple gateways and fountains. Structure built in coarse kurla stone holds up arches made with redstone ...

While the real estate schemes and scams hog the headlines, there are ancient pieces of architecture which only delight me. Sheer. No ends. And i call them Pieces not because they are Poignant and Permissive, both at the same time but because they are Punctuated: in the current times! They are dots which toil about their business to sustain themselves as quietly, quieter actually, as those hawkers, laborers, daily wagers, traders, cyclists and pedestrians do. They live, shimmer, tire, weather just as well. Sometimes scream and protest perhaps, but don't die. They get d e m o l i s h e d. What does it take for old Architecture to keep itself alive..while new emerges, trespasses, looms and decides to overrule?! If the city and its people have the power and resource to build new, the onus to Conserve the old also lies on them. without a doubt, without an excuse. 'My life is in ruins' is a conservationist's by-line. However preference for Decadence is no...

http://shalinisehgal.blogspot.com/2009/09/textile-mills-of-bombay-b-n-d-o-n-e-d.html

Brilliance from a generation apart: The most appropriate Obeisance. A book on the works of one of the most Prolific French Architect Roger Anger, authored by Arch.Anupama Kundoo, Presented by Doshi on 22nd Aug. '10.

'Architecture is inhabited sculpture.' -Constantin Brancusi

' Architecture arouses sentiments in man. The Architect's task therefore, is to make those sentiments more precise .' .........................ADOLF LOOS My challenge then, must be to spot that s entiment accur ately a nd translate it into a sing ular speaking image .

When i moved from practicing whatever little architecture i was practicing, to pick up the camera to capture Architecture...it was a Calling. Must have been. Because there is no other way to explain the rough road it was to become for long enough time to come. Thankfully when i made that shift i didn't know it was going to be so, for then i might have deterred. This morning's wake up beep brought forth a subdued realisation as i recalled that around this day five years ago was when i had inadvertently met my fate. Without sounding like a diva, let me tell, it isn't easy to endure a Singular subject for photography when it comes to making it one's sole occupation. Especially if it happens to be as niche and not-so-popular-yet as Architecture. The journey has been arduous but meaningful, fruitful and every penny worth my worry, every iota worth an aspiration. Tis hour, am overwhelmed. It has also rendered me the person who i am today, probably a more honest and us...

An early March Morning's Promise. And a tug. Today i need to expressly know what happens when a promise is broken. Or how hard is it to keep one? Because before today i never made none!

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