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