A new kind of street smart

From Kolkata to Pune and Bhopal, locals revel in discovering new spots,and sharing their city’s secrets

Rachel Lopez

Gopal MS (@MumbaiPaused on Instagram) likes to take the long way to anywhere. If he has to step out for a meeting, he’ll leave the office early. That way, he reaches his destination in time to amble around, check out a new neighbourhood, and look twice at areas that many of us don’t look at even once.

He photographs what he sees: everyday folk, hilarious graffiti, patterns in unlikely places, ruins, signs of new money and old habits. Collectively his work is a unique record of a Mumbai from the ground up, ever changing and never changing.

“Mumbai may seem like one city, but when you start to look closely, you realise it’s multiple cities in one, a complexity that is the mark of any great city,” says Gopal, 47, an advertising executive.

In Delhi, HT’s own Mayank Austen Soofi (@TheDelhiwalla on Instagram) captures everyday life, culture, change and people in books, on social media and in a column in the Delhi edition of this newspaper. About a dozen others in both Mumbai and Delhi focus on their respective city’s heritage structures, shrines, trees, markets and street foods.

In cities all over India, enthusiasts like Gopal and Soofi are cropping up and taking note of the same kinds of complexity and change. They’re on Instagram fighting to save old neighbourhoods, organising urbanheritage tours to re-introduce towns to their residents and consulting with local administrators on how to best preserve each area’s character.