flyover walk home

after being dropped off on the highway by mukul, i decided to walk back home instead of hopping into a rickshaw. it’s a sweltering summer sunday evening with a full moon hanging low, and it was the time of day that most of the guys who hang around in wolf packs on the parapet had left for their dinners with their families. instead, older people out on their evening walks had me for company, and truck drivers chatting on the half completed roads.

in borivili east parallel to the highway is a strange unmapped (at least by me) part of the city running parallel to the dahisar river. in between rather spooky quiet roads and some decrepit apartment buildings from the 60s and 70s suddenly from the flyover i could see older chawls and large mansions. some single family homes with front, side and back yards sit in complete darkness. and then in the middle of it all the smell of buffaloes from the tabelas. from the flyover these areas are plunged in darkness and seem desolate. it seems like a piece of small town in gujarat had suddenly found its way into bombay. further down the road is the crematorium with its factory like shed and the chimney that rises up from the piss yellow halogen light into the night sky.

i don’t know whether you guys know this flyover. it is quite an experience, really. it was built partially over the dahisar river to avoid the demolition of the slums. it twists and turns along with the water until it suddenly zooms over the railway line before landing on s v road. there is a strange community space formed below the flyover for the slum. a temple lies in the crook of the arm of a ramp and the railing and divider become bedrooms.