Sassoon Dock : 142 Year old dock which got transformed in to art space

INTRODUCTION
Sassoon Dock which is a 142 year old dock and one of the oldest fish market in the city, recently in November it got an art makeover by more than 30 artist around the world which includes Graffiti, Visual, Using waste to create different kinds of craft.
Out here in Sassoon dock you will find all kinds of fish at wholesale prices,  dock gained popularity during industrial revolution times.

Sassoon dock art project, which is free to view and is opened to the public until December 30th 2017, so make sure y'all give a visit.The place is opened from 12 to 10 pm, from Thursday to Sunday so that it don't disturb the fish market auction early morning.The organizers are trying to make exhibition as inclusive as possible without any profit motto. 

Journey
It was 14th December 2017, me and Anurag boarded metro from azad nagar during afternoon and halted at andheri station, then boarded Churchgate fast train, after arriving at churchgate we took taxi till Sassoon dock which costed us 50 Rs.As soon as we entered Sassoon dock i got the positive vibe after looking at the surrounding that this place is mecca for photographers.
Being a hip hop fan i came to know later on that on 21st November 2017 there was a hip hop gathering to make this event more successful which i missed it.

First thing i noticed when i entered the dock colony was colorful graffiti on the wall with notice on it - ''Keep Sassoon  dock clean''.

Next thing i noticed was local men sitting on the fish carrier, he looked happy after looking at all the Mumbaikar's and foreigners visiting this place, to be honest this place was barely noticed by anyone in the past except content writer and photographers.

Later on i saw the portrait of  people who were kolis of none other than Sassoon dock.
Everybody deserve to be on the wall not just politicians and Celebrity since we are dependent on unorganized sector which accounts for 86% of the Indian population which is ignored by all the government parties.

SASSOON DOCK PROJECT
Once you enter the Sassoon dock project, first thing you will be told to do is normal registration which will take around few seconds. for your kind information cameras are allowed without any charge on it.

 Visual of Sassoon dock project  

1) The Idea of Smell

First thing you will notice in this project is the concept of 'idea of smell' which is correlated with memory, by hanif qureshi prepared by nylon net with hundred of words flattering around like aroma of Mom's cooking, Dry leaf that reminds you of your childhood, Hash smell walking down the block. Fresh clothes in the cupboard,Strong smell of petrol pump or stinginess of dung or sewage.Personally this masterpiece art remind me of some matrix touch screen technology.

As soon as you walked down the Next room you will notice colorful clothes hanging on the pole  giving that abstract look giving a subtle confusion between 2D Painting and 3D Objects.

2).Plastic ocean 

Plastic ocean was created by Singaporean artist Tan Zi Xi after she visited dharavi ''Asia largest slum'' from where the 400 kg of recycled plastic was collected.The room is full of bottle, toys and plastic with mirror installed on four side along with blue light reflecting the feeling how we are trapped inside the ocean created by us throwing non-biodegradable waste.Plastic was my favorite among all the Sassoon dock art.

3) Neon walls

After this you step in to the room full of neon light and color, perfect reflection of 21st century, there is Boombox,T.V,Newspaper and magazine in the room, the art was created by Akash Raj halankar  who describes the art as '' what goes up must comes down'' which implies about corny capitalism that goes around the country, all we see is CSR activities by firms but in reality they do more harm to the nature than benefits which stays in disguise.

4) Livil

Oliver hozil works with stencil creating a gap on paper with blue and pink UV light passing through it.The art shows Kolis community working together and worshiping the sea which is a livelihood for them.

5) Overflow

Indian artist Shilo Shiv Suleman uses organza, fiber glass and lines from her own poetry to create an immersive experience for the spectator, there are love poems flowing all over the Room.
If any poet is good at deciphering them, this right here is the perfect room for him or her with sunlight passing through the window giving that golden touch to the art.

6) Wall potrait

Australian artist Guido van Helten’s  draws a monochromatic portraits of three local women on the walls of the warehouse that will surely leave you warm with light color which is used in painting the murals clearly reflecting the innocence in the eyes of the three women.It also shows that how women of early era lived a basic life behind four walls, spending most of her life for husband and children, and nothing beyond that. 

  

7) Dead fish

Arthat collective 'Dead fish' is a gigantic skeleton of a fish hanging from the ceiling, if u look at the art closely it reflects how the skyline of Mumbai has changed from sea link to metro to high rise building. I still remember walking down the road for 3-4 kilometers late at night back in 2002 - 2003, i used to feel so refreshed, now it has been jam packed from top to bottom, light has taken over, 'noises and pollution all around the places. People are lucky enough if they live in the Mumbai Pre 2005 era.

8)The Ugly truth

The ‘Ugly Truth’, by Sajid Wajid Sheikh, He spent days with the rag pickers in Turbhe, the dumping yard in navi mumbai and came away with random trinkets — plastic containers, chipped ceramic, a television — and brought back what you thought was gone forever.The idea is to tell viewers just because the garbage has been disposed does't necessarily means it is disappeared.

Personally, artwork reminded me of saw movie. people who have seen that movie will know what i mean 

  
9) Romantic Bathroom

This will give you that red light area feel in Indonesia, with red shade on the upper structure, leaves and  rose petal around the bathroom with bulb hanging on the ceiling illuminating the space.

There were more art which i would have included on my blog however it is difficult to cover everything, but make sure you visit the top of the building, the view of Sassoon dock you get from there is damn beautiful.The atmosphere on the terrace was so chilling, with breeze going on every now and then.

Entrance to terrace

View from terrace

 After all this we headed down, just beside the exit you will notice building covered in graffiti, it reminded me of 5pointz in newyork place famous for hip-hop graffiti. It was very eye pleasing, the abstract designed was done by 'Do and khatra'.

Then we headed home, to sum up this project, i would say these is one of the beautiful thing i have ever seen in Mumbai that too for free. Artwork was too strong filled with deep messages, maybe i must have missed the metaphor and deep interpretation.
As a listener of rap music there are single lines which needs a whole paragraph explanation so i do understand there is more to these art, which maybe i am missing what these artist were trying to convey so give a visit by yourself. 

Graffitti at IIT Bombay

IIT  Bombay Marathon which was held on 26th November 2017, the only time outsider get to enter the IIT bombay campus without any reference however marathon needs to be Pre-registered online.

During our marathon i enjoyed the view of the campus, it was lush green and even the hills which is connected to SGNP can be spotted at some point however it was impossible for me to snap the pics at that time.
I mean it is one of the dream campus for the college student like me - there is a Flora,Fauna, Sameer hills for a short trek, court and ground well maintained for every sports - you name it, powai pond nearby and vihar lake however it is unauthorized but can be reached through risky route.

There are many good night time stories that Mumbai IITians  share online, one of them is of leopard sighting, some of them lucky one have sighted leopard during night time specially students who get the urge of smoking cigarette and drinking coffee around 1am - 2am while taking a walk in the campus.

After finishing the marathon, we went directly to the small stadium, vibe around the campus was so energetic that we started dancing along with other marathon runners copying the steps instructed by instructor on the stage.After that we eat Upma provided by them, during that time i saw some girls training on the ground, i mean they were damn athletic which left my jaw drop.

Best thing about the campus was graffiti which is illegal in most part of the world but out here it is different, these people appreciate every single work of art no matter what. The reason graffiti was started back in the days was to deliver message, specially it was done during night time as it was considered outlaw and the artist who did it remained underground.

The most Highlighted part about the above graffiti is heisenberg fictional character featured in Breaking bad serial, the chemistry teacher who along with his student cook Meth and get involved in selling Meth, firstly it is B2C then B2B.

The most highlighted part about the above graffiti was Doraemon smoking cigarette and looking sick which i think was a metaphor message and Pikachu with black shades on reflecting Thug life persona.

I loved the font style of above graffiti, the one they mostly draw on skateboard.

Above graffiti shows baboons and white tiger in a artistic way.

Click on the above image to read what's written - How was your viva? , I hate canteen food, Cruel world with No Job, 5KT's Bro.This are the stuffs students discuss among's them, which is reflected through graffiti.'these kind of graffiti take all your stress away when you look at them. it brings a smile on your face even though i do understand its wrong. Shout out to IIT bombay for allowing students to express their thought.

Laira is a fictional Cartoon character.

Soni, Snehal, Priya, Me and Ajay

 After this we got out of the campus and hopped back to powai lake region to chill, out here we encountered some streets kids playing games.

They needed some money to eat so we gave them little money to eat, the small kid had a smile on his face constantly.After all this we went back to Our home.It was a tiring day but worth it.

Gorakhgad fort:Adrenaline rush experience

Introduction
Gorakhgad fort is like 51 km from kalyan station.I would rate this trek Medium to Hard but rating is not an fair indicator personally i believe,  since it differs from person to person, Season to season, also depends on psychology and group of the people you are trekking with. It stands at 2130 ft high above sea level.I would highly recommend Amateur trekkers to not to try and do Solo trek out here.

Journey
I was planning this trek from couple weeks ago however it was successful on 26th December 2016 which was Monday, so Me, Mandar, Aakash and Akshay meet near Azad nagar metro station and boarded metro at 6:35 am which costed us 60 Rs return ticket per person.
After reaching Ghatkopar we boarded local train to kalyan at 7:14 am which costed us 20 Rs Return Ticket.Once we reached Kalyan we headed towards kalyan ST bus depot waiting for the Murbad Bus, in that mean time we eat Medu Vada, poha and Purchased maaza for our trek.Once the bus arrived, we boarded it which costed us 30 Rs per person.
Once we reached Murbad we took the Sharing Tum Tum which costed us 15 Rs Per person, he took us to one of the jeep stop from there we took sharing Jeep to Dahiri which is a base Village of Gorakhgad. While these 3 of my friend who were enjoying the journey as they have no idea about the structure of the mountain, i was little tensed as i have seen some of the gorakhgad pics on the internet, the trek looked scary. On the way one can see Gorakhgad mountain from the jeep. Now what shocked me was that there were around 16 people inside the jeep and 5 people hanging outside the jeep, this had my eyes wide open.

Once we reached dahiri we went to one of the Bania aka grocery shop, at there we purchased biscuits and water bottle as there are no shops on the trek. At bania shop we were told to write names and mobile Number of ours on the register book to which we asked question to them - why? then we got to know that one year ago four of the boys who came for a trek and only 3 survived, after investigation it was found out that those 3 boys murdered the 4th boy, so police has given an order to bania man to register every name of the trekker whoever hop out here for a trek.After hearing this Me, Aakash and akshay smirked and looked at mandar telling him ''Bro this time that 4th boy could be you'', to which mandar gave an angry look to Us.

Gorakhgad(Left one),Machindragad(Pinnacle one), Siddhagad(Behind pinnacle one)

Gorakhgad

I had divided the post in to three parts so that it would be easy for y'all to plan and strategies the trek in advance and also how you approach each part.

First part of the trek 

Take that right trail from the temple heading upwards

Ascent of the trek at the start is quite easy, it goes from the right trail near the temple, perfectly my kind of trail going through bushes.Beside temple there is a veranda which can help you sleep at night in case if you are stuck or want to start trek early in the morning.

One thing about this trek is that - there is a very less chances of you losing the trail.In between we took a rest as you get tired due to sunlight popping every now and then, however you will get saved by dense forest at least at the start of the trek.After 45 minute or So we reached one of the temple where there is a shiv ling and also one of the best place to get shadow.

Second part of the trek 
Now the trek gets little tricky as you ascent, there is a a tree nearby, so i would suggest you take a rest and energized yourself by drinking and eating snacks.

We had a smile on our face but it wasn't going to last forever.Now we came to the point where the mountain was clearly exposed to the sunlight.Real trek begins now

Sunlight exposed area

The orange part y'all see above on top of the mountain which is a door shaped that's where we headed, that's the entrance.By the time i reached at the entrance i was fully drained so i took some rest standing there which was providing me enough shadow.

Break at entrance(Orange color)

Now we came to the point where our eyes was burning due to exposure of sunlight and it gave us headache.From here one can easily view machindragad who is a teacher of gorakhgad even though it looks small compare to gorakhgad but it is not trek-able . 
Problem is not only the heat but you have to stay focused.My palms are soft compare to my other friends so it was burning every now and then while i was trying to make a grip so i took the handkerchief and i wrapped it around my palm which was helpful, make sure you also got cap.

Machindragad

Now we came to the point where Cave was visible, most importantly there was no heat.So we sat down and eat fruits.I can't describe how relief i was specially after i smelled orange, it took all my pain away.While eating fruits we saw two monks descending, these monks meditate in the caves, drink water from the tank and pray on the summit of the gorakhgad where there is a temple, these people warned us about the trek further, it gets tricky and complex but we came too far to go away and continued with our trek.On the way mandar, Akshay and aakash drank water from the tank except me, akshay was surprised after looking at all these things i mean he was on his 3rd trek at this time so it was obvious.

Third Part of the trek

Caves

Good news was that there was no heat around here, one need to walk straight from the tank as you can see in those above pic to get across the mountain.Out there me and akshay stumbled somehow we managed our balance, one mistake and you will go straight down the valley, one advice i can give you is that get in the sitting mode and drag your bump slowly all the way to the left.
After getting across you will encounter big rock, through team effort we managed to climb that obstacle. People with heavy weight can have a problem climbing this part.

I would say Gorakhgad is more a complex version of Harihar fort and kalavantin fort.Further there is more 80 degree of inclined rock cut steps, the trek is not for people suffering from acrophobhics and also avoid heavy bags unlike harihar it does not have the holes for the finger to make a grip at some point.

Rock Cut steps

Finally we reached the top of gorakhgad , the view of siddhagad and ghats around was astonishing, there is also  a shiv temple on the top.Out here we rested and did a little bit of photo session.Just like kalavantin there is a limited space on the top.

Me looking at siddhagad

Shiv Temple

Me, Akshay, Mandar and Aakash

We started our descend around 3:45 pm, while descending i stretched my arms and legs too much.In that process my spinal cord was little hurt.What surprised me was on that specific day there was no group trekking but us.

Descending

We were at the dahiri village till 5:05 pm ,we drank mazaa ,after waiting for some minute we boarded the sharing jeep which costed us 35 Rs per person till murbad village, from there ST bus till Kalyan station which costed us 30 Rs per person then the same means of transport as we used while coming.I was home till 9 Pm.

Total Cost
Travelling cost - 175 Rs per person
Snacks and breakfast cost  - 60 Rs per person