Graffiti vandals deface South Mumbai walls
Graffiti vandals deface South Mumbai walls
Armed with a spray can, a couple of urbane, educated locals are painting lewd, shocking, nasty and sometimes frivolous messages on public walls and building gates in South Mumbai. Though the defacement, "let's not call it art," says a resident, has been going on since two years now, nobody has been caught.
This is partly because of ennui, nobody wants to take up the case in earnest and partially because the scrawling and scribbling is being done in empty lanes at night and it is difficult, if not impossible, to nab the culprits.
At the Sophia College lane; Crude radical messages again near Sophia College; at Hughes Road
Complain, please
Pics/ Bipin Kokate and Hemal Ashar
Municipal commissioner J Phatak said curtly, when asked for a comment on the issue, "You need to talk to D ward." Mangal Prabhat Lodha, MLA, Malabar Hill, says, "Where exactly is this graffiti? People cannot disfigure public property like this. If residents have a grievance they can complain to the police or even approach the 'D' ward office at Nana Chowk."
The young Milind Deora, MP, South Mumbai constituency, too echoes Lodha's views saying, "I have not seen the graffiti myself, but I would encourage people to complain to the local police who will take cognizance of this. It is not a question of who does this kind of defacement, whether it is individuals or political parties or whoever. I would urge people to complain as it is vandalism."u00a0u00a0
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Morbid messages
The Sophia College lane winding up from Breach Candy (Bhulabhai Desai Road) and opening up to Peddar Road is densely pockmarked with graffiti.u00a0 It begins near the Shankar Mahal building in the lane. One graffiti sign says rather morbidly, 'Suicide I've already died'. Another sign just adjacent reads: '666, the number of the beast'. In modern popular culture, 666 has become one of the most widely recognised symbols for the anti-Christ or the devil.
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Explicit Sex
Another painted message near a bungalow that has a cluster of doctors' signboards in the lane reads: 'Manavi: Sex me Up'. A little further up near Sterling Apartments, a sign painted in black says boldly:u00a0 'I Love Vagina'.
Black or white
A cluster of graffiti near Sophia College, stands out disturbingly. One sign says: 'Suck Me off Black'. Next to this is a 'KKK' sign, which may stand for Ku Klux Klan.u00a0 The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) is an organisation in the United States whose purpose is to protect the rights of and further the interests of white Americans by violence and intimidation.
Just next to this message is another one that says, 'White Power'. Conical hats are spray painted next to the signs.
The KKK developed iconic white costumes consisting of robes, masks, and conical hats.
Says sister A Varghese, principal, Sophia college, "If the walls of the college itself had been defaced
with graffiti, we could have done something to stop it. But this is public property."
What can we do?
Says Vasant Dalal, part of the Sophia College and Vivek Singh Lane Advanced Locality Management (ALM), "These graffiti signs are disturbing. Yet, we can do little. This is being done at night, when security is negligible.
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The graffiti in fact, has been there since two years. Our ALM meetings too have become very few, moribund in fact.u00a0 Earlier we were a very active ALM, but we are unable to come together and see how to tackle this problem."u00a0
Swish spray
At the swish M L Dahanukar Marg, a prime, leafy residential area also known as Carmichael Road, one sign opposite Prabhu Kunj building (where Lata Mangeshkar lives) invokes violence saying 'Land of the gun 1970s'.
Parked cars partially hide one graffiti message that asks: 'Who needs sleep?' giving more credence to the theory that this is being done at night. There is a, 'You Suck' sign here too and yet another invoking the era of the Beatles, which says: 'Bring back the 60s'.
Vulgar to sedate
Says Anita Lawyer, who is on the Carmichael Road Citizens Committee, (CCC) "Earlier, it was more vulgar, now it is subdued. The 'f' word was seen in quite a few places. They appear to be urbane, educated youngsters who are doing this, mostly at night." Lawyer says some time ago, "The wall of the Birla house here (Kumarmangalam Birla's residence) had a giant graffiti simply called: 'The Wall' painted on it. It was painted over and obliterated. The Morarji bungalow had some filthy graffiti painted on it, which was painted over too." Lawyer says that these messages are an outlet for frustration of a society, where, "Innocent fun seems to have disappeared." A feeling of hopelessness and a don't-care attitude has stopped residents from actively pursuing the issue, so that the culprits could be nabbed.
Fags replace bags
Outside the National Sports Club of India (NSCI) at Haji Ali, the ubiquitous Bean Bag signs which have in fact been spray painted everywhere in Mumbai get a twist. A graffiti sign in red reads: 'BeanFags'.u00a0 Fags may refer to cigarettes but is also a derogatory term for gay men. Further north, at the Worli Sea face stretch, where monsoon waves rise up as if in deference to pricey real estate, the Benzer Terraces building has become victim to aerosol vandalism. Somebody has spray painted just below the Benzer Terraces: 'Sux'. At Babulnath (Hughes Road) opposite the New Era School, near a flight of steps leading up to Little Gibbs road, cars whiz past a graffiti sign: 'Which monkey did dat'? One can hear South Mumbai residents say: 'Well that is what we would really like to know.'
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