• Issue
  • Apr 30, 2024

Dispatch: Mumbai: Boom Bubble

Installation view of RITHIKA PANDEY’s "Birth of Forgiveness," 2023, nine acrylic on canvas paintings at Chemould CoLab, Mumbai. Courtesy Chemould CoLab.

In Mumbai, growth is the only constant. Along with an expressway being built across the entire coast and reclaimed land being dug up for an ever-delayed metro project, there are so many ongoing construction sites in the financial capital that it periodically ranks as having some of the most polluted air in the world. Those who can afford it retreat into air-conditioned, purified bubbles, overlooking a distant view of the gnawing haze.