the METRO square, or the Dhobi Talao

photograph by Abhijeet Tamhane. please attribute in case you use it for ANY purpose.
METRO CINEMA THEATRE, an epitome of the Art-deco buildings in Mumbai, awaits a re-opening scheduled in early 2006. The Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai has planned a pedestrian sub-way in the square that, some 100 years back, was a lake! The lake was popularly known as WASHERMEN's LAKE, or DHOBI TALAW. The first massive repairs to the lake were done by Sir Framjee Cowasjee. Now the tables have turned, and the place will get yet another facelift. The square is named after Vasudev Balwant Phadke, the first freedom fighter of Maharashtra against the British.

Flora Fountain and Hutatma Chowk, Mumbai

picture by Abhijeet Tamhane. please attribute if you are using it for any purpose.
A Mumbai cab takes a turn at the city's best-known square (well, hexagon in this case) : the place has two monuments, a monument to Maharashtra's peasant and industrial worker- that dates back to Marathi-speaking peoples' struggle for provincehood that ended successfully in the year 1960. During the struggle, 105 protestors lost their lives and the twin-statue is a tribute to them. At the back, the Flora Fountain, built in 1969 to honour Sir Bartle Frier, the outgoing British Governor of the colonial Bombay. The statue