From the vendors at the Dadar flower market, the gola seller and other nostalgic cityscapes, illustrators Rahul Patil and Rachita Vora are bringing alive scenes from Mumbai on Instagram. While Patil launched his series after noticing the colourful personalities of Koli women, Vora put a ‘Mumbaikar’ take on the iconic New Yorker cover
While the Koli women inspired Rahul Patil to start his series on quintessential city figures, Rachita Vora made a version of 'The New Yorker' magazine cover to depict scenes from Mumbai. Photo Courtesy: Rahul Patil/Rachita Vora
It took a visit to Bhaucha Dhakka, the ferry wharf in Mazgaon, for city-based illustrator Rahul Patil to rediscover and reignite his desire to make illustrations about Mumbai. It was something he hadn’t been able to do because of an artist’s eternal struggle to find an interesting theme. “I was inspired by the colourful Koli people selling fish at the ferry wharf,” he explains. “The idea to draw them brewed in my head for a while and I hunted down some photos as references to draw a Koli lady. It was the first illustration I created.”