And that's why the effort that Simran Arora has taken to create a black-and-white one that depicts the mills of Byculla is such a wonderful idea
Mapping our mills
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We are living in a time when physical maps are starting to lose all practical use. All we have to do is flip out our phone and log on to an online one to find our way. There is even a theory that sometime in the future, a hologram will emanate from our phones when we are searching for a location, placing us virtually in the middle of the place we want to be. That day is still far away, of course. But the point remains that paper maps are almost out of the window. And that's why the effort that Simran Arora has taken to create a black-and-white one that depicts the mills of Byculla is such a wonderful idea.
The seeds of the project were sown when the 24-year-old was still studying architecture at a city college. Arora chose to study the mill areas of the city since her undergraduate thesis was based on the industrial history of Mumbai. And once she had submitted it, she thought to herself, "Why not start a blog where I sketch the areas I have been to?"
That gave birth to the map that includes locations such as United Mills, Digvijay Mills and New City of Bombay Mill, which are in the heart of Mumbai's erstwhile textile hub. Arora says, "I started working on it a year ago and it took time because I wasn't sure about how elaborate I wanted it to be. I took lots of photos of the area to understand what the chawls look like right now and get a feel of the place. I then logged on to Google Maps to get the roads correct on the map."
Arora adds that she plans to make a similar series on other Mumbai neighbourhoods before monetising the project, adding that she isn't sure when that will be. Either way, given the talent she's displayed with her inaugural effort, we will wait with bated breath for the day she is done.
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