Map-crazy about Mumbai

Kos kos par badle paani chaar kos par bani This writer was recently reminded of the famous adage that we learnt and repeated till it was etched in our brain as a fifthgrade student in Hindi class The words that beautifully capture the multilingualism of the country can now be found in an illustrated form in Sagar Shindersquos new map series mdash Languages spoken in MMRSagar ShindeThe fourthyear engineering student from Vikhroli also known as the Map Nerd has been a Geography enthusiast since the day he was introduced to the subject in school ldquoYou show me any border and Irsquoll be able to tell you what city or country that is I have been obsessed with such data since I was 13 years old The histories and geographies of the world have always fascinated me I love to club these and present them as data in the form of mapsrdquo Shinde sharesA regionbased pie chart released by Shinde before illustrating his findings on mapsTwo years ago he began posting the maps he had created for his passion and was overwhelmed by the love he received ldquoThe first map I created was one which highlighted the poverty rate across regions in India While that one was based on a simple Wikimedia search and was created on Map Chart my research now only revolves around credible sites The primary source is the Census of India 2011 followed by reading up various news articles It is never just one source now I spend a lot of time reading data and illustrating them on maps or graphsrdquo he revealsShindersquos latest map series sheds light on the most spoken languages across cities in Mumbai Metropolitan RegionHis latest series begins as colourful pie charts collating data It features cities of Mumbai Metropolitan Region MMR namely VasaiVirar MiraBhayandar Mumbai Navi Mumbai KalyanDombivali Ulhasnagar Badlapur Ambernath Thane Bhiwandi and Panvel They cover Marathi Hindi Urdu Gujarati Malayalam and other languages This was later translated into maps which highlighted only the most spoken language across different regions of MMR ldquoNow I use Datawrapper for creating these maps All you need to do is write down the data in Excel or Google sheet and upload it on this website It will showcase the data as maps within minutes However countless modifications are required in terms of presentation and border accuracy I had to visit multiple municipal sites to reshape the borders of the municipalities in my maps so that they look close to how the regions are divided I also repaint and enhance the maps so that they are better presentedrdquo he elaboratesWhile Marathi is widely spoken across MMR Shinde notes that Mumbai city has a considerably large number of Hindi and Urdu speakersWhile Marathi is mostly spoken across these regions Shinde notes that Hindi and Urdu are also commonly spoken in Mumbai city while if one moves northward Gujarati becomes a prominent language ldquoMarathi is still widely spoken especially in regions like Ulhasnagar and Badlapurrdquo he revealsKalyanDombivli According to Census of India 2011 KalyanDombivli regions have a whopping 59537 Marathi speaking populationSome of Shindersquos most viewed maps were part of the series called Lok Sabha Elections Contesting Parties where according to regions across states in the country he broke down which party is contesting whom for the seat These informative maps always use vibrant eyecatching colours to demarcate borders and data ldquoNot everyone is fond of reading data to understand their surroundings politically geographically and historically Maps are an efficient way of learning for people across age groups The colours are attractive and often they carry a lot of information in the smallest numbers illustrated on them Irsquom working on releasing more such maps soonrdquo he signs offKalyanDombivli regions have a whopping 59537 Marathi speaking populationLog on to _map_nerd_Thane Nearly half of Thanes population speak Marathi