As I mentioned previously, this year I will be posting posts about Mumbai, my childhood, and my grandparents under Mumbai Memories. So to kick off this series, here are some of my favourite photos of the city of my birth, Mumbai.

This photo was taken in 2022 and shows Mumbai around 2-2:30 am. During this trip, I flew to Mumbai to move my parents to the retirement community in Bangalore they currently are in. Because of COVID, I could only use a Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) flight. This meant that I could not take a direct flight from Bangalore back to Singapore. So I flew back to Mumbai and then took a VTL flight back to Singapore. This was my first trip back home after the two-plus years of the pandemic.

The same image, but during the day! This was taken last year in 2023 when I went back to India to drop my parents back home after they spent a couple of months with us in Singapore. Because of my father’s condition, this was probably their last international flight. I flew to Mumbai on a day trip to take care of some bank business. This was on my flight back to Bangalore.

A photo again from my 2022 trip. This was taken during my morning walk on our building’s terrace. I had the entire terrace to myself since I used to walk around 5:30 am. I loved how the light played with the trees and the scenery and created this ethereal photo.

This photo is from 2019 on a trip to Elephanta Caves. I clicked this just as the boat left Gateway of India. The Gateway itself was closed due to some Navy ceremonies, and I couldn’t take any photos of this iconic structure. An arch-monument, the Gateway of India was completed in 1924 to commemorate the landing of George V for his coronation as the Emperor of India in December 1911, the first British monarch to visit India.

This last photo is again from the 2022 trip and from my building terrace. I used to enjoy the sunrises when I walked there, and the colours were simply amazing. I feel this photo looks like a painting, with the clouds creating illusions of peaks.

I have more photos coming up from my recent trip, so look out for them.