Mumbai Day 22: On Motorcycles
Motorcycles here are tools of necessity, not of image. Stripped of the advert-friendly machismo which pervades their North American appeal, motorcycles, along with scooters and other two-wheeled vehicles, are an unbelievably popular (and unrelentingly functional) mode of transport across much of India. Their narrow bodies can easily navigate dense city traffic, and they are relatively inexpensive to own and operate. Their capacity is often pushed to the limit: it is not uncommon to see two, three, or four people (especially parents with young children) seated on a single motorcycle as it weaves through a maze of auto-rickshaws, cars, and buses at the height of rush hour. Their abundance in a sea of traffic typifies the kinetic city of Mumbai, just one example of the unorthodox spectacles such an urbanism creates.
Captured here are portraits of two-wheelers and their passengers, frozen as they sped past my auto-rickshaw on the outskirts of Mumbai.