IMAGES: The spirit of Mumbai captured on camera

Diti Kotecha lives and works in Mumbai. Armed with a camera, she shoots at sight. Kotecha shared with us some of the pictures she shot of the city she loves.

It is a common sight to see vendors at a traffic signal in Mumbai. Books, balloons, car accessories are sold all year round and umbrellas, ganesha idols, santa caps, etc. are sold seasonally. It's quite a shopping experience!

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Anyone who lives in Mumbai feels a sense of nostalgia about its numerous family-run Irani cafes because they have always been there and they have never ever changed. As soon as you enter in one it's like you are transported back in time...; the circular darkwood chairs, old table fans, marble tables, checkered tablecloths, brun maska, kheema pao and the famous milky chai... 

The best way to get a cheap haircut anywhere in India! Armed with a pair of scissors and a plastic comb. These guys are super quick, extremely trendy and talented and have loyal and repeated customers!

Currently spread across the city of Mumbai, with lovely people painting kilometers and kilometers of walls funded by the government and spreading rapidly to other cities as well, The Wall Project has added life, colour and texture to all the people involved.

The first march for freedom organised by Mumbai's queer community was attended by homosexuals, lesbians, hi-res, transponders and heterosexuals alike.

In Mumbai, Gokulashtami (the birth of Lord Krishna) is celebrated on almost every narrow bylane and building society with great boisterous fanfare, buckets or water splashed down by onlookers from their balconies and loud music from speakers installed for the occasion.

Mumbai's biggest wholesale flower market in Dadar that opens before dawn and disappears well before working hours caters to the entire city's need be it for florists, daily domestic prayer, occasions like birthdays and weddings and festivals that are so frequent here.

Mumbai's very own laundry Dhobi Ghat which starts functioning well before sunrise, with the sight of clothes lined in organised rows, the smell of murky washing soap and the sound of the clothes being violently 'thumped' against the flogging stone.

Hordes of people (and Ganeshas of all kinds and sizes!) flock towards Chowpatty Beach in Mumbai, the most prominent spot for the idol immersions during Chaturthi.

Farooq Ansari is one of the highest sellers of Bean Bags in the city of Mumbai because of his smart temporary yet omnipresent advertising technique!

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Diti blogs at ditikotecha.blogspot.com