Built on reclaimed land in 1875, Sassoon Dock is the oldest dock of Bombay, located in Colaba. Its fishing market attached is one of Maximum City's largest. Hitesh Harisinghani/Rediff.com strolls through.
Colourful graffiti is the result of an urban art fest in 2017 that opened up the area and its walls to artists, whose work gave the place a whole new mood.
The three-spot swimming crab is much in demand for curries or even barbecuing.
Sir Albert Abdulla David Sassoon, prominent Jewish merchant, was the mastermind behind Western India's first wet dock, allowing trawlers to dock regardless of the tide. Catch some say has gone down, but about 1,000 fishing boats pull in here, collectively bringing in an estimated 48,000 tonnes of seafood annually.
A crate full of squid or makli, which is made locally into Squid Sukka or else a makli masala dish.
A rare catch in these parts is the leopard whipray, an endangered species, prized for its meat.
Repair work on fishing nets in progress. The dock provides work to an estimated 150,000 people, many/most of them Kolis, the local fishing community.
Shrimp, squid and cuttlefish up for sale. Cuttlefish finds its way into curries.
Catch is still transported in leaky tokdis, that attract flocks of crows, flying overhead, following, when being transported by taxi. More newfanged plastic baskets, crafted from recycled oil containers and jerry cans, are also used, like the ones that hang on the handlebars of the boy's bicycle.
Women cleaning prawns, a job they have been doing for centuries around here. Not much has changed at Sassoon Dock since 1875.