Mumbai of past and present

The Bombay Green of the Fort of Bombay, which has now transformed into the Horniman Circle Garden. The surviving centerpiece in this photo is the Townhall built in 1833, which houses Asiatic Society of Bombay. Pic/Sharada Dwivedi and Rahul Mehrotra

With Mumbai Now And Then, Vinayak Talwar has created a space on Twitter and Instagram that showcases the historic sites of Mumbai as they looked decades ago while parallelly sharing how they look today.

"I came across an Instagram account posting Now and Then photographs of parts of Europe that saw World War II. I thought why not do something similar for Mumbai," says Talwar, an HR professional from Delhi who moved to Mumbai in 2015. "While I manage the social media account completely by myself, I am also a part of a group of like minded people who are crazy about Mumbai's heritage and history, and also conduct walking tours. Through my interactions with them, I come across many old photographs of Mumbai, which I felt need to be presented with some context and give the people of Mumbai a sense of surprise at how much the city has changed in not just 100 or 150 years, but even 50 years."

A still from Dev Anand's Taxi Driver featuring Bandra Bandstand V/S now. Pic/Ultra Movie Parlour

During the recent protests at the August Kranti Maidan, his account shared a photo alongside the protest of 1942 Quit India movement, which took place at the same site and gave the place its name. It caught quite a few eyeballs. However, this wasn't the only occasion that took him back in time. "At the beginning of the COVID-19 led lockdown, there was an exodus of sorts from Mumbai as many started leaving for their home. The resemblance to the exodus when the plague hit Mumbai [1896] was uncanny," he adds.

@mumbainowandthen, Instagram