Starting a counterculture long before the term ‘zines’ became popular in Mumbai, Himanshu and Aqui Thami, the duo currently running Bombay Underground delve into creating reading spaces, a zine culture and how appropriation plagues the unique craft today
Himanshu and a group of like-minded Mumbaikars started Bombay Underground in 1997 before Aqui Thami joined him a little over 10 years ago. Photo Courtesy: Manjeet Thakur/Mid-day
When Himanshu started Bombay Underground in 1997 with other like-minded Mumbaikars at the time, he may have not imagined the extent of the spark that was lit with the movement that introduced city dwellers to art, reading and zines; a counter-culture of sorts that was still unheard of or not as popular in Mumbai at the time. Over the years as life happened and many of the founding members moved away, the Mumbaikar kept at it. Since then, he has converted many areas of the city into community art spaces, one of the most popular being the Dharavi Art Room in the heart of what is considered to be one of the world's largest slums and happens to find a home in the maximum city.