Art Street: Sculpture outside Plaza cinema pays ode to vendors selling ‘ghar ki bhaji’

Most of these vendors resided outside the city limits in places like Vasai, Virar, Saphale and Palghar and would come to the city daily carrying a fresh stock of vegetables and leave by the evening. It was in remembrance of those vendors that former Mayor Dr Shubha Raul in 2008 sought to build a sculpture among other things that were a part of the area’s history but are no longer present.

Dr Raul told The Indian Express, “It was one of the first traffic island statues in the city after which it was replicated across the city. We wanted to represent the community of vegetable vendors who came with their produce from places like Vasai, Virar and others.”

She added, “I would see them when I was in college. They carried vegetables they grew in their own backyards and they used to be sold as ‘ghar ki bhaji’ which was meant to be of a better quality. They were very hardworking and used to carry around the vegetables on their shoulders. However, over the past few years, they are not visible anymore. When I was the Mayor in 2008, we decided to commemorate them and build a sculpture in Dadar. Even Uddhavji (Thackeray) appreciated the sculpture and said that communities from particular areas should be represented through these structures.”

Artist Raju Bind, who led the team that made the sculpture, said around 2007, Raul approached him. Bind added after he was given a brief of the structure, his team used fibre to create it. “It took around two months for a team of seven persons to complete the work on the sculpture. We were content with the final outcome and even Uddhavji and Raul appreciated the structure,” Bind added.