Mumbai's monsoon made artsy

Artist Ananta Mandal has lived in Mumbai for nearly four years. That's four monsoon cycles. Four seasons of sitting on wet bus seats and watching boats rock in the harbor, under an umbrella with a glass of steaming tea and really wet feet.

Besides going on about Mumbai's cosmopolitanism and diversity, the Kolkata artist reckons it is "probably the only city in the world where so many classes coexist so closely, and merge into a common river of sorrows, beauty or hope: unaware of how each affects the other every day."

Typically Mumbai settings are the theme of his watercolor exhibition, titled -- what else? --"Mumbai."

Bus, train and boat, the monsoon and Mumbai's iconic Gateway of India all feature -- it's typical yes, but the blurry watercolor works.

"Mumbai" by Ananta Mandal previews on March 22 at the Art Gallery, Nehru Centre, Dr Annie Besant Road, Worli; +91 (0) 22 24964680; www.nehru-centre.org; Timings 11 a.m.-7 p.m.