Dressing up the taxis

Helping both the drivers and themselves, designers have found a new exhibition spot in derelict Mumbai taxis

Tara Singh Banga, who has spent 41 years driving taxis in Mumbai, is not inclined to smile at customers. But lately his ageing Premier Padmini, which sometimes loses out to newer models, has been attracting and even pleasing passengers, he says. Inside its 24-year-old exterior, the seats are not dowdy. They are covered in pretty, retro motifs such as a rocking horse, fish, and bow and arrow. When people wonder why he spruced up the old vehicle, the reticent Banga points to a label that tells them about a group of designers which has been revamping some city cabs for free.

"Most people don't like cabbies because they seem rude and obstinate. This is also a way to break the ice," laughs Tasneem Amiruddin, one of the designers involved in Taxi Fabric. The concept allows young, Mumbai-based illustrators like Amiruddin to create quirky designs on fabric for seat covers and door panels of one cab each. These artists usually rely on Instagram and other social media to share their work and cabs, which take in hundreds of customers every month, serve as a mobile exhibition venue for them.

  The fabric used is a polyester-blend that feels firm yet comfortable unlike the typical velvet-clad cab seats. But it was the vibrant, even gaudy patterns of flowers and spirals on old-style seats that had prompted Sanket Avlani to start photographing them two years ago. He would frequently take cabs from Wadala to Andheri during his stint at an ad agency and upload pictures of these on a blog called Taxi Fabric. As people began showing interest, this developed into a design project some months ago.

At five cabs so far, Avlani and his team have done up only a minute fraction of the roughly 32,000 cabs in the city. The group began working with Premier Padmini cabs (belonging to drivers in Avlani's acquaintance) but is switching to Santros because cabs older than 25 years are slowly being phased out. To be able to refurbish more cabs, Taxi Fabric plans to move away from a self-funded model and launch a crowdfunding bid soon.

Through the project, Avlani hopes to encourage an unlikely dialogue between drivers and designers, as well as customers and cabbies. "We spend so much time travelling in cabs so this struck me as something of a missed opportunity, a blind spot." Mahak Malik, who oversees the production of the designs, located a printer to prepare long stretches of fabric with dye-sublimation, so that the final product is true to each designer's vision. These are then cut, stitched and fitted at workshops in Sion-Koliwada. The process takes a day or two and designers work out details meticulously with tailors there who are used to dressing up several taxis a day.

For illustrator Gaurav Ogale, Taxi Fabric was his first freelance assignment after quitting his job at an ad agency. Ogale, whose style is typically minimalistic and low on colour, sketched bright pop-art style pigeons and cutting chai cups based on the driver's desires. While there is no theme, the group has so far preferred to portray elements of the city. Avlani depicts colourful lunchboxes and train handles, while Amiruddin chose a mix of small and big tropes including the sea, buses and the Gateway. Lokesh Karekar, who designed for driver Banga, drew inspiration from the retro period to match the Premier Padmini. "Over the course of conversations with my driver, we discovered a mutual love for tea, and he opened up. It was easy to work together," says Ogale. Indeed, in photos taken after the redesign, one can see even Banga found a reason to smile.

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