Music
This Is My Hood: Swadesi
The members of socially-conscious rap group Swadesi take us on a walk through the early stages of how the hip-hop collective formed, through the places that were an important part of their story.
The start of the crew Swadesi would be traced back to 2013.
At the time, the idea for the crew hadn’t even come about, and we had no intention of forming a hip-hop collective. We were just a group of friends who had a mutual interest in hip-hop music and would get together to hang out and discuss the music we liked.
Back then, it was just Abhishek Shindolkar, Robston Soares, Shantanu Pujari and Joshua Fernandes. We had been friends in school and would meet up at our regular hangout spot which was the Veravali Gardens off Mahakali Caves Road in Andheri East. We used to live around Mahakali Caves Road, so it was a convenient spot for us to hang out. We used to call that spot Cali.
Later on, we met Aklesh Sutar in college, and he joined us at our favourite hangout spot.
While we were in college, we wouldn’t study much. In fact, we would spend more time around Aarey Colony, looking for more places to hang out and trying to get away from city life. That’s when we found Bangoda Lake and the streams around it. We would go there to hang out, and it became another spot for us to discuss our favourite music. We’d sometimes stop at Modern Bakery to get something to eat. Another stop was the guest house at the top of a hill in Aarey from where we could see most of the forest area.
In late 2013, when we heard about the details of the Delhi gang-rape case, we were very disturbed, like most people around the country. We decided that we didn’t want to stay quiet anymore, and we would use our interest in music to raise our voices. Hip-hop was the perfect way to do that.
Aklesh took up the identity of MC Mawali and made the track ‘Laaj Watte Kai’ as a protest song about the Delhi gang-rape case. We supported him on the track with Abhishek doing the cinematography for the music video. That was the formation of Swadesi.
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Swadesi has always been about socially-conscious music. We try to bring attention to things which are not going well. But we also try to highlight the good things around us and try to help people connect with nature. That’s why the Swadesi movement is also about conducting treks, slacklining, poi and juggling. We think that if we can make people aware of the right things, they won’t turn towards the wrong things.
Over time we made more friends, and more people joined our crew because of an interest in the same kind of music and a belief in the message that Swadesi stands for. Through friends, we met Dharmesh Parmar, Yash Mahida, Saurabh Abhyankar, and others, and Swadesi, as it is today, came to be.
Through our trips to Aarey Colony, we also started to meet some of the tribes living in villages there. Aklesh met Prakash Bhoir, the chief of the Warli tribe living in Aarey, and he learnt a lot about how they were being unfairly treated with the upcoming Mumbai Metro project. That inspired us to speak out about the injustice to the Warli tribe and perform concerts about it at Aarey Amphitheatre.
Many of us live together in an apartment at Royal Palms where we also produce our music, record songs and rehearse.
Today, Swadesi’s members are Robston Soares aka Lobster (graffiti artist), Tushar Adhav aka DJ Bamboy (beat producer), Dharmesh Parmar aka MC Todfod (rapper), Aklesh Sutar aka MC Mawali (rapper), Yash Mahida aka Maharya (rapper), Saurabh Abhyankar aka 100RBH (rapper), Abhishek Shindolkar aka Raakshas (beat producer), Abhishek Menon aka NAAR (music producer), and Joshua Fernandes (sound engineer).
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Veravali Gardens off Mahakali Caves Road, nicknamed Cali
© Zubin Soni
This is one of our many spots in Veravali Gardens off Mahakali Caves Road. We have been coming here to listen to music since we were in school. We nicknamed this spot Cali because of the play on Mahakali Caves.
Tekdi, named after a shrine atop a hill where the crew hangs out
© Zubin Soni
We call this spot Tekdi. It is one of the many hidden spots we like to come to. It’s basically up on a very rocky hill behind some slums so that no one can see it from any main roads. It’s our spot to discuss music and what is happening around us.
Marol pipe line in Andheri East
© Zubin Soni
This is at Marol pipe line where Lobster has done a lot of graffiti. Marol has a booming graffiti scene now because of Lobster. He was the first graffiti artist to tag this long wall. His first tag here was a mural of one of our friends Kieth, who was a b-boy who passed away unfortunately many years ago.
Modern Bakery in Aarey Colony
© Zubin Soni
This is Modern Bakery in Aarey Colony. It is our regular stop when going in to hangout at Aarey or when we are on the way home after hanging out.
Aarey Guest House, atop a hill in the middle of the forest
© Zubin Soni
Aarey Guest House is up on a hill and tough to get to. We’d come here to get away from city life and look out at the forest which has not yet been disturbed or ruined in the name of progress.
Aarey Amphitheatre, in the middle of Aarey Forest
© Zubin Soni
Aarey Amphitheatre is where we have held concerts and performances to spread the message of the Save Aarey Forest movement. We wanted to let the rest of Mumbai know that people are living in these forests and they should not lose their homes, which is why we performed at the amphitheatre.
A stream near Bangoda Lake in Aarey Forest
© Zubin Soni
Bangoda Lake was among the places that we discovered very early on. We would venture deep into Aarey Colony to find new places to hang out, and Bangoda Lake was one of them. This is one of the streams near the lake where we would listen to music.
Swadesi home in Royal Palms
© Zubin Soni
This is the Swadesi house. Most of us live in this house together, which solidifies the identity of the Swadesi crew. We write music, record, produce, jam, and much more in this house. Lobster has also decorated all the walls with his tags.