Painting Mumbai With Amazing Murals And Doodles For A Cause

If you are a resident of Mumbai, then you might have come across many walls around the city, decked with some mind-blowing arts, doodles, and some really meaningful messages. Most of these are works of team MAD (Murals and Doodles).

A bunch of young students and artists have come forward to restore the city walls by portraying the “aamchi Mumbai” flavour on them with their beautifully-painted illustrations, social messages, and murals so that they serve as ‘food for thought’ to anyone, who cross through these areas. Their main objective is to combine the two great forces of Social Responsibility and Art into something that incorporates more people in our dream of a beautiful, clean Mumbai.

Founded by 19-year-old Raashi Raghunath, the MAD crew comprises five core members. The reason for this initiative is that they wanted to do something that a lot of people and obviously, a variety of people could see. Now, they brainstorm for an idea, select a wall that needs to be restored, seek permissions from authorities and make a Facebook page to scout for volunteers. Once the volunteers are arranged they scrub down the walls and create their magnificent arts. The members believe that the beauty of using social messages to paint walls is that it attracts not only a bunch of very talented artists, but also people who want to give their voices to causes, but don’t know what to fight for just yet.

MAD celebrates the creative energies of teenagers, in all forms. They have worked on projects like the “First MAD Attempt”, which was about preserving nature, followed by spreading AIDS awareness on the wall of Mumbai District AIDS Control Society in Wadala and then the “He for She” campaign of Drishti 2016 (Cultural festival of Narsee Monjee College) with a strong message of gender equality.

When Rashi was asked how the idea of MAD came to her mind, she said, “I had dreamed of starting my own initiative, and realised that dream after my 12th board exams, in 2014. I chose this particular cause because I had seen the talent of students in my college, and I really believed in what is now MAD’s philosophy, if you paint a wall, people won’t deface it because they will be more conscious about ruining something beautiful.”

The team has now collaborated with the Mumbai District AIDS Control Society (MDACS), Wadala, to create murals that aim to tell stories and create awareness on subjects, which are yet to be discussed openly because of the prejudice and taboos associated with HIV-AIDS. They are also working with Urja, a shelter for women in Dadar, by giving a complete makeover.

MAD needs more volunteers for their upcoming projects, and if you are interested in participating, please fill the form from the link below:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/124CLZhOxKMJTtKhrW84XuD4xGcvkiqbVLr291tNLdTs/viewform

The Logical Indian community truly appreciates the efforts and strongly support MAD’s contribution. Reach out to them if you want to paint, fund projects or work with them.

Contact: [email protected]

9920907506 / 9769894016