Goodbye Padmini is a photographic meditation on the Premier Padmini taxi — an enduring icon of Mumbai’s urban identity. Introduced in India in the 1960s, the Fiat 1100D was adapted by Premier Automobiles Limited and renamed after a 14th-century Rajput queen: Padmini, meaning “she who sits on the lotus.” For decades, these kaali-peeli (black-and-yellow) taxis defined the city’s streetscape, serving as both a practical lifeline and a cultural symbol.

In this series, I photographed the Padmini not merely as a vehicle, but as a vessel of memory, migration and resilience. Using a cinematic documentary approach, I captured drivers, street scenes and quiet moments of decline, tracing the taxi’s gradual disappearance following post-liberalisation shifts and regulatory bans on vehicles over twenty years old. The last Padmini was officially retired from Mumbai’s roads in October 2023.

Beyond nostalgia, I hope these images invite reflection on broader themes of modernity, labour and the erasure of lived histories in rapidly transforming urban environments. Through the Padmini, I explore Mumbai’s evolving socio-economic fabric — its aspirations, displacements and enduring spirit. In bidding farewell to this automotive relic, I honour a time, a people and a city in motion.