A Sunday Ramble in the Heart of Bombay--Byculla, Dongri and Ballard Estate

Sunday, March 31, 2019
Bombay

A Sunday Ramble in the Heart of Bombay--Byculla, Dongri and Ballard Estate

     Namaste from Bombay!
      I had a most unusual Sunday! Awaking in the quiet serenity of my air-conditioned guest room in the home of my friends Nafisa and Hosefa in Byculla, I washed, dressed and joined them for breakfast at their kitchen dining table--muesli with cold milk, two slices of toast with cheese spread and very good coffee--it was not decaf and I was bound to count sheep all the way into the wee hours!

Mass at my Childhood Church:
     I left their place at 8.15am for the swift stroll up Nesbit Bridge to get to Mass at the church in which my parents were married and my siblings and I were baptized. St. Anne's Church which adjoins the famous St. Mary's School, sits in a quiet oasis of sporting grounds, a beautiful Neo-Gothic sentinel of Catholic worship in the heart of Central Bombay. This area was once a stronghold of Anglo-Indian inhabitants--when it was bristling with Westernization. With their exodus en masse westwards to Blighty and eastwards Down Under, the population of the church has dwindled so badly that there was literally just a handful of folks at Mass that was said by Fr. Laurie Ferro.
     The original church was built in 1787 by Rose Nesbit (after whom the bridge and road are named). It was entrusted to the Carmelite priests who were succeeded by the Capuchins. The Jesuits took over in 1858--they planned and erected the present structure under the supervision of Bro. Herman Lau, S.J. in 1880-81. It was raised to the status of a parish on the Feast of St. Ignatius of Loyola on July 31, 1887. I got this information from a plaque at the entrance of the church.
     Everywhere you look, there are remnants of the Victorian life of Catholic Bombay--the glorious Gothic fan vaulting, fonts containing holy water carved in white marble, vignettes that form the Stations of the Cross--that are simply the best I have ever seen in any church in Bombay, and the gorgeous stained glass windows that remind me very much of the style of Edward Burne-Jones.
     It is hard for me to describe the deep joy that nostalgia brings me as I sit in this church and look back (inevitably) on the child and teenager I once was. This was where we would come as a family, Sunday after Sunday, as my Dad Robert was the Lector at the 8.30 Mass at this church for more than half a century--that is fifty years of proclaiming the Word! I can remember my brothers' First Holy Communions, my and their Confirmation and any number of Christmas Midnight Masses heard on the vast grounds of the church facing the lovely giant clock on the school and rectory walls. Like all Jesuit properties, this is beautifully maintained and it was a pleasure to explore the back where I once heard Youth Masses and where the Auditorium is located. How I wish I could have gone upstairs and entered the Hall again--alas, it was securely padlocked and with no one around to assist me, I merely browsed around, took a few pictures and left.

A Ramble with Nafisa to Places of Worship: 
Entering a Synagogue:
     As we intended to take a bus to Ballard Estate where we wanted to start our walk and as we were actually passing by the Jewish Synagogue, Nafisa suggested we make a detour there--which we did. The Magen David Synagogue is a striking turquoise building with white highlights. There is a clock tower here too. Inside, as it turned out, service was in progress; so we stood at the back respectfully and listened as the priest read from the holy books and the congregation responded. Both Nafisa and I took pictures and then were accosted by a man who demanded that we pay Rs. 500 each for taking pictures. He told us that there was a notice at the entrance saying that we need to pay for a camera. We apologized to him for not having seen it and even offered to erase our pictures. But there was no need. He overlooked our error and we were on our way. The synagogue is as beautiful inside as it is on the exterior.

Entering a Mosque:
     Nafisa was keen then that I see what she described as one of the most interesting mosques in the Muslim Quarter that is known as Dongri. She described it to me as a mosque that was built by Arabs and is restricted to the use of the Ismaeli Khoja community in Bombay. We jumped into a No. 3 bus when it came along and got off at Dogri. We had to traipse through some of the most ugly and unsightly of lanes, bylanes and buildings--all of which are in a drearful state of disrepair.  As if the visual onslaught were inadequate, the place stank to high heaven and we literally had to cover our noses as we passed by open drains carrying raw sewage through the streets, piles of garbage that remained uncollected and all sorts litter at every turn. It was very hard to find the mosque in question through the maze but by asking people (and being informed that there are 50 mosques at least in the area), we did eventually find the place.
     And as Nafisa had described, it was a very quiet oasis in a crazy environment. We admired the vast interior courtyard, the lovely clock tower (there are a lot in this area as people in the Victorian Age did not own their own watches), the community hall and entrance and the marble altar right at the front.
     We could not linger too long, however, as I was supposed to get back to Bandra in time to have lunch with Dad and Russel--and so we jumped into a cab and reached Ballard Estate about ten minutes later.

A Ramble in Ritzy Ballard Estate:
     Ballard Estate used to the commercial hub of British India. It was and still is the headquarters of the Bombay Port Trust at a time when all global trading was done on the high seas. Each of its buildings is in some way or the other connected with the mercantile marines. Built in a well-planned manner with solid stone buildings, it was once the hub of banks, shipping companies, oil enterprises, etc. This was, in other word, the Nariman Point of colonial Bombay. The area is a maze of beautifully laid-out streets punctuated with ancient banyan trees that spread their gigantic arms across the street providing much-needed shade. On every street, there was a cricket match in progress--you must admire the resourcefulness of India's youth who see the potential in the use of empty streets on a Sunday to start cricket matches. We passed by the Grand Hotel (once the fanciest hotel in the city and the popular stop for sea-farers of a previous era) and saw the beautiful Port Trust buildings which had the prows of ships jutting out of the sides of the building to form gargoyles. We also saw the Port Trust War Memorial which stands in a protected island on the street bearing the names of the officers who died in the Great War. Finally, we also did see a cruise-liner dock at the harbor as dozens of white people disembarked to get their first sights of Bombay and be mobbed by the taxi-drivers waiting like sharks to take them for a sightseeing spin.
     Truly, this was a lovely ramble through a very historic part of Bombay and I was glad Nafisa suggested we walk around on a Sunday. Spending the night in her house allowed me to do this and it turned out to be such a lovely experience.
 
Back to Bandra on the Train:
     We left the serenity of this glorious part of Bombay behind to walk briskly to Victoria Terminus where I bought a ticket that took me to Dadar where I needed to change trains to get the Western Railway line. Isn't it amazing how easily I have adapted to all these varied commuting experiences in the heart of Bombay? Truly the city has such a fantastic public transport system that I am delighted to be able to use it with the élan with which I am doing so--not even the locals use public transport here as I do and I am very proud of myself indeed.
     I had placed an order for Prawn Biryani with fried Bombay ducks (a local fish) and raita for lunch at the Bandra Gymkhana and I took a rickshaw from Bandra Station that took me straight to the gym from where I picked up my food order and went straight to Dad's. There, we ate our lunch together and gabbed about my evening out and the great time I'd had at Nafisa's.
     When Dad and Russel relaxed and took their afternoon siestas, I left and got back home to begin drafting my newsletter for the month of March as I shall send it out tomorrow. This took me more than an hour after which I spoke to Llew and planned out the itinerary we would use for our travels in South America--we shall be visiting Argentina (Buenos Aires and the Iguazzu Falls) and Brazil (Rio de Janeiro) after participating in a faculty conference at NYU. After formulating an itinerary, I told him that I would email it to him. I then sat down and transcribed my interview with Carl Mendes. By the time I was done with the major pieces of work on my computer, it was time for dinner and I made myself a G and T and had the vegetables and mince curry that were in my fridge with a bit of Waldorf Salad. While eating, I decided to watch TV and I returned to the fantastic British cop show called Line of Duty to which I had become introduced in October of last year. I had taken a break from it and found that I was able to return to it with renewed delight. It is truly a great show and I did something I usually do not do--I binge-watched 3 episodes of it, back to back, as the coffee pf the morning continued to see me wide awake. It was only in the wee hours of the morning that I actually feel asleep.
     Until tomorrow...