Re-Discovering Colaba and Rampart Row in Bombay (Mumbai)

Thursday, March 10, 2022

Bombay, India

Re-Discovering Colaba and Rampart Row in Bombay (Mumbai)

      

Now that things have re-opened fully in Bombay, I have resolved to do what I love doing best: exploring on my own some and on my own two feet. With Thursday being practically a free day for me in that I have no commitments until 4.30pm, I decided to make it the day, once a week, when I will go out and explore different corners of the city of Bombay, just as I had done, two years ago, when I was on the Fulbright Program.

Accordingly, I did go out for my daily, hour-long walk with my friend Maria—we walked along the Carter Road Promenade today—then raced home to have a shower and eat my breakfast (muesli with coffee). I also participated in a zoom meeting to which Chriselle had invited me. It is part of a series of Lenten programs that will attempt to gain spiritual insight by examining the paintings of Vincent Van Gogh. Since he is one of the artists about whose life I do know a great deal, I decided I would like to attend. And so I made the time to participate (off-camera) while, at the same time, getting showered, dressed and ready for my day out in downtown Bombay. I aimed to leave my flat by 9.15am and I was out on the dot. As a result of Covid, I am not taking the public commuter BEST bus, but hopped into an auto rickshaw and was at Bandra Station by 9.30 am. It literally took me five minutes to buy a quarterly First Class pass for the local commuter Railway service and just five minutes later, I was in the Ladies First Class compartment headed to Churchgate.

Walk from Churchgate to Colaba:

The train journey was very comfortable indeed. I do not believe that all office-goers have returned in their full strength to work. It appears that at least half of them are still working from home. I found a seat on the train at Bandra Station itself and had a most enjoyable commute (although, irritatingly, I had forgotten to charge my iPod and could not listen to any of my Podcasts—which is what I had intended).

Churchgate Station was just as empty.  What a pleasure it is to be in these formerly crowded spaces and find them looking the way they did probably fifty years ago when the population of Bombay was half its current strength! I walked at leisure through the station and took the underground subway to get over to Eros Cinema from where I began my unhurried stroll along the buildings that are built in Art Decor style along the periphery of the Oval Maidan. This time I walked alongside the buildings all the way to the Cooperage Band Stand Park.

The Cooperage Band Stand Park:

Walking alongside the Cooperage Band Stand Park has wonderful memories for me. When we were kids and still lived in Mazagoan and later Bombay Central, my Mum and Dad used to bring us here for horse-back rides around the park. Although I outgrew them quickly, my brothers used to enjoy this activity very much. My last visit to the park occurred when my brother and his wife brought their kids to the park for similar horse rides and I happened to be visiting Bombay. This would have been about seven years ago. 

This time I could not enter the park as it was closed, but I was able to walk around the wrought-iron fencing from where I had a very good view of the Band Stand which gives the park its name. In colonial times, a full orchestra used to play here at the weekends for the entertainment of the garrison troops stationed at the Fort. I am happy to say that the National Center for the Performing Arts (NCPA) has begun a series of free concerts in the Park that is attracting a good deal of attention. How lovely to know that these public spaces are getting the attention they deserve!

Lassi with a Friend at the Yacht Club:

It took me about 25 minutes—walking in a very leisurely fashion—to get to the Regal Cinema from where it was a two minute hop to the Yacht Club where I had made plans to meet my friend Firdaus.

The Yacht Club is one of those gracious, old institutions in Bombay that were once frequented exclusively by the British. Today, these buildings and their members strive hard to retain the fast-disappearing colonial ambience of a bygone era. The lovely, shady large porch gives way to a charming foyer where you are saluted by the watchman who makes sure you have been signed in by a member. Firdaus had signed me in and instructed me to get to the Lounge where he was awaiting me.

I have to say that the brutal heat of theIndian summer is not with us yet—however, it has, as is to be expected in March—turned warm and humid and my long trek, while it did not tire me, certainly left me panting for a long, cold drink. When offered refreshment by my friend Firdaus, I opted for a lassi and was disappointed to find that it was not cold. Over the period of the hour I spent with him, I doused my drink with at least half a glass of ice and only then could I actually enjoy it. Was I being too American? Perhaps! Anyway, ‘Dr. G’ (as I affectionately call my friend) and I had a lovely long chinwag and parted way, after I used the facilities around 12 noon when I decided to make my way to my next port of call.

A Visit to the Cathedral of the Holy Name:

On my last ramble around downtown Bombay, about two weeks ago, I did not have the time to visit the Cathedral of the Holy Name.As I was just a block away from it, I decided to remedy that  today. And, as I had a couple of really important intentions for which to pray, I made my way there.

The Cathedral of the Holy Name is the Mother Church of the Archdiocese of Bombay. It is the residence of the Archbishop of Bombay, Cardinal Oswald Gracias who has, since the pandemic, gained global fame through his online streamed daily and Sunday masses.I love the stroll down Wodehouse Road with its gracious, old colonial homesteads—I believe they are all heritage buildings or else the property developers would have been all over them! If I recall correctly, my mother, while still unmarried, used to live in a hostel along this road. So a stroll down it is very moving for me.

At the end of this lovely leaf-lined avenue, is the old and very beautiful church that was declared a Cathedral in 1965 just after the visit of Pope Paul VI to Bombay for the Eucharistic Congress which had been held at the Oval Maidan not too far away. Construction on this church began in the late 1800s and by 1905, it was completed and occupied. It certainly has the old-world appearance of the marvelous Victorian churches of which St. Anne’s Church at Mazagoan and Gloria Church at Byculla Bridge are fine examples.   

Among the many interesting interior elements of this church are its beautiful marble altar with its plaster of Paris statues. The wooden pews are also beautifully carved and the very pews or benches on which we sit have a gentle dip in them to make seating more comfortable. But the single, most striking, element of this church is its amazing painted frescoes on its ceiling and walls that depict scenes from the life of Christ. They are quite stunning in their appearance and detail and compete with the beautiful stained glass windows to draw the visitor’s attention. There is also a beautiful pulpit and wonderful architectural detail—almost a form of fan-vaulting—on the ceiling ribs. It has been a very long time since I have made a visit to this church and I was very glad indeed that I did. I made a prayerful visit there for about fifteen minutes, took a look at school-girls from the next-door Convent of Jesus and Mary (known as Fort Convent) kneel to pray at the pews without even taking off their backpacks and then made my way out. At the entrance, I spied a statue of St. Claudine Thevenet, founder of the Religious Order of Jesus and Mary, which runs the Jesus and Mary convents all over India (Bombay, Delhi, Simla, for instance). I, myself, am a CJM-er as I graduated from St. Agnes’ High School, which is also run by the same order at Clare Road in Byculla.

My visit to the church done, I then walked out with the intention of visiting the Museum of Contemporary Art which is housed in what used to be known as the CJ (Cowasjee Jehangir) Hall. However, before I crossed the wide street to get there, I found myself walking right by Phillips Antiques, which is one of my favorite shops in Bombay. So, in I went!

Browsing Around Phillips Antiques:

Ever since I can remember, Phillips Antiques used to be one of my favorite shops in Bombay. As I was a student at nearby Elphinstone College, I used to pass this shop very often on my way to the Colaba Causeway where the roadside vendors and shops provided cheap trinkets and entertaining window-shopping. I used to gaze fondly at the items in the shop windows and wonder if I would ever be able to afford its treasures. 

Of course, life did offer me the opportunity to buy and collect antiques and I have picked up a whole lot in the past forty years—some of them from this very shop. Indeed, I own beautiful old engraved prints and set of old old framed photographs that I have bought from this place, over the years and shipped off to the US.

So, it was good that I popped in, only to find that the place has been thoroughly refurbished. It has been completely redecorated inside and I am sorry to say that the colors (black, gray, white) which are supposed to give it a traditional look seem, in my humble opinion, to have robbed it off its old-world charm. I do not dislike the new look but I was certainly fonder of the way it was. 

I chatted a bit with the salesgirl, Belvina, and was introduced to another salesperson, Claudette, examined some of the glass paintings and a calendar poster print from a painting by Raja Ravi Varma as well as a set of hundred year old watercolors—but everything was priced so well out of my reach that I could merely look and leave! Even so, it was good to poke my head in and find that so many of the European antiques of which the store used to boast are no longer in sight. Belvina told me that it is getting more and more difficult to find inventory for the store—this I could easily believe as I made my way to my next port of call.

The Museum of Contemporary Art:

Sadly, the Museum of Contemporary Art was closed to visitors as it is in the process of changing exhibitions (it would seem). I was unable to enter. However, I managed to get a rare picture of the Regal Circle while it was completely devoid of traffic as all signals came to a synchronized halt and there was absolutely no vehicle on the road—a very strange and unusual occurrence indeed! Crossing the street, I went over to the pavement encircling the Shivaji Museum and it was there that I cooled off in the relief of air-conditioning.

Browsing in the Shivaji Museum Gift Shop:

I enjoy browsing around the gift shops of museums because you never know what you will find. In addition to the pottery, jewelry, occasional table accessories, etc. that one expects to find in such places, this store has a lovely selection of itmes associated with the city of Bombay. These include ceramic mugs with pictures of colonial buildings on them, sets of coasters with similar pictures, bookmarks and magnets and the like that would make fine souvenirs for visitors to the city, In addition to this, there is a lovely selection of books about Bombay—some historical, some photographic, some tongue-in-cheek. I spent over an hour browsing in this space (the upper level is exclusively stocked with books), sat down for a long while and had a bit of rest and cooled off too. I left the store after making one small purchase: I bought a set of six greeting cards that represent six of the paintings in the Museum’s European Collection that had been bequeathed to the Museum by the brothers Dorab and Ratan Tata. Their collection in on the second floor of the museum, but it is now under renovation and, therefore, closed to the public.

I spent the next fifteen minutes or so browsing through the work in acrylic and water-color of the street artists whose work is found on the pavement outside the museum. It is very reasonably priced, but, unfortunately, I am not able to buy any art work right now as I have a lot of work that I will need to ship from the US to Bombay and find appropriate place for—before I start to buy anything more.

Time for Lunch—at The Irish House: 

It was time for lunch and I could tell as I felt the slightest bit peckish, despite having had that Lassi. But then, it was almost 2.00 pm. I was keen to see if the Salad Buffet that I used to enjoy, two years ago, at Copper Chimney at Rampart Row in the area known as Kala Ghoda (after the black horse sculpture that dominates the traffic island) was still on. Sadly, it was not. No buffet of any kind was being served and the a la carte menu looked a trifle too pricey for me. I decided then, on impulse, to leave the place and climb two floors up to The Irish House which used to have some nice lunch specials. I was not mistaken—they were still on. I seated myself in an empty pub—there was literally no one else there but myself. I was handed a menu and on looking at the lunch specials, I found that I could have one starter, one main and a dessert for just Rs. 495 (approx $6). This was truly amazing. And so I proceeded to order. I had the Jamaican Jerk Chicken for a starter (it was delicious but terribly spicy—I merely ate one skewer and requested the rest to be packed away). I chose the Italian Fettucine with Chicken and Mixed Peppers for my main (and it was amazing—deliciously creamy and cheesy, just the way I like a Pasta Alfredo (which it resembled). For dessert, I chose a Chocolate Torte, but I asked for it (and half my pasta to be packed away) as I had received a call whilst I was in the midst of my lunch. This required me to curtail my leisurely lunch and make it super snappy. I had a sudden meeting, very hastily arranged, at the USIEF (United States-India Educational Foundation) with Ryan, who worked there.  He was free and was able to advice me about a query that needed expert advice.

I left the restaurant after paying my bill and picking up my parcel was fortunate enough to find a cab right outside. Ordinarily, I would have walked to Churchgate where my meeting was to be held. But since time was of the essence, I took a cab. I was there in less than ten minutes.

A Very Productive Meeting at the USIEF:

It was wonderful to meet my contact, Ryan, at the USIEF. His office was deep in the throes of renovation and there was a huge amount of deafening banging going on. Although we sat in the quieter conference room, it was still disturbing—so we cut it short. Ryan gave me very helpful advice and I left feeling optimistic that I would be able to profit from it.

Back Home on the Train:

It was a quick five minute walk back to Churchgate Station from where I hopped into a slow train for Bandra that was empty. Granted it was just 3.30 pm, but I was tired and I had to rush home as I had my next engagement at 4.30 pm. 

I arrived home (after taking a rick from Bandra Station), just in time for my next engagement and spent the rest of the evening, after it concluded, catching up on my mail and other domestic chores.

It had been a very engaging day in downtown Bombay and I am very much looking forward to the prospect of continuing to re-discover the city on my feet. I have found another book called Fort Walks which I shall start to use on my next sojourn. No doubt it will take me to places I already know—but it will be interesting to re-visit them, nonetheless.

Until next week…