A ride down timeless Mumbai

From the Old Council Hall, the buses took the Ballard Estate turn passing through an area whose facade, Dilawari told the participants, had not changed formore than 100 years. “The Horniman Circle, for which construction started in 1862, was the first attempt at structuring Bombay, and the Town Hall was the first public building to be constructed. The columns of the Town Hall too were shipped from England,” said Dilawari. A neo-classical building, the flight of steps gave the Town Hall a monumental status and royal declarations were made from top of the platform. And the first step of the Town Hall was the great leveller of this city, literally – all roads were built based on the height of this step.

There was a long stop at the St Thomas Church which took more than two centuries to be built. In the 19th century, this Church was the zero point of the city everything else was equidistant from it. The buses meandered through the D N Road, the construction for which was started in 1895 and completed in 1910, to the Art Deco stretch behind Eros which is the best of its kind in the city, though the Marine Drive is the largest Art Deco ensemble after Miami. Thebuses turned towards the Kala Ghoda stretch and shielding their eyes from the sun, it wasn’t difficult for the participants to appreciate the architecture, multi-layered though it was with grime. But as Dilawari pointed out, Mumbai needs social first-aid, and quick. His point was noted as the buses passed the soot covered Elphinstone College with corroded carvings. It stood out in stark contrast to the restored Army Navy Building.

Seeing the number of people from distant suburbs who participated, it would be advisable to make the tour a regular event in the city’s cultural diary.