As a boy, born and brought up in North India, Delhi was always the greatest City for me in India. Everything, from first mall to first McD, it has always in Delhi. On the other hand, Mumbai always fascinated me but the only information I had was through friends or books. Finally last weekend, I got a chance to visit Mumbai with one of my friend and I started the journey with Colaba region of Bombay.
Previous two generations of my family worked in Bombay (when it
was not Mumbai). From them I have heard a lot about this area, Colaba. Colaba
is the heart of Bombay. Its history is as old as Bombay.
Almost 350 years before, when there was no Mumbai, just one small
island of Bombay. In 1661 King Charles II of England married Princess Catherine
of Braganza. The marriage dowry given to English was the island of Bombay that
the Portuguese had no use. Charles himself didn’t care much about these island.
But British East India Company realized the importance and developed Bombay as
perfect natural harbour. Deep enough to accommodate 150 ships and with a
natural fortification as mainland India, Bombay was perfect for the company’s
operations. And with the Company renting the islands from the Crown, for £10/-
annually, Bombay’s illustrious history began.
Most important place in Colaba is “The Gateway of India” that was
constructed for welcoming King Charles II on India’s soil. He must have not
realized that one day it shall be one of the biggest tourist spot of Current
Mumbai. You may always find Couples sitting spending time together, kids taking
pictures of the Gateway and family queuing for ferry rides around Elephanta
Caves. So, as a traditional we took pictures and queued up for the ride.
Just in front of Gateway, there is mighty Taj Mahal Hotel. It was
the first Taj Hotel to be opened in India and in my opinion it is still the
best one. We decided to walk along the periphery of the ‘front’ bay and
re-chart the birth of Mumbai. We walked through Apollo Gate and Front Bay
covers the northern part of the old ‘Fort’. This was the area where the first
signs of habitation were seen on the island of Bombay. Bombay is not a city of
locals, Maharashtrians. It was always a City of Immigrants that was founded by
British and developed by Gujjus, Parsis, Tamilians and now by North Indians.
Charles II wedding gift, the seven islands of Bombay were in
control of East India Company and it was British who thus began the herculean
task of developing the Company’s newest asset. After completing the task of
fortifying the town from sea borne invasion the next job at hand was to stamp
their authority on the local inhabitants and what better way to do so than by
constructing buildings that epitomized might, authority, imperialism and power.
Soon structures began popping up all over the ‘new’ town to serve some purpose
or the other.
I'll admit that I'm not the biggest fan of Mumbai, but perhaps I failed to appreciate the history of the place. Great post, thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteThanks dude..
ReplyDeleteI spent my childhood at wodehouse road colaba , later strand cinema , mumbai just grew on you.. I now stay at Bandra and Colaba is a distant dream,,nice blog take care thanks.
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