Looking for lost landmarks

Bandra talkies?" we ask the rickshaw driver. He nods, we get in. The ‘talkies' that shut shop years ago has now been replaced by the Shoppers Stop building. But the place is still known by the old name. "All passengers ask me to take them to Bandra Talkies," Babu Rao, our rickshawalla, tells us.

Framjee Cowasjee Institute in Dhobi Talao, where the old tank once stood

He has been driving the rickshaw since he arrived in the city 12 years ago. "By the time I came to Mumbai, the cinema hall had already shut shop," he tells us.u00a0Sameer Ahmed Qureishi, who sits at Sameer Communications (a shop near Bandra Talkies), was better acquainted with the old cinema hall. "The last movie I saw there was Krantiveer, which released in '94. I was about 20 years old then," he reminisces.

"There was a demolition many years ago and the builders replaced the talkies with a mall. There is a cinema hall there still, but that is frequented by upper class people. Tickets are very expensive there. I prefer to go to Gaiety Galaxy now." So do we, actually, and not just because of the mindblowing samosas on offer.

Bazaar Gate Street, which is so named because of Bombay Fort's Bazaar Gate

The fate of Lido Cinema on Juhu Tara Road is the same. "I remember watching the Rajesh Khanna movie Haathi Mere Saathi there," Ankush Sonawane, a cobbler who handles his father's shop Mahadeva Footwear, located opposite the erstwhile building, tells us. "It was an old-fashioned cinema hall complete with wooden seats," the Khar Danda resident reminisces with a smile.

Beyond the ‘burbs
In Mumbai, there's no place like the South for a trip down memory lane. And Dhobi Talao, we found, was the perfect example of a ‘non-existent landmark'. This area, northwest of the Esplanade, housed a tank that was used by washermen (supposedly to wash soldier's clothes). The tank no longer exists, of course, but the name has stuck.

Colaba Causeway, which once linked Old Woman's Island to the island of Colaba. This causeway, built in 1838, was the last link fusing together all seven islands of Bombay. Before its construction, Colaba island could only be accessed by foot during the low tide

"Framjee Cowasjee constructed a building where the tank stood," says Goolshan F Cooper, librarian at the People's Free Reading Room & Library, which is housed in this building. "This library has been in existence since 1898. Cowasjee insisted on having a library in the building, and till today we are not paying even a rupee as rent," she says. How many people can boast of that in these days, we wonder.

No gates, no ghoda
Just like the rest of the Bombay Fort, which was built in 1716 and broken down in the 1860s, the three fort gates no longer exist. Church Gate and Bazaar Gate, however, have helped christen a railway station and a street, respectively. "Church Gate was built near the site where Flora Fountain now stands. It was named after St Thomas Cathedral," write Sharada Dwivedi and Rahul Mehrotra in their book Bombay:

u00a0The parking lot at Kala Ghoda

The Cities Within. Bazaar Gate, they say, was almost opposite the site where the General Post Office was built in the early 20th century. "The Apollo Gate and Church Gate were closed at sunset, while the Bazaar Gate was closed half an hour later."u00a0Dwivedi and Mehrotra also mourn the loss of the Kala Ghoda statue in the same book, that we pored over enthusiastically on an overcast Thursday morning at the aptly iconic Asiatic Library at Fort.

What is now a parking lot once housed Boehm's equestrian statue of King Edward VII. "One night in August 1965, political activists mutilated several statues of 19th century British personalities. On the following day, these damaged statues, including the Kala Ghoda, were relocated to the gardens of Jijamata Udyan at Byculla." Today, the Kala Ghoda remains entrenched in public memory by way of the annual festival on Rampart Row.

St Thomas Cathedral, located close to where the old Church Gate opened up. Pics/Bipin Kokate

"People have lived and worked in these areas and their names have clearly been carried forward through the generations," believes architect Kaiwan Mehta. "These names have a certain nostalgia attached to them. They have become a part of the imagination of the area; there is a personal association. It has nothing to do with a foreign language or community," he concludes. u00a0For us, retaining the names of these landmarks is about holding on to a Bombay that hasn't yet become Mumbai. We hope to never let go.

"In the early '80s, the Lokhandwala builders had built a circle at what is still known as Juhu Circle," says Adolf D'Souza, activist and former corporator of Juhu. The circle was meant to beautify the area as well as guide traffic. "It even had a lovely fountain," remembers Andheri-resident Raj Tejwaney. "It was broken about a decade ago. Vehicles had to go all the way round the circle, and it used to hold up traffic," says D'souza. "Now the signals hold up traffic," Tejwaney sighs, hoping that a flyover will be built there soon. Pic/Nimesh Dave

Dadar TT circle, named so because of the tram terminus that existed there until the permanent closure of the tram service in 1964. Now officially known as Khodadad Circle, Mumbaiites still refer to this area by the name of the old terminus. According to the late Sharada Dwivedi and Rahul Mehrotra, the Tramway Company extended its lines in 1925 to include trams going northward to Dadar and Matunga. This largely benefitted the Hindu, Parsi and Tamil communities that lived in the area at the time. Pic/Sunil Tiwari

The Bandra Talkies building now houses Shoppers' Stop and Movie Time Suburbia. Pic/Satyajit Desai