Explore ‘pure’ Kamathipura

Kamathipura’s temple dedicated to the horned cow deity Mhasoba (Muh so baa) is a possible remnant of cow-herding and agrarian settlements. Pics/Sayyed Sameer Abedi

Zoya Kathawala's family moved to Kamathipura after the Bombay docks explosion of 1944. They lived there until the ‘70s, the family still maintains the property there (they traded in cotton rope), and Kathawala - an artist and docent at the Bhau Daji Lad museum - was a little at unease about the reputation the neighbourhood had. "With the docks at Mazagaon and the British soldiers at Fort, men's needs had to be met," she says, rolling her eyes. "So, Kamathipura became a place of subversive pleasure. But there is so much more to it. There are pockets of devotion and purity in this ‘unpure' neighbourhood. I wanted to show that."

That's how Kathawala began her weekend walks, Beyond Brothels, which this writer undertook one Saturday morning. The genesis of the name Kamathipura lies in two roots: ‘Kamathi' as in workers for the daily wage labourers, craftsmen and small traders who lived here. "Just to clarify," begins Kathawala as we meet at Royal Cinema at 7 am, "we will not be going to the red light areas. Many people sign up thinking that's where we are headed and are left disappointed." Royal Cinema and Nishat Talkies opposite it are amongst the last of the single screen theatres in the area, residues of a time when they were centres of family recreation. They're on a clock; apparently in line to be pulled down to make way for taller buildings that are still rare in this congested part of the city.

Kamathipura also houses one of Mumbai's only all-women post office

There's a muslim shrine inside Royal Cinema and Kathawala is hopeful it will be retained in redevelopment. Who the shrine belongs to is one of the gaps Kathawala will fill up soon. We walk down to the corner shared by a police chowki and a dargah. "This is the entrance to Safed Gully," she says, "any guesses where the name comes from?" Not laundry or some bleach-making industry, the name comes from white-skinned sex workers that inhabited it once. "These were exotic sex workers for the Europeans," Kathawala informs us, "but they wouldn't be British or French. Most likely, they came from poorer countries such as Armenia."

Kathawala's various interests weave in through the walk, giving it the flavour of a proper Bombay blockbuster. There's the temple to the horned cow deity Mhasoba (Muh so baa), a possible remnant of cow-herding and agrarian settlements (Khetwadi is not so far). Since absorbed into the Shaivite pantheon, the deity was worshipped by pastoral tribes. There are tales of gangsters chasing each other across terraces. Kamathipura was the stomping ground of the Pathan gang; Ibrahim Dawood's Dongri, after all, is just adjacent as is the Nagpada police station, where he was attacked by a rival gang in an act of revenge. Charmingly, tales about Dawood from locals, including Kathawala's grandmother, are verified as "arre, everyone knows…". Observations about the fairly new (a few decades old) ‘basti' of migrant Biharis who dye denims and are looked down upon by the originals; the legacy of dalit activists, poet, communist and one of the founders of Dalit Panthers Namdeo Dhasal, who lived in one of the lanes; the Pochamma devi temple, Shri Dutta mandir - with a lady sitting in an armchair above the door on the building's façade - and other temples signalling the sizes of the community that worshipped each diety; ‘wadas' with corinthian pillars; the women-run beedi-rolling industry; and one of Mumbai's only all-women post office.

Zoya Kathawala

"What I want to show," she says, "are the various industries, and ‘pure' places who co-exist in this ‘impure' area. Kamathipura was the place for the non-human or shadow people but they are people like anyone else. Post offices were not only places to send and receive letters; they also had saving and investment schemes. Sex workers and other women would be more comfortable talking to women staffers, paving the way to financial security."

The hour-long walk ends at the Irani Shia eatery Sarvi, which sits on a corner opposite Nagpada police station. Even at 8.30 am, there are patrons mopping up kheema with thick, spongey rotis. There's a gentrified section at the back, but we, like most others, prefer to sit at Saadat Hasan Manto's preferred table and order rounds of milky chai.

WHAT: Beyond Brothels
PRICE: Rs 500-Rs 700 per person
Connect: @zoyakathawala