Revelers making a beeline to Mount Mary Basilica in Bandra for the annual Christmas carol nights will find themselves greeted by not one, but two surprises this year. For one, after more than a year of restorations, the instantly recognisable blue doors and walls have made way for shades of Burma teak and cream by architects Ainsley Lewis and David Cardoz. The other kind of Blues, we’ve just learnt, have been traded in for rock. Classic rock.

“Open your eyes, look up to the skies and see, he’s just a poor boy foretold by prophecy,” go the lyrics to what choir conductor Rohan Rodrigues from Vakola calls the Bethlehemian Rhapsody, a Christmastime twist on Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody. If there’s a neighbourhood that rewards a little creative mischief, it’s Bandra. “I hope people enjoy it. It’s a cheerful swerve away from the carols we usually hear,” he says.