What do you consider to be the suburbs in today’s Mumbai? Bandra? Vile Parle? Andheri? All those answers are correct, but not so if we were living in the 19th century. Back then, places like Byculla and Mazagaon were considered to be far-off. These were the places where affluent folk moved to from the Fort, to escape its congestion, at a time when Bombay was not as vast and spread out as it is today. 

They utilised their wealth to not just build a fashionable precinct, but also for public causes, their philanthropy literally set in stone in the form of schools and hospitals. But they also often ensured that these charitable ventures didn’t go unnoticed, and that they would be remembered for posterity for it. Why is Sir JJ Hospital named so? It’s because Sir Jamshetjee Jeejebhoy (or JJ) made a donation of `1 lakh to establish it in the mid-19th century, a fact he would be happy to know we are talking about even to this day.