On a day where city streets are taken over by bright saffron flags, we make our way to the rehearsals of a walking play in Colaba where actors wear a different flag on their sleeves. Over the following hour, Postcards from Colaba, written and directed by Vikram Phukan, unearths anecdotes from the underground queer scene that once thrived in the neighbourhood.

Watching from a distance, you could easily mistake the play, performed through monologues along a kilometre-long stretch, for a heritage walk. Get closer, Phukan suggests. It is only when the sounds of the bustling streets drown in the background to give way to the stories being narrated in verse, that the magic comes alive. “The play is almost conversational. We do not demarcate a space for the audience and restrict them to it. The actors are not preaching to the audience, but having a conversation with them,” he shares as we make our way to the next spot on Tulloch Road adding that he plans to donate 20 
per cent of the proceeds to the Mumbai Queer Pride 2024.