Perhaps it was serendipity that a nearly 100-year-old building, housed within a seva sadan where lesser privileged girls and women are educated and taught life skills, was restored by two of India's leading women architects. What made this connection a more cherished one was when this landmark, the Malabari Memorial Hall, won the Award of Merit at UNESCO's Asia-Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation 2020 last week.

The hall stands amidst a dense cluster of similarly designed Art Deco-style buildings, including the Gamdevi police station and Mani Bhavan. These low height structures once formed the core of a socially and culturally reformed neighbourhood linked by common principles and philosophies