Get an all-access rewind ticket to Mumbai's most intriguing native town trinity -- Bhuleshwar, Girgaum and Malabar Hill -- courtesy Jagdish Gandhi's just-released book

Get an all-access rewind ticket to Mumbai's most intriguing native town trinity -- Bhuleshwar, Girgaum and Malabar Hill -- courtesy Jagdish Gandhi's just-released booku00a0

Jagdish Gandhi must have had a pretty interesting childhood. Negotiating the lanes and gullies of Bhuleshwar, Girgaum and Malabar Hill as a school kid was a favourite past time of this traditional medicine specialist, naturalist and environmentalist. "Put me in any place here and I can find my way out," says the 70 year-old, when asked about his familiarity with these parts.

Sarojini Naidu flags off the first Indian pilot, Purushottam Meghji Kabali, 1930

Mumbadevi Temple Complex

Clearly, this ease is reflected in his book, A Tale of Three Native Towns: Bhuleshwar, Girgaum and Malabar Hill. While the book was a seven-year effort, the discoveries within this 172-pager come to life thanks to over a 100 rare, sepia-toned photographs. The heritage activist has, in the past, fought the authorities to ensure Banganga Tank and Walsingham Girls High School at Walkeshwar remained protected monuments.

PAST PERFECT
"My book crisscrosses generations, communities, cultures, educational institutions, temples, reform movements and India's freedom struggle. I was tempted to add more native towns -- Mazgaon, Parel, Sewri, Lalbaug -- but dropped the idea since it was too large a canvas to capture in one book," he confesses. Gandhi is worried that today's generation might forget the city's rich past. "Someone needs to pick up the threads. I've tried to weave one (thread) with this book. Compulsions of time stop us from noticing our surroundings. I'm hopeful this book will create an impression," he says.

Horse-drawn tram cars at Tambakanta

The Banganga precinct

Tambakanta in the 1880s

Leaf through the book and there's enough to please every kind of Mumbaiphile, from the archivist and the fact-finder to the spiritually inclined. However, don't expect a lavish coffee table feel. Textbookish in appearance, and minus breakers like sub headings and fact boxes, it has no breathing space. The text-to-image balance is poor. Self-published though it is, the reader sure deserved a crisper read and appealing book design.

MATTERS OF THE STATE
Gandhi may have faced many challenges during research, yet he considers the State, not the people, as the biggest culprit. "The State is the greatest plunderer of our heritage; the common man doesn't have the time! Simple folk on the street willingly helped wherever I went," he recollects.

Difficult as it was, we've zeroed in on 10 intriguing facts about these native towns that are cool reminders of the glory days of aamchi Mumbai.

Walkeshwar Road overlooking Malabar Hill

Colaba-Warden Road bus in the 1920s

Dhobi Talao junction. The circled spot is where Metro Cinema stands today

1. Mumbadevi Temple was originally situated outside the Bazar Gate of the old Fort of Bombay, roughly where CST stands today. In 1766, it was shifted to its present site near Zaveri Bazar, built by local jeweller Pandurang Sonar.

2. Tambakanta gets its name from people of the Twashta Kansar Samaj (belonging to the ethnic Maharashtrian stock) who were metal workers. Due to their innate knowledge of the molecular structure of metals, they were readily absorbed into the Government Mint by the British.

3. Built in 1938, the Cotton Exchange Building in Kalbadevi was the earliest and largest facility for forward cotton trading in the world.

4. Of the ayurvedic operators in Bhuleshwar, Gora-Gandhis specialised in off-white bhasmas of mineral origin. Kala-Gandhis concentrated on black bhasmas of metal origin, while Kadwa-Gandhis were experts in making plant-based potions and bitter-tasting churnas.
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5. Collectively, the Girgaum-Kalbadevi area had the largest number of photo studios in undivided India.

6. Despite limited funds, Shivalkar Talpade created a mechanical contraption that went air-borne from a sand strip of Girgaum Chowpatty in 1895. Called 'Marut Sakha', it reached an altitude of 1,500 ft, much before the Wright Brothers' historic flight.

7. A printing press was set up in the city to satiate the popularity of artist Raja Ravi Verma's works among urban art connoisseurs. It even prompted Ravi Verma to live and work out of Gamdevi for a while.
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8. The Banganga precinct is one of the oldest surviving continuous settlements in Mumbai, dating back to 8 AD.
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9. Malabar Hill was named so in the early days of British rule as it housed a military battery to foil a fleet of pirates operating from Malabar who would lie in wait to attack commercial vessels.

10. The Malabar-Cumbala Hills were tropical forests, which had a good population of wild animals like snakes, pythons, monkeys and the elusive tiger.

A Tale of Three Native Towns: Bhuleshwar, Girgaum and Malabar Hill by Jayesh Gandhi. Rs 450. Available at leading bookstores.

Author Jagdish Gandhi on Mumbai's water bodies
Mumbai had as many as 750 water bodies (including tanks, wells, ponds) during the days of the Raj. Today, barely 40-45 remain and face the risk of being filled in, for commercial use

Bael zindabad!
Before 1864, when the Victoria appeared, the only means of public transport on Mumbai's streets were bullock-drawn vehicles, alternatively called Sighram, Bailgadi or Reckla, depending on the shape and utility of the vehicle

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