As a kid growing up in 70s South Bombay, the city was small. Well, it felt small. The adage that townies needed a visa to go to the “burbs” was true, certainly in the 70s —  in a non-sea link, non-coastal road, non-highway Bombay, the city kind of ended in Worli. The BEST bus that took me to my school located in Fort, took a circuitous route, around SoBo, and Central Bombay — Pedder Road, Nana Chowk, down Opera House, via Kennedy Bridge, into Pydhonie, Lamington road, Girgaum, Dongri, Muhammed Ali Road, Byculla, through Colaba and ending at Fort. My particular interest lay in the many schools that we passed on the way, girls schools, boys schools, and co-educational institutions, Hill Grange, Greenlawns, Villa Theresa, Bombay International, New Era, Queen Marys, Robert Money, Christchurch, Xaviers Academy, ANZA, and as we came into the real South part of Bombay, St Annes, Scholar, Fort Convent.

As a co-educational Cathedralite, three schools came into our reckoning, one was the all-girls, JB Petit, our immediate neighbour in Fort. The other two were boys only, St Mary’s in Byculla and Campion in Colaba.  

JB Petit was principled by the legendary Miss Darasha, nurturing young ladies that came out of that institution, the ultimate girls school, individualistic, and independent. In a regular, binary age, with no “he/she/ they/ them” confusing matters, JB girls, were clearly “she”. Mary’s was the polar opposite, a male bastion, the envy of all us who loved sport, a massive football ground, the boys who came out of there, rough and tough, we called them, and they were markedly “he”.