The balconies wink softly in the changed light of approaching sunset. There is something indescribably special gazing at the spot where you wailed your way into the world over a half-century ago. Then, Narvekar Nursing Home on Jame Jamshed Road was Mulla Nursing Home. Skipping traffic signals to deliver tots on time, gynaecologist Tehmi Mulla would plead with protesting policemen, "Sorry, can babies wait?"

My brother and I were Bandra-bred but Dadar-born to parents who met at Perviz Hall, the Dadar Parsi Colony (DPC) social hub. Dad wooed and won Mum with a lecture series on Western Classical music. Wistfully, I imagine how countless couples must have dated at what is now basically a food outlet, announcing: "Original Parsi delicacies, redefined".

Down the quiet cool of two arterial lanes is the memorial bust of philanthropist Mancherji Joshi, my mother's granduncle. His death anniversary fell last week in this centenary year of the colony he founded—the world's largest ungated Zoroastrian enclave, inhabited by every fourth community member (approximately 10,000 of Bombay's 42,000 Parsis and Iranis).