Description
Colaba, the southernmost tip of Mumbai-a bustling locality with the
Gateway of India, the famous Taj Mahal Hotel, and Colaba Causeway, a
shopper's paradise-is the city's most iconic neighbourhood. But barely 200
years ago, it was a rocky, jackal-infested island, separated from the rest of the
great metropolis by a temperamental creek.
In this compelling biography, Shabnam Minwalla, journalist, author and long-time
resident of the area, tells the tale of the unexpected forces that reshaped land and
sea; and allowed this remote corner of Bombay-Mumbai to evolve into one of
its liveliest, quirkiest neighbourhoods. Trying to figure out the exact area limits,
she unravels accounts of colonial rivalries and dowry negotiations, and of shrewd
industrialists who transformed the doomed island into the centre of trade during
the cotton boom of the 1860s. She navigates the sometimes charming, sometimes
seedy streets to track the area's evolution from a retreat for British soldiers and
sailors to a coveted residential area for the English and Indians alike. She digs
into her childhood memories to introduce us to the eccentric Parsis of Cusrow
Baug, the warm yet persistent shopkeepers and hawkers of the Causeway, the
industrious Sindhis who pioneered co-operative housing societies, the colourful
musicians, theatre artists and writers who frequented her corner of Colaba, and
the Arabs who come there every year to witness the city's monsoons. And in a
moving section, she records how the neighbourhood rose like a phoenix from the
ashes after the 26/11 terrorist attack.
Combining a remarkable flair for storytelling with sound journalistic
groundwork, and drawing upon three generations of family memory, Shabnam
paints an intimate and dynamic portrait of a great and fabled neighbourhood.
