Bandra – The Queen Of Suburbs

There are many beautiful places to visit in Mumbai, and to enjoy the full flavor of its beauty, one needs good health explore the city. It’s a pleasure to walk through narrow heritage lanes or walk by promenade overlooking the sea that surrounds Mumbai on three sides. My health permits me to explore only one area per trip.

Recently, I had guests from Bangalore. I decided to show them around Bandra, the most interesting suburb of Mumbai. Bandra has more than 600 restaurants, biggest Linking road and Hill road shopping areas, 9 cinema halls, various beautifully manicured parks, seafront promenades and then there is Bandra fort.

Bandra fort, at ‘Land’s end’ in Bandra, are the ruins of an old Portuguese fort-Castella de Aguada. It was built in 1640 as a watchtower. The fort guarded the northern sea route into Mumabi harbor.

After the decline of Portuguese in the early 18^th century, The British partially demolished the fort as a precautionary measure against Marathas, who were the largest threat to British possessions. They wanted to prevent it from being used as military base to attack British.

During my school days, many of my friends would go to this isolated spot for some private moments of romance with their boyfriends.

The cooing couples are still there, but now in a different set up. There is no privacy now.

 It has become the most visited site with many tourists exploring this area. In 2003, a conservation program was started by Bandra Band Stand Resident’s Trust to save the fort.

Included in the fort makeover are the preservation of the natural rock formations, providing pathways, and the creation of an amphitheater. The architect for the makeover was P.K. Das.

The nearby Taj Land's End Hotel is responsible for maintenance of the fort. The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) owns the fort.

It is a rock garden with plants potted at different levels that makes this place so  interesting. Unfortunately there are no handrails to climb the steep steps, I had to seek my friend’s help to climb up and down the stone steps.

But the view is spectacular and worth the effort at the top.

Castella de Aguada overlooks the Mahim Bay to the south, the Arabian Sea to the west, the islands of Worli to the south and the town of Mahim to the south west. You can also see the beautiful Worli-Bandra sea-link when you reach to the top of the hill.

We climbed down the stone steps, passing through stone castle. I decided to rest, while my friends walked down to the sea to soak their feet.

Later it was a long walk down the Band Stand promenade, passing through the ‘Walk the Stars’ where you are likely to find tiles with palm-print and signatures of some Bollywood star.

We decided to wait in the children’s park and watch the sunset.

Friends went back with happy memories of the beautiful evening spend.

Khotachiwadi _ Heritage lane at Girgaon.

If you go to tiny by-lanes of Mumbai, you are likely to see some old heritage buildings.

My friend, Mr Biswajit Dey, recently visited one such lane called Khotachiwadi and he share his experience with us.

Khotachiwadi is a tiny colony containing a cluster of old-Portuguese-style bungalows. Hence, it has a tremendous history and heritage value to Mumbai – going back almost 300 years. 

It’s tucked away in a lane in Girgaon (Girgaum), South Mumbai – near St Teresa’s Church, not too far from Charni Road Station. The bus stop is Majestic Cinema. Khotachiwadi’s original people were East Indians, Christians, and the few bungalow-type houses that still remain are homes to the descendants of these people.

These pretty-looking bungalows are typically wooden structures, with wooden verandahs, porticos, staircases and roofs. Some now have brick-and-plaster walls.

There aren’t too many of these bungalows left now, maybe 25 or so. Modern houses have come up all around them, bringing in a population of Gujaratis and Marwaris, cars and motorbikes... relegating Khotachiwadi as a dying ‘heritage village’ in the middle of South Mumbai.

The first thing I saw as I entered the lane in Khotachiwadi is a tiny church.

The old-Portuguese-style Khotachiwadi bungalows (cottages, one might say) are all wooden structures made from Burma teak (or so I was told), with tiled roofs, some of them with canopies and wrought iron grills.

I admired the wooden staircases outside the bungalows. 

Thank you Biswajit for sharing your post and your pictures.

Kashish Film Festival In Mumbai

After the success of three previous years, Kashish Film festival is back again for its fourth edition. It is the only queer festival to receive clearance from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

During this festival, the films that are shown showcase the problems faced by the gays and lesbians in the society. It is their sexual preference that is not acceptable by the society.

People who have attended this festival in the past have been very impressed with these films. One of the persons who attended the queer film festival last year had this to say:

“I was extremely skeptical about being myself. I have attended Kashish festival every year but this year has been special for me. This festival has really brought huge change into my thinking towards queer people. I completely realized the reality; it was stupid of me being skeptical all time. It is necessary and most important to remove the hesitation, discrimination towards queer people. Everyone is similar on this planet, everyone deserves to be happy, and everyone deserves equal rights, respect, laws, and privileges to be given in the society. Indian scene is changing rapidly and such events should be conducted more in a year to keep making the difference. Straight, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Transsexual… now it doesn't create any hesitation within me anymore. I shall try to change my other friends’ views too towards queer people. Thank You Kashish, for such a wonderful event and you guys are doing great work.” 

The festival theme this year is ‘Towards Change’ The festival is organized by Solaris Pictures.

4th edition of KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival will be held May 22-26, 2013 at Cinemax Versova (Andheri West) and May 23-25, 2013 at Alliance Française de Bombay (New Marine Lines).

Entry to the Opening Night on May 22, 2013, is by Invitation only.

Online Delegate registration is Free of charge

ONLINE DELEGATE REGISTRATION CLOSE ON MAY 17, 2013 AT 11.3O PM

Mumbai Book Fair

Have you heard about Spandan?

No?

SPANDAN is a vibrant socio-cultural organization, curved out of creative zeal and philanthropic mission, governed by transparent and inclusive democratic values, meant to bring joy to all it's members and society at large by promoting festivals, cultural events, creative endeavors and charitable causes.

They are organizing their first ever Mumbai Book fair, which promises not just to showcase books but also offers entertainment too. It will be a 9-day BONANZA of good books, concerts, talk shows, music, competitions, and activities for children.

The line-up for the panel discussion on 13th April is ready – You will get to hear an eclectic bunch of famous authors like Amish Tripathi, Ashwin Sanghi, Ravi Subramanian, Dipayan Baishya, Manish Gupta!!

Violinist Sunita Khaund Bhuyan who has demystified the violin by playing Indian folk, Jazz & Bollywood on the hitherto 'seriously classical' instrument, will perform on 14th April.

Resul Pookutty, the sound engineer is scheduled to visit the fair on 14th evening will talk about the intricacies of sound mixing as an art. He is a man with talent in multiple dimensions - he won an Academy award for best sound mixing in Slumdog Millionaire and he is also an author.

Many more activities are planned for 9 days of the fair. The details of the program will be put up shortly.

Spandan foundation pledges to sponsor the complete annual education expenses of at least 100 students from financially backward families.

I am hoping they will consider sponsoring special children too. The school at Navi Mumbai also has under-privileged Special children at their CBD and Uran centers too.