Marine Drive in Mumbai: The Queen’s Necklace

It’s officially called the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Road, a name I can never remember, let alone spell.  But for most of the Mumbaikars, this place will always be known as Marine Drive.  And it’s also fondly known as the Queen’s necklace because street lights along the curved road illuminate at night, resembling a diamond necklace.

Here’s an image that I’d googled:

Masood and I went to Nariman Point for some business one morning, and after we were done around noon, we walked towards Marine Drive.  I had been insisting to see this place even before arriving in Mumbai!  I’d seen it in movies and had been looking forward to being there myself.

Beautifully laid out in South Mumbai, Marine Drive is actually a ‘C’-shaped six lane concrete road, which lengthens to 3 km along the coastline – a natural bay – it’s coastline a part of the Arabian Sea.  It was built in 1920.

The highlight of Marine drive is the beautiful promenade along the road – lined with trees – where people take in a breath of fresh air and view the sunsets.

Surprisingly, Mumbai isn’t as polluted as Delhi or Hyderabad.  Auto rikshaws are restricted to certain areas here, and almost all public transports have been converted to use compressed natural gas, or CNG.  So even the noise level on the roads is pretty low.

I love the shape of these concrete rocks!  While we were sitting there enjoying the breeze and view, we noticed several small crabs having a walk on these rocks.

According to Wikipedia, real estate prices along the esplanade are among the highest in India, and fourth in the world at US$2100 per square feet. A lot of celebrities live here, making it one of India’s premier residential community.   No wonder we saw lots of luxury cars along this road.  Also, there are a lot of fancy restaurants on the other side of the road, opposite the bay.  But we chose to eat pav bhaji in Chowpatty Beach.

Mumbai GPO, the Largest Post Office in India

This impressive building of the Mumbai General Post Office is just a few steps away from the grand CST Station.  It’s difficult to get a decent shot since the trees are blocking the front view of the building.  Speaking of trees, one of the several things that truly impressed me about Mumbai is its greenery.  There are LOTS of trees everywhere.  Old trees.

Anyway, so we went on a Monday.  Though it was a holiday, since the Hindus were celebrating the festival of lights, the post office was open, most probably for last minute mailing of greeting cards.

It was designed by British architect John Begg in 1902.  Construction began on September 1, 1904.  It was completed on March 13, 1913 at a cost of Rs. 1,809,000.

This building is an example of Indo-Saracenic architecture, representing a synthesis of Muslim designs and Indian materials.  Black basalt, with a dressing of yellow Kurla stone and white stones from Dhrangdra are the predominant materials used.

The interiors are equally impressive, but both Masood and I hesitated to take photographs.  There is a massive dome at the center, and I noticed several paintings of rulers hanging on the walls. There is also a small exhibit of old stamps and letters.

While we were busy taking photographs just outside the post office, I young boy – around 5 years old – approached us.  He had unkempt hair and wore old clothes.  He looked at us with his huge, innocently pleading eyes, and said, ‘Photo.’  We just smiled and started walking away, when I told Masood that we should probably take his picture;  it’ll make the child happy.  I was sure he was fascinated by the camera we were holding.  Either that, or he loved having his picture taken.

So we turned and walked towards the boy.  The moment he saw us, he came running, with this broad smile on his face.  And I was like, ‘Awww!’  But the moment Masood pointed the camera at him and started to focus, we heard a woman’s voice (who had been sitting nearby but we barely noticed a while ago) say something like, ‘Paisey do.’  Give money.

I grabbed Masood’s arm, and we left.  Why should we pay her for taking the picture of her son that we didn’t need or want?  All we had intended to do was make a child happy, yet this had all been a way of getting money from tourists.

So sad.

But the GPO building is truly impressive.

The Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus

Railway stations were the most prominent entry points, and cemented the gap between the rural and urban districts that enabled the British Raj to concretize their regime in India. The Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, then known as the Victoria Terminus, was one of the grandest and considered the queen of all railway stations in India.

In 1887, the station was aptly named as ‘Victoria Terminus’ under the British reign. This was done to commemorate the Jubilee Day celebrations of the sovereign, Queen Victoria. At a cost of INR 1.614 million, the construction started in 1878 and took ten years to complete. The station was opened to the public on New Year’s Day in 1882.

The building in its grandeur served many purposes. Apart from housing railway functionaries – the likes of accounts, chief engineer, and traffic manager – it also served as a government stronghold and housed other municipal offices such as the superintendent of the police.

Built in local sandstone, the style is a combination of the then popular English Venetian Gothic styles endorsed with elements of Indian architecture. The central dome bears a thirteen feet solid figurine personifying ‘Progress’, with its arms raised towards the sky on the south-western part of the building. This follows the unique Bombay style of architecture, an emerging trend during the days of the Raj when British architects worked with Indian craftsmen.

The Victoria Terminus was renamed the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus on March 4, 1999 to honor the bravest of brave warrior son of the soil, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.

It was a stance taken by the then local municipal offices to do away with anglicized names and give an Indian identity to public landmarks and streets. Despite being renamed, the station is still referred to as “VT” station by hardcore habitants of Mumbai.

Chowpatty Beach

I am in love with Mumbai!  Masood took me to Chowpatty yesterday, which is more commonly known as “Bombay Chowpatty”.  I was surprised to discover that it’s actually a beach because back home in the UAE, Bombay Chowpatty is the name of a restaurant!  And they serve yummy food.

Gorgeous, right?  Such a clean and quiet place to spend some moments of solace and peace.  Well, not really!  I took that picture at two in the afternoon, when the sun was hot and bright.  That’s one of the reasons why the beach appears deserted.  I discovered the other reason just last night:  the place comes to life at night!

This lively beach is definitely not meant for sunbathing or swimming, but for eating.  It is a bazaar and mela (or festival) rolled into one.  I noticed salesmen throng the beach last night, selling everything from glow-in-the-dark yo-yos and animal-shaped balloons to rat poison. Men stand by with bathroom scales, offering complacent strollers a chance to check their weight in return for a small price. Hand-operated Ferris wheels and carousels are packed with children. And then there was the main attraction:  stalls nearby selling Mumbai’s famously satisfying fast food—crunchy bhel puris (puffed-rice snacks), ragda pattices (spicy potato cakes), and paav bhaji (fried vegetable mash eaten with bread).  And my all-time favorite:  falooda.

Did I mention that most of the people came dressed as if they were attending a wedding party?  It was so lively.  We strolled around a bit, just before heading towards the countless food stalls.  Each stall has a “salesman”, whose job is to call in customers towards his stall.

We ordered paav bhaji and falooda with kulfi (I can’t put into words how yummy both of these were).  One of the salesmen laid out a straw mat for us on the sand, where we sat and enjoyed the food.  The entire experience was so memorable!

If you’re in Mumbai, do visit this place.

Haji Ali Dargah: A 500-year-old Tomb

Located on an islet off the coast of Worli in the southern part of the city is one of the most recognizable landmarks of Mumbai:  the Haji Ali dargah.  The structure below consists of a mosque and a tomb, built some 500 years ago.

Shirk is rampant, unfortunately.  It is a common belief among people that if one pray’s at this durgah, his/her wishes are fulfilled.  On Thursdays and Fridays the shrine is visited by thousands of people,  irrespective of faith and religion to get the “blessings” of Haji Ali.

We didn’t go into the dargah.  The place where I took the picture above is as far as we went.  At the entrance along the main road (next to a police station), was a security check.  We passed through a metal detector and had our bags checked.

Past the security personnel, we found ourselves surrounded by men and women selling flowers and green/red blankets (for offerings in the dargah), copies of Qur’an, tasbih beads, perfumes, sun glasses, key chains, religious books, and cassettes/DVDs of songs on Haji Ali (which, frankly speaking, sounded very filmy and ridiculous).

There were also a couple of men who offered to write our names on a grain of rice.  And of course, there were also beggars.

Who is Haji Ali?

His name is Ali Shah Bukhari, a rich Muslim merchant from the ancient Persian Empire (now Uzbekistan), who gave up all his worldly possessions before making a pilgrimage to Mecca.

He traveled around the world in the early 1400s,  eventually settling in Mumbai where had this mosque built.

Some legends about the man:

# 1: That he drowned in the sea and his devotees built a tomb at the spot where he died.

# 2: That he once saw a poor woman crying on the road, holding an empty vessel. He asked her what the problem was. She sobbed that that her husband would thrash her since she had stumbled and accidentally spilled the oil she was carrying. He asked her to take him to the spot where she lost the oil. There, he jabbed a finger into the soil and the oil gushed out. The overjoyed woman filled up the vessel and went home. Later, he had a recurring – and disturbing – dream that he had injured Mother Earth by his act. Full of remorse, he soon fell ill and directed his followers to cast the coffin carrying his body into the Arabian Sea.

# 3: That he died on his pilgrimage to Mecca and his body was put in a casket. The casket is said to have floated back to Bombay, stopping near the rock bed on the sea here. The place where his casket was found later served as the venue of his dargah (tomb), built by his devotees.

Source

Remember:

“Verily, Allah forgives not (the sin of) setting up partners (in worship) with Him, but He forgives whom He wills, sins other than that, and whoever sets up partners in worship with Allah, has indeed strayed far away”  [al-Nisa’ 4:116]