Another city, Another Museum - 1

Though I've been to Mumbai many a times, most of the visits are like Monday morning flights and Friday evening returns. So never had a chance to properly visit the city.

So when I got a Sunday in between during this visit, decided to go out to the one place I visit everywhere - the signature museum of the city - CSMVS - previously the Prince of Wales museum of Western India.

So took the train to CSMT and as the museum was only 2 kilometers from there - decided to walk. That was probably the best decision today.

The Dadabhai Naoroji Road which connects the CSMT with the CSMVS, is like the heritage district of Mumbai. The road itself is a landmark and is filled with heritage structures from the Company period all along.

However the road is blocked in many places due to the ongoing Metro line work to Colaba and so was forced to take many a by-lanes and alleys around it. And found a few gems in those little alleys.

Found a little Parsi Fire temple in one such alley. It was looking very enticing, however the board outside warned that 'Non-Parsis are not allowed' and that was a disappointment. I would've loved to get in to explore.

A little far from there, is one of the oldest churches in India - The St. Thomas's Cathedral. Built as an Anglican church, now it serves as a protestant church. Although I went inside, I didnt take any pictures as the mass was happening being a Sunday.

What I was looking for as the first stopover was the Flora Fountain. Named after the Roman goddess Flora, the fountain was built at a junction of roads and is considered the heart of Mumbai or the Piccadilly circus of Mumbai. Today, it lies in an island of building construction materials and I have to do some acrobatics to get a decent picture.

 

Next to the Flora Fountain, is a memorial to the martyrs of the Maharashtra agitation - which I've not heard of - called the Hutatma chowk memorial.

The entire area from CSMT till the Wellington fountain is called the Kala Ghoda art district - so, the next assignment was to find this Kala Ghoda (Black Horse). Named for a black horse of a Prince of Wales statue which used to stand in this road and disappeared for some reason - I could not understand whether it disappeared mysteriously or removed. So instead of that, now stands a Kala Ghoda around the same place without the rider calling itself the 'Spirit of Kala Ghoda' .

Across the 'Spirit of Kala Ghoda' is the famous David Sasoon Library flanked by the Elphistone college. I've heard of the David Sasoon library and its collections but have to postpone the visit to some unknown day in the future as it was not in the plan for the day.

One of the joys of walking in this road is the beautiful heritage buildings all around, in Gothic and Colonial style and it is difficult also to miss the beautiful Parsi touches in almost all the buildings - a testament to the contribution of the Pharisee community in the growth of the city.

Crossing the David Sasoon library, comes the Jehangir art gallery - another place I have to postpone for another day - and next to that lies the CSMVS.