MAlhari Pawar, who works in a private bank, was taking a short break after lunch under a group of trees in Mumbai’s Shivaji Park. Next to it was a small but imposing water fountain with two large beautifully carved basins on either side. He turned the blue knob about a foot away and water started pouring out of it. He filled his bottle and took a sip.
The stone structure is one of many in Mumbai Thirst (public water dispensers) that came to the island town between the late 1800s and early 1900s, on the city’s old tram routes, as a philanthropic gesture from merchants to provide clean drinking water for free.
Over time, Mumbai’s Thirst And the city’s other heritage street furniture such as its ancient landmarks and bandstands are dilapidated – shoddy relics lost in the city’s fast-paced metamorphosis into a modern metropolis. But in the last four-five years, these heritage structures and their stories have come alive once again on the streets of the city.
The heritage cell of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has so far restored 15 landmarks from the colonial era – from Colaba in south Mumbai to Sion, which was Bombay’s end point. In the Fort area of south Mumbai, Cooperage Bandstand, one of the last few in the city, has been lined up for live music performances once again. A bandstand is a covered public space for bands to play music. handful Thirst Water has once again started to be given to passers-by, and restoration work of more is underway.
While the BMC is usually in the news for demolishing illegal huts and dilapidated buildings, it has now started work on reconstruction and restoration of more and more heritage sites.
“We have completed the restoration of the milestone. Where milestones had disappeared, we created new ones with carvings in stone. we’re up Thirst And bring back drinking water in them,” said Sanjay Sawant, who runs the BMC’s heritage cell.
“We restored the Metro Fountain (the Fitzgerald Water Fountain outside Metro Cinema in south Mumbai) and the iconic Flora Fountain and Cooperage Bandstand in the fort, which were a part of the city’s entertainment and culture,” he said.
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Culture-Shaping Heritage, Then and Now
Seventy-year-old Ranaja Thatte, who lives with her bandstand in front of Cooperage Garden, is transported back in time whenever she sits on its terrace, listening to live music from the bandstand.
In the late 1960s and 1970s, his father would take him every Sunday evening to hear live performances at the bandstand in the garden. “The evening would end with him buying a balloon,” recalls Thatte.
But somewhere along the way, the weekly musical performances ceased, and the bandstand, which had been built by the Esplanade Fee Fund Committee in 1867, decayed.
“The entire wooden structure had rotted away. We had to first understand its historical context, see its character. Then we had to dismantle and reassemble the entire structure,” said Rahul Chemburkar of Vastu Vidhan Projects, which has partnered with the BMC to not only restore the Cooperage Bandstand, but to restore most of the Mumbai landmark and has partnered. Thirst,
“We built a stone base on the ground and restored the structure using traditional wooden craftsmanship. The carpentry team used traditional joints, which are very unique to India. We used a single nail in the woodwork. This is the unique selling point of the entire structure,” Chemburkar said.
The restored bandstand was opened for public use in 2018. Although it hosts concerts—the National Center for the Performing Arts collaborated with BMC to organize a cultural festival here in March this month—it still isn’t a regular feature as it was when it was a kid. was.
“They should start a free music festival for all like every Sunday. Children will enjoy it. But it is not that the bandstand is not being used. People use the space in their own way – some practice yoga there, others meditate,” she said.
Among other bandstands in the city, Veermata Jijabai Bhosale Udyan (Byculla Zoo) is in a good condition, but Bandra Bandstand needs to be restored, said Sawant of BMC.
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Obelisks that tell the story of Mumbai with bullock carts
Thomas Cathedral in Fort, a visitor engages in reading information from a plaque outside the church and taking a photograph.
The cathedral, tucked in a corner of a street near Horniman Circle, was once the focal point of Mumbai that knew only bullock carts and horse-drawn carriages as means of transport. The plaque the visitor is covering declares that it was the ‘Zero Point’ of the city.
“A few years back, when the church was undergoing some restoration work, the plaque was also renovated to make it appear boldly. For the past few months, there has been an influx of devotees. People would come to read the plaque and take photographs. And then also look at the church from inside,” said Saurabh Patkar, the cathedral’s security guard.
Chemburkar said that in Bombay when it existed, there was a war wall within which was an ancestral city.
“There were gates, and in the center was a church – St. Thomas’s Cathedral. Then the wars were dismantled and the city was extended to Sion. Before the trams came the means of transport were Victoria, bullock carts or on foot. The unit of measurement was the mile. , and the zero point was St. Thomas Cathedral,” he said. All the other landmarks across the city said, ‘one mile from St. Thomas’ Cathedral’, ‘two miles from St. Thomas’ Cathedral’, and so on.
After an increase in motorized transport and trams gradually disappeared from the streets of Mumbai, the milestone was of no use. They simply became historical markers giving a glimpse of the infrastructure management system of the time. But they were neglected until the BMC and Vastu Vidhan completed their restoration this year. According to the BMC, they restored 11 milestones they could find and had to build five others that had completely disappeared with the same stone and carvings.
Chemburkar said milestones also contain a QR code and plans to launch an app with all the milestone information.
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“Lord of Legacy in Small Details”
Gangadharan Menon, a senior art teacher from Mumbai, recently came to know about the milestones when they were restored, tied into a circuit and become part of the offerings of various heritage sites in the city.
“A city that doesn’t take care of its little things isn’t really doing its job. It’s only when Thirst And the bandstands have been restored, you’re making the city’s heritage relevant in its culture today,” Menon said, adding that “the god of heritage is in the smallest detail of it.”
ThirstFor example, each has unique details, there is an umbrella here, there is a belfry, each has a different water distribution mechanism, there is a place at the bottom to collect water to quench the thirst of the animals.
“Unfortunately, there is no proper documentation of this Thirst, They were street furniture, with no proper designer, although they were intricately designed. We did proper documentation and realized that around 100 . would have been Thirst in the island city. Mumbai suburbs were earlier villages and depended on wells,” Chemburkar said.
“Now, what we find are about 50 Thirst, Those who can be revived with some efforts are around 25,” he said. Four have been restored and there are plans to restore 18 others with the BMC.
Thirst Those that have been restored have once again become centers of free drinking water.
Pawar filling a bottle at Ramji Setiba love There is evidence of this in Shivaji Park.
About 20 days ago someone stole the tap. Yet everyone who comes to Shivaji Park fills a bottle of water here. There is no other alternative to free drinking water.”
(Edited by Neera Mazumdar)