A Walk along Queensway

It began with a small comedy of errors. The starting point of the heritage walk was the ticket window of Parel railway station and only I and another person somehow managed to land up at the busier and more popular one on the Elphinstone Bridge. The rest 50 odd people were down below at the right place on the eastern side of the tracks. After registering and collecting the Khaki Tours sticker, we split into two groups of approximately 25 each and the Queensway walk got underway. While Kingsway was the former historic British name for the current Ambedkar Road stretching from Byculla to Kings Circle, the lesser known Queensway was the former name of the road perpendicular to Kingsway running between Parel and Sewri railway stations.

Parel, one of the 7 islands that constituted old Bombay, derives its name from the flowering tree Paral (trumpet-flower), which grew here in profusion, before making way for “development”. An alternative hypothesis is that there used to be an ancient temple devoted to Parli Vaidnath. “Sans Pareil” is perhaps a fanciful and creative afterthought. However, to the average Mumbaikar, Parel instantly conjures up a clutch of hospitals that are strewn all around this area. And snooty denizens are more familiar and comfortable with the upmarket Lower Parel.

Most heritage walks in Mumbai happen in and around the Fort area, replete with grand iconic buildings. It was an overdose of curiosity that prompted me to sign up for a walk in Parel and this was quickly whetted when it became apparent how much of modern history Parel has been witness to. A short detour from the Queensway took us to Damodar Hall, where Dr Ambdedkar began his political career. Today it is a theatre with a fashionable glass façade, but this is where Dr Ambedkar founded and convened the first meeting of “BahishkritHitkarini Sabha" in 1924. Damodar Hall compound is also closely associated with N M Joshi, the famous labour leader, who founded Social Service League in 1911. The schools started by the league are in this compound. A stone throw from Damodar Hall, is the chawl, where Ambedkar spent 22 prime years of his life from 1912 to 1934. A plaque and a banner commemorates this dwelling, while a Buddhist religious flag hangs out from the grilled window of his erstwhile apartment. Though occupied by other unrelated tenants now, we are allowed to climb up the rickety stairs and walk right up to the front door. It is a dark place soaked in melancholy and I wonder how an intellect like Ambedkar’s flourished in such a milieu. In Parel also lived one of the icons of the Swadeshi Movement, Babu Genu, the poor labourer, just 22 years old, who was run over by a British truck driver while protesting over imported goods. A short detour on the opposite side of Kingsway led us to a recently installed plaque and bust of Babu Genu. Queensway itself is now named after Acharya Donde, the school-teacher who was catapulted by circumstances into becoming the Mayor of Bombay, during the heydays of the Samyukta Maharashtra Movement. 

A walk needs interesting distractions from time to time and our guides had plenty up their sleeve. Right in the beginning of the walk, there was this Liana, the woody vine usually seen in rainforests and a rare sight in a city. Quite a few could not resist the temptation to sit on the creeper for a photo op. At the intersection of Kingsway and Queensway lies Gaurishankar Chhitarmal Mithaiwala, where the weighing scale is unfailingly worshipped every morning. At Damodar Hall, where the security guard tried to shoo us away, we learned about Marathi Graffiti, a distinctive style used for billboards of Marathi theatre. Further ahead along Queensway along the compound wall of the first pediatric hospital of the country named after Bai JerbaiWadia, were the insignia of the Wadias with the Latin words “In Deo Fide EtPerseverantia” (Faith in God and Perseverance). Towards the end of our destination was Golanji Hill, with an apocryphal anecdote about its origin in the lava from a volcano in Reunion Island. 

Crossing over Kingsway, hospitals dominate either side of the Queensway, tallest among them being KEM Hospital and its accompanying medical college named after Seth Gordhandas Sunderdas, a wealthy merchant, whose heirs decided to magnanimously donate the windfall accruing from a legal dispute. Both these institutions were born as a mark of protest against qualified Indian doctors being denied access to teach and practice in the then only other medical college of the city.  The architect of these magnificent stone buildings was the same George Wittet, who had designed some of Bombay’s landmark edifices like Gateway of India and Prince of Wales Museum. He even asked for hospital beds to be imported from England. 

No account of Parel would be complete without a reference to two exemplary institutions: Tata Memorial Hospital, the largest cancer hospital in Asia and Haffkine Institute. At the turn of the last century, bubonic plague was threatening to lay the city low. Many of the deaths happened in the thickly populated areas of Parel. Waldemar Haffkine, the Russian scientist who was sent in thwarted the spread of the deadly disease by developing a vaccine in record time of 3 months. Government recognized his efforts and the Governor’s residence lying idle following its occupant’s move to Malabar Hill, was handed over him to build a bacteriology lab. Now known as Haffkine Institute, Queensway led us past this complex. The paranoid security guards prevented us from taking photos. Inside there is a small museum, elegantly wrapped in bureaucratic red tape.

There was more to come, the much awaited secret, which we had been reminded about now and then during the progression of the walk. It was at the Golanji Hill, where the exalted secret was finally revealed to us after we had paid obeisance to the splendid deity of Goddess astride a tiger at the Wagheshwari temple.  It was a breathtaking 10 foot tall monolithic bas-relief of Shiva. Discovered circa 1930 while excavating for the road, the locals prevented it from being carted away to the museum. So the museum got a plaster cast and the original stays here clamped to a wall behind a collapsible gate. Believed to have been made in 5^th/6^th C, it was a fitting finale for what was a fulfilling and fruitful excursion.

Post Script:

After I had posted this on my blog, I realized that I had inadvertently omitted some interesting details and here they are, a kind of lingering aftertaste:

Right where we began the walking tour is Elphinstone Bridge, also known as Karol Bridge, the 2^nd oldest road bridge of the city, constructed in 1913. The steel girders of the bridge were fabricated in Glasgow and riveted locally. The arched tunnels on the bridge approach made for pretty backdrops in many a Bollywood Movie of yesteryear. 

Very close to this bridge is The Church of St Mary’s the Virgin, which was built expressly to cater to the burgeoning British population who were settling down in Parel to work in the two railways – GIP and BB&CI, and found it difficult to attend church in South Bombay. One of the still legible plaques in this dainty church, built in Neo-Gothic style commemorates the demise of Lady Olive Fergusson, the wife of the then Governor James Fergusson. Her loss to cholera made the Governor abandon his Parel residence, which subsequently became famous as Haffkine Institute. Photography was forbidden in the church, but I managed to sneak in a couple at the end. Hope the Lord forgives me. 

And lastly a big kudos to the guides for bringing alive slices of history and heritage in such a passionate way.