Officially Nameless and Unofficially Forgotten

The story of the remnants of a fort built by the British in the late 18th century to protect them from Napoleon’s Grande Armée. Today, it lies next to a public toilet.

Situated barely half a kilometre south-east of the busiest railway station in Mumbai—the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST)—which hosts one lakh passengers daily, lies a small stone structure, barely 50 feet in length. This structure is flanked by the multi-speciality St George’s Hospital on one side and the bustling Indira Dock on the other. However, regardless of its rather populated surroundings, not many people know that this structure—built in the late 18th century—was once part of the mile-long Fort that guarded the city’s eastern shoreline.

The Mumbai Metropolitan Region, which comprises of the city of Mumbai and its satellite towns in the neighbouring Thane and Raigad districts, is home to around 20 forts—some as much as 500-years-old. The seven islands of Bombay (as the city was called earlier) were once protected by these forts, mostly constructed by the Portuguese and the British. Built with primitive tools, the remnants of these once sturdy structures can still be seen today despite of shoddy conservation work done by heritage and infrastructure bodies. This involves plastering the stone walls with a cement-concrete mixture which is in total violation of the rules of conservation.

Be as it may, structures such as the Bandra Fort, the Vasai Fort and the Worli Fort are at least known to the residents of Mumbai. However, there are some which are totally oblivious to the city and its 12 million residents.  Some, don't even have an official name.

It is interesting to note that this 50X3 neighbour of CST is, since 1992, the headquarters of the Directorate of Archaeology and Museums of the state of Maharashtra. Dr Chetan Sali, a senior architect with the department said that the state took control of the structure from the Public Works Department (PWD) 20 years ago. Since then, it has just been known as the state archaeology HQ and has no official name. "It (the structure) is just referred to as killa (fort) by the locals," said Dr Sali. "But since it is flanked by St George’s Hospital, it is also called St George's Fort. However, the fort was constructed much before the hospital,” he added.

So what is the story of this St George's Fort?

According to John Murray's A Handbook For India, the fort was built by the British in 1769 in place of the erstwhile Dongri Fort, which went right up to the Masjid Bunder area. B.V. Kulkarni, technical advisor of the state archaeology department, in his book titled Mumbai Parisaratil Kille (Forts of the Mumbai Area), said that the fort was built by the British as a precautionary measure to protect themselves from any attack by French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. Even in the presence of the Bombay Castle (now Manor House) and the erstwhile Fort, the British felt that there was a need for a fort towards the east of the coast. "This fort initially covered the area from present-day CST to the Masjid Bunder, which is about a mile in length," said Mayur Thakre, another archaeologist.

However, when Napoleon was defeated in the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, the British felt there was no reason to have such a big fort. Sir Barter Fryer, a general in the British Army, razed down the fort between 1862 and 1865, save for the small portion that exists today. Between 1889 and 1892, the St George's Hospital was built here. During this period, according to Kulkarni's book, the fort underwent several structural changes while the British built ports and railways around the area. In the post-independence era, residential quarters were built in the hospital premises for its employees. New roads were constructed to facilitate vehicles. Slowly, the tactfully built St George's Fort began to lose its prominence.

Even though the entire fort isn't present today, according to archaeologists, it has Portuguese-style architecture with round domes and arched entrances. The gangways are on the south, west and east sides, while there is a small room at the north. There is a marked difference between the architecture of the outer walls and the inner walls. The outer walls are thick towards the bottom and become thinner as you go upwards, giving it a pyramidal structure—although with a square roof.  The roof of the side passages have oblong-shaped domes, while at the centre, the roof is square and gets narrower as you go higher. Inside, however, the walls are right angled.

Gun slits along the walls of the fort

 The most unique feature of this fort is the number of rectangular gun slits that are present on all four sides, which look like long, narrow windows. However, if seen closely, there are two-three slits in one window. According to Kulkarni's book, one slit was used to observe and the other to shoot. These slits were also the source of ventilation and light for the fort; they are still intact, albeit riddled with bird nests and algae.

The fort also has underground cellars, which served multiple purposes. "The cellars used to house prisoners," said Thakre. "However, the British also used it as a passageway to get to the sea via small boats—as an escape route. They had hatched up a plan with the Marathas to provide cover while they escaped to Thane or Panvel," he added. Today, the cellars are secluded from the rest of the structure by a trapdoor.

The St George's Fort, according to Kulkarni, was also used as an ammunition storehouse by the British. This storehouse used to be described as "Fragment of Old Fort Wall". Dr Sali said that there were also rumours of a canon being present on the roof, any traces of which are not to be found today.

It is ironic that such a fort, so strategically built, has been forgotten by the people it once used to protect. Other than the small shanties that lie adjacent to it, not many people in the vicinity even know of its existence. The fort is as good as lost in a corner of the sprawling campus of the St George's Hospital, with no signs or directions whatsoever leading up to it. Even some of the hospital employees have not heard of it. Once you approach it from the west, a blue signboard indicates the presence of the Directorate of Archaeology and Museums (Maharashtra State), while another states that the “monument is protected under the Maharashtra Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1960”and deters passers-by from vandalising it. On the eastern side, along the PD Mello Road, it is flanked by more shanties and a public toilet.

The state archaeology and museums directorate recently, in 2004-05, did restoration work of the structure. However, interestingly, it has no plans of advertising the structure and increasing awareness about it. "We cannot really make it a tourist attraction or a museum because it is just a structure with no artefacts. But since we are using it as an office, at least it is not being left to ruin," said Dr Sali.

The Legend of Shaheed Bhagat Singh (Colony)

The Shaheed Bhagat Singh Colony, located in the Chakala, Andheri (East), completed 50 years since its inception this year. Founded in 1962, the colony is home to around 1500 members of the Sikh community, along with one of the “most spacious and ambient” Gurudwaras in Mumbai. But if soaring land prices have their way, especially since the inauguration of the Mumbai Metro project—the first phase of which will run by the colony—the iconic colony might well disappear from the map of Andheri (East) in a few years time.

“We have received tenders already from a few builders,” says Daljeet Singh Sodhi (64), General Secretary of the colony’s Gurudwara and member of the colony’s trust. “The offers run up to the tune of Rs 1800 crores, but we are looking for more,” he informs, adding that the members of the colony would be all too ready to shift elsewhere if they received a satisfactory offer. “We could move to the nearby J.B. Nagar, or even Juhu,” says 69-year-old Jaspal Singh Bhasin, a resident of the colony, rather matter-of-factly.

The entrance to the South WIng of the Shaheed Bhagat Singh Colony, Andheri (E).

Sodhi’s and Bhasin’s nonchalant attitude towards the matter is rather surprising given the history of the colony and its residents.

“Most of the Sikhs that live here are descendants of those who migrated to Bombay (now Mumbai) from Pakistan post partition,” says Gurinder Singh Kohli (57), another resident of the colony. He adds, “They (the migrated Sikhs) used to stay in Matunga and Koliwada earlier, after which they shifted to Andheri (East) around 1960.”

The Sikh community has marked its presence in this part of the suburb, especially Chakala, with numerous shops dealing in automobile spare parts and accessories—you will find them in various shapes and sizes run by pot-bellied, loud-mouthed and jovial Sardarjis wearing colourful shirts and turbans.

Kohli goes on to confirm this, “It was the profession of their ancestors and one which they were most comfortable in,” he says, reasoning the popular choice of profession. “Finally, all the automobile guys decided to come and live together in one area,” he adds.

A man who played a monumental part in the relocation of the automobile Sardarjis to Andheri (East) is a certain Dalip Singh Bali. While his family was also in the automobile business, Bali was a builder by profession. “Bali is the man who constructed the Sher-E-Punjab, Guru Nagar and Shaheed Bhagat Singh colonies in Andheri (East),” says Kohli. He adds that Bali currently resides in the Shaheed Bhagat Singh Colony with his family and is aged 85.

“After sanctioning a 9-acre plot from the Maharashtra government in Chakala, Bali began construction of the colony in 1962,” informs Amarjeet Singh a.k.a. Tony, of the famous Tony Punjab Caterers, adding that the construction was completed in a couple of years. Today, the colony has two wings—North and South—spread over 37,784 square metres. “There are 96 plots housing almost 300 families, mostly Sikhs,” says Tony, adding that almost 90 percent of the original residents are still living here today. The residents also lease out rooms and guest houses to students on a Paying Guest (PG) basis. “Nearly 20 percent of the families host students,” says Sodhi.

As the residents of the colony settled into life in Andheri (East) through the sixties, they set up a school in its premises where their kids could go to in 1970. The Shri Kalgidhar School conducts classes from Junior KG to Class 10 and is affiliated to the Maharashtra Secondary School Certificate (SSC) board. Today, the English-medium school caters to 2000 students annually, most of which are from economically backward families. “The colony’s trust gives scholarships, which are donated by the members, to the needy,” says Bhasin, who also informs with pride that the school has maintained a 100 percent record for all grades ever since its inception.

The Satnam Waheguru Gurudwara located in the colony

The crowning jewel of the colony for the residents is the Gurudwara—a towering structure in the midst of the one-two-storey bungalows and houses. Sanctioned by the trust in 1995, the Gurudwara was constructed in flat 14 months. “This is one of the most spacious and ambient Gurudwaras in Mumbai,” says Sodhi. “Members of the colony donated money as well as materials such wood, cement, etc. for its construction.”

Sodhi adds that the Gurudwara is often leased out for weddings and funerals free of cost. “Other than this, we have doctors—homeopathic and allopathic—who provide free medical care on the spot. We organize free lunches and dinners on festivals such as Guru Nanak Jayanti, Baisakhi, Lohri, etc. Last year, on Guru Nanak Jayanti, we catered to a crowd of 15,000.”  Sodhi also informs that the Gurudwara’ trust is registered with the Charity Commissioner and its members are elected every three years. “Everything is fair and legal,” he quips.

Celebrating its golden jubilee this year, the Shaheed Bhagat Singh Colony has been a “close-knit family” according to its members. Says Bhasin, “We are like a big family; we may fight among ourselves, but that’s just how we are.” Validating the Sardarjis’ love for brash, expletive-ridden jargon, he laughs and says, pointing to Tony, “If I don’t abuse him, then it means I don’t love him!” Adds Kohli rather nostalgically, “But it’s a close-knit family and very smooth running for all these years.”

Whether Andheri (East) will indeed bid goodbye to this close-knit family of Sardarjis is a question that would be answered in the near future. Residents of Chakala are almost dreading the prospect. "It will be really weird if a 1000-odd Sardarjis shift away from the area!" says Prasad Kamath (36), who has lived alongside them in J.B. Nagar all his life. 

I, for one, can only hope that Tony’s restaurant—located a stone’s throw away from the colony—and its delicious kebabs doesn’t disappear along with it.

Strand-ed in the World of Books

Online retail giants such as Flipkart and Amazon may be offering discounts in the range of 25-50% on books, but the Generation Z players are no match for the 63-year-old Strand Book Stall’s annual Book Festival—which offers a minimum discount of 40% and a maximum of…wait for it…80%!

The festival, running from January 5–22 from 10am-8pm everyday, is camped at Sunderbai Hall, near Churchgate Station, where bibliophiles can get lost in, literally, a sea of books with subjects ranging from art, architecture and interiors, philosophy, history, cookery, fiction, sport, classics, poetry, design, film, music, languages, romance, business and management, technology, biographies, comics and children’s books, among others.

“They have a very eclectic collection of books!” exclaimed Frank Braccia, 53, an educational consultant with Goldcrest High School, Vashi. Braccia had come to pick up books for his school’s library and was pleasantly startled by seeing some of the titles on display. “I was quite surprised to find some of the books available here, some which are not even currently publishing,” he said.

The Strand Book Festival is an annual 15-day event in January and has been attracting large crowds ever since its inception in 1998. “We get around 3000 visitors daily at the festival and sell close to 15,000 books per day,” said P.M. Shenvi, Manager, Strand Book Stall, Mumbai. “Our Bangalore branch also organizes a similar festival every October,” he added.

The festival attracts the usual suspects every year. Madhubala Ravitej, 42, has been coming to the festival for the last eight years. She is a member of the Trombay Club in Chembur’s BPCL colony and manages the library of the club. She selects “Rs. 15-20,000-worth of books” for the library, which is funded by the club. Children’s books filled a substantial portion of the three baskets-full of books she picked up at the festival. “Children read a lot! They are our most voracious readers,” said Ravitej, which is a heartening fact in today’s X-Box generation. “I’ve also picked up many cookery books for women and fiction for men,” she added.

C.S. Kavatkar, 75, is one of the oldest customers of Strand Book Stall. He has a personal collection of almost 3000 books and reads about 100 books in a year. “I was always a book lover,” said Kavatkar, a former employee of Abelin Polymers, Nashik. Kavatkar has been coming to Strand for the “last 50 years” and has read books from all genres—from science, to fiction, to art, to finance. He gives praise to Strand for having cultivated his reading habit. “Strand has got the best collection of books,” he remarked. “It’s a pity they don’t have a bigger place,” he added, referring to their store at Fort.

Giving Kavatkar some competition in book-reading was Prof. Rooshikumar Pandya, who packed two cartons-full of books. Pandya, 72, as described by his colleague Milind Nadkarni, is a management expert, trainer and consultant who reads “250-words-a-minute”. He is a regular visitor of the store and spoke highly of its staff. “They are very helpful! They know their books,” he said. Speaking of the variety of books available at the festival, Pandya described it as a “chaos”. “With so many options available, it’s so difficult to select!” he exclaimed with a grin.

It’s not just the old-timers who salivate at the festival. Kids were seen running around the children’s section, asking their more-than-obliging parents to buy them Enid Blyton and Spiderman, while their elder siblings were glued to Harry Potter, Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew.

The birth of Strand Book Stall is truly a remarkable story. It started as a small two-shelved kiosk at the now-defunct Strand Cinema in South Mumbai’s Apollo Bundar area. The man behind it all was a certain Padmashree T.N. Shanbhag, who was the first bookseller in the country to be given the distinction of Padmashree. Shanbhag passed away, at the age of 85, three years ago, but not before passing on the legacy to his two children—Arun Shanbhag and Vidya Virkar.

“My father was a post-Independence child who was fired by a passion of building a nation,” said Virkar. “He was an avid reader as a youngster and used to buy one Penguin (a publisher) a month, which was what he could afford. Once, a salesperson at a bookstore turned him out for browsing, which really humiliated him. This is when he decided to open a bookstall of his own where nobody would be turned away for browsing.”

In 1948, with just Rs. 450 in hand, the 23-year-old Shanbhag—who had studied Economics and History at St. Xaviers’ College, Mumbai—approached K.K. Modi, the owner of Strand Cinema with the idea of opening a small bookstall at the premises. Modi loved the idea and funded for two shelves himself, and the Strand Book Stall came into being. The cinema, at the time, was the only one in Mumbai which showed English films and was frequented by the crème de la crème of the city. “My father interacted with a lot of people, made a lot of friends, learned their likes and dislikes in books and made sure that his customers always got what they desired, for 20% less!” remarked Virkar.

Selling all titles at a minimum discount of 20% is a Strand policy since Day 1 and has been followed ever since. Explaining the reason behind the unique scheme, Virkar said, “Dad was a savvy businessman. He knew that he could not compete with bigger bookstores such as Thakkar or Taraporevala. This is why he decided to give a 20% discount on all purchases, keeping a negligible survival margin for himself.” “He was idealistic to the core,” added Arun Shanbhag. “He carried books on his head and walked from the stall to his home in Tardeo every single day.”

T.N. Shanbhag ran the small kiosk successfully for two decades. However, in 1952, Shanbhag felt he needed to buy a bigger place to sell books due to the increasing popularity and demand. Thus, the Strand Book Stall on Sir Pherozeshah Mehta Road in South Mumbai’s Fort area was born. Although the bookstall at Strand Cinema ceased to exit after the cinema shut down, the Strand Book Stall at Fort has been running successfully to date.

“Over the years, dad managed to educate three generations of India’s people,” said Virkar. “There are countless stories of children who grew up reading from Strand. Dad was very generous towards children. He often allowed them to take books home on approval—without asking for a single Rupee,” she said. “We have suffered thousands of Rupees of losses due to unreturned books,” said Arun. But that was how Shanbhag was. “He related with the children, who came back with a lot of gratitude as they grew older,” said Arun. “This is what a passionate bookseller should be like!” he remarked.

Explaining the inimitable modus operandi of Strand, Arun said, “We are not a charity, nor are we a pure business organization; we are a social organization. If we start making this a commercial enterprise, the whole brand would lose its charm. That is why Strand shines above the rest, because of the commitment to the reader.”

But sustaining such a large enterprise with such generous discounts must hardly be coming with any profits. Manager Shenvi elaborated: “We don’t bother how much we earn. We sell all the latest books at special prices—that’s our standard policy. We have to survive. But whatever we give (sell), we give genuinely. We don’t play any gimmicks.”

Gimmicks or not, the Strand Book Stall became such a big name as the years passed by that Virkar felt it was time they expanded to another city. Virkar started Strand Bangalore, in 1995—at the cusp of the IT boom. “The stall grew with IT, said Virkar. “Narayana Murthy, then-CEO, Infosys, soon became a regular customer. He used to come to the Bombay store as a kid. We were soon invited by Murthy to open stalls at Infosys campuses across the country. Today we have stalls at four Infosys campuses—Bangalore, Mysore, Hyderabad and Pune. We also received an offer from Wipro, Bangalore.” Strand now has seven stalls around the country. However, they do not wish to expand any further for the time being.

The annual Strand Book Festival was the brainchild of Virkar, who started it in Bangalore in 1995. “We wanted to expose more people to Strand. I wanted to bring in more titles at higher discounts. Initially, my dad was very sceptical about the whole idea. But I told him that thousands of people will be exposed to all your titles this way.” Eventually, Shanbhag agreed.

The festival started in Bangalore and grew “exponentially”. Three years later, in 1998, it debuted in Mumbai. Talking about the financial implications due to the huge discounts, Arun said, “We had to tighten our belts. But we knew that we were creating a lot of goodwill. We were not making a loss, but we were barely breaking even. Nonetheless, it did give us great joy!”

Today, according to Shenvi, renting the Sunderbai Hall for the festival costs Rs. 35-40,000-a-day. But Strand continues to hold fort. “Our turnover is more,” explained Shenvi. People wait throughout the year for the festival. Around five-six years back, The Times of India had reported long queues outside the gate for entry.”

However flabbergasting the model is, it works. Strand and their jaw-dropping discounts are here to stay. Online retailers such as Flipkart, who offer luxuries such as free door-to-door delivery, are fast growing in popularity. But as far as Team Strand is concerned, they will last the rise of the machines, so to say. Shenvi reiterated the Shanbhags’ mantra, “We are an institution, not a commercial enterprise.” He added, “We have thousands of well-wishers who will always stand up for us in times of need.”

Branding the online retailers as “short-sighted”, Shenvi said, “They store in bulk, which is why they can offer whatever discounts they are offering. They can afford to lose crores, but we can’t.” Delivering the knock-out punch, he said, “Still, we have better prices than all online stores.”

Prasad Kamath, 35, an IT security consultant and bibliophile, concurs with Shenvi. “I guess it all depends on what kind of a person you are. For me, the touch and feel of the book, the smell of the pages and browsing through the book before buying is very important. An online store cannot provide me that facility.” He added, “Stores such as Strand are like a candy shop for a kid, where you can just go berserk. That feeling is irreplaceable.”

The Strand Book Festival closes doors on Sunday at 8pm for the last time this year. Rush to the candy shop, kids!