Do you know why Mumbai’s Fort area is called Fort? If not, don’t worry. We won’t judge you. Amid the city’s glassy high-rises and its gruelling daily hustle, it’s not always easy to wonder about the city’s history, let alone peer closely at its many ancient forts. Besides, it doesn't help that couples in search of secluded nooks immortalise their names in chalk on the century-old walls of city forts and that picnickers leave unseemly gutkha wrappers and chip packets in the pathways where warriors once trod. 

This is largely why Dr Rashna Poncha, city-based assistant professor with the History department at Sophia College for Women, plans to hold an online talk titled ‘Lost Sentinels: The Forgotten Forts of Mumbai’ on July 22. Organised by the Museum Society of Mumbai and the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS), the session will shed light on these structures which are in ruins, and fast disappearing from the urban Mumbai landscape.