Walking past some of Mumbai's most popular heritage landmarks can be insightful and is bound to make one want to fall in love with Mumbai, all over again. Dhara Vora signed up for a heritage walk and returned with a bagful of lesser-known facts and trivia about a city that we call home

While we love the city and are positively obsessed about every gargoyle that juts out of the buildings that stand as remnants of the Raj, going on a heritage walk and fussing over these stoned beauties never fails to excite us. If the person guiding us around is a Masters in Art History from The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London, holds a diploma in Heritage Education and Interpretation and has been a part of the curatorial team at the Bhau Daji Lad Museum, we didn't need much convincing that she'd be ideal to play guide on a heritage walk around some of the city's historic landmarks.


The vertical lines on Dhanraj Mahal's facade represent the Art Deco
style. Pics/Bipin Kokate

High on heritage
Our expert guide in question isu00a0 Inheritage Project founder, 27-year-old Alisha Sadikot. For now, Alisha conducts the walks in the entire Fort area, Ballard Estate and the area around the Bazaar Gate. She plans to cover other parts of the city in the future. The starting point of our 90-minute walk (abridged version) was the Gateway of India. Though Alisha arranges walks according to one's convenience, her advice is to set out on either in the morning, "...the afternoon sun is a nuisance," she says. "Alternatively, late evenings are convenient but step out before sundown, as it gets difficult to study most heritage buildings due to poorly lit outer facades."

1. Our first stop was the Gateway of India, which as commonly known was built to commemorate the arrival of King George V and Queen Mary. What is not well known is that the architect George Wittet, passed the designs of the structure around for public opinion, Alisha reveals. The structure, built from locally sourced yellow basalt stone, is a combination of Hindu and Mughal architectural styles. After a history lesson about its neighbour, the Taj Hotel and its modern structure beside it, we were ready to move.


Standing in front of Alisha's favourite structure, The Watson's Hotel