Walk and you shall find.
Listen and you shall know.

Armed with these two commandments for successful travel, we joined Shriti Tyagi, founder of Beyond Bombay Tours, on a walking trail, aptly called Bylanes of Bandra on a breezy winter afternoon.

Ours was a motley group of 13 from different walks of life — residents who had returned after decades of exile, a second generation Indian humouring her parents, and cheerful shutter-happy tourists — we had drifted together to explore the Bandra that lies beyond its glass-fronted shops, impenetrable traffic, stylish cafes and cheap knock-offs.

The Queen of Suburbs didn’t disappoint. The next three hours left us rich in legends, anecdotes and visual memories of the Bandra that lies confined to history books and crumbling homes, the one that reveals herself shyly to keen ears and watchful eyes of the curious traveller.

Stop 1>> Mount Mary’s Church
Our adventures begin on the crest of a quiet, windy hill, with the towering neo-Gothic facade of Mount Mary’s Church. Shriti Tyagi, our guide, traces the chequered history of the shrine: “In the late 1500s, a simple oratory of mud and thatch stood here, serving the Portuguese settlers. Jesuit priests had brought the statue of Mary from Portugal, and its popularity grew. In 1640, a wooden chapel replaced the rudimentary edifice, so Portuguese soldiers garrisoned at the fort in Land’s End could come here to pray.”

Soon, the shrine was sucked into the violent crosscurrents. In 1700, Arab pirates, who lopped off Mary’s right arm, pillaged the chapel. Marathas were next, desecrating the shrine in 1738 and tossing Mary’s statue into the sea. She continues, “Legend has it that decades later, a Koli fisherman dreamed he would find the statue in water. He found it on a fishing voyage; the statue was restored with great fanfare in 1761. The missing hand was disguised by placing a baby Jesus on Mary’s arm. The imposing stone structure of today was completed between 1902 and 1904.”

Tyagi’s narrative dwells on the fascinating cross-pollination of cultures. When the Jesuit priests from Portugal arrived, religious conversion was inevitable. Local upper classes were educated in the Roman script and religious texts, and the lower classes were wooed by incorporating existing Hindu rituals into Christian modes of worship. “So, you spot devotees who remove their shoes before entering the hall, and offer marigold garlands to the Mother — both practices originate from the Hindu faith,” she says.