Every time you meet Fr Milton Gonsalves at the 444-year-old Holy Cross Church’s rectory in Kurla, you experience a sense of calm. However, the 82-year-old revered priest and scholar — whose career includes roles as priest, principal, and Dean of the Bandra Deanery within the Bombay Archdiocese — still carries a fire in his belly. Fr Gonsalves is passionate about East Indian culture, which he often explores in his books on the community’s social, religious, and historical aspects. Having written about the East Indian villages of Thane, Kurla, Kalina, Uttan, and Dharavi islands, his latest work centres on the neighbourhood of Andheri. “I would like to share my knowledge about various places I have worked as a priest,” he says humbly.

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