Meher Marfatia Column: Crosses, a square and Blue Circle

Loves Mumbai and adores BombayYou keep talking about South Bombayrdquo a friend complains It shall be a year to share some legends of the North I promise Writing this column on Epiphany Day the sixth dawn in January when the three wise men went bearing gifts for the baby of Bethlehem makes the Catholic bastion of Bandra an apt starting pointldquoOnce there were green fields kissed by the sunrdquo declared Fr Larry Pereira in the Bombay Local History Society magazine Explorer Irsquom happy to have been warmed by the same Schooling in a convent keeps you in the know and flow of things Biblical And thanks to a favourite aunt living on Boran Roadrsquos twostoreyed Ascension House alluding to the holy story of the Ascension it was easy finding out that the pride of Boran village was the Heritage Wooden Cross of 1854 from the Almeida familyA Plague Cross at Ranwar village BandraBuilt to protect their hamlet from the plague a marble base was added in the vintage treasurersquos centenary yearThe Queen of Suburbs is strewn with these relics On the shortest stroll you pass a purposefully placed Plague Cross One reason why several such were erected was to ward off an outbreak of that then raging disease as well as to remember those succumbing to it Back in the 1890s sleepy Bandra villages saw a sudden population boom after a series of bubonic plague attacks struck Bombay Not many advances in medical science to their rescue people tried the next line of care prevention They simply sought to move away from the overcrowded island city Secluded Bandrarsquos leafy lanes provided a safe havenThough crosses predate this period and have sprung up since the late 1800s and early 1900s mdash Bombayrsquos years of ldquothe black deathrdquo mdash proved Bandrarsquos golden days of cross construction Often at a corner of public squares and occasionally on private property limewashed crosses still stand along the palmtreed stretch between Lilavati Hospital and Hill Road clustered in and around historic Ranwar village Off the Hill Road end abutting the Arabian Sea 200yearold St Andrewrsquos Church has the oldest of about 150 original crosses in Bandra First gracing St Anne seminary which was destroyed in 1739 this 17feethigh monolith is carved with 39 emblems of the Passion of ChristA slant across lies the entrance to Ranwar village That this was rice grower paradise may be deduced from the patchwork quiltlike maze of tiny cottages The precinctrsquos East Indian settlers raising paddy among other crops for their local needs and for export inhabited roughly 25 hamlets called pakhadis The majority of these residents were farmers the rest became toddy tappers potters and fishermen selling pomfrets for an anna each which were dried or fried flavourfully pickled or curriedSt Andrewrsquos Church in Bandra just turned 200Dating back four centuries and possibly remodelled two centuries ago the houses of Ranwar display double windows with diamondpatterned ventilators and cemented seat balconies which were a focal meeting point for gossipy neighbours waved welcomingly within In that age of innocence front doors were left wide open to the street day and night expressly to usher the outside inLook hard today and you spot stray pockets of redroofed Ranwar Chimbai Sherly Rajan Pali and Chuim villages show traces of a vibrant heritage in 19thcentury domestic architecture decidedly Portuguese in influence Wooden staircases and jutting verandas have fallen prey to the greedy builder lobby blunting the communicative quality of close communitiesPipepuffing wizened uncles on verandas recall how kids chased clucking hens and fattened pigs across the village square Due for sale at Christmas Easter and the Bandra Fair in September the animals were made to put on flesh for final succulence So women tending the herd wanted starch in the diet and they were a quaintly familiar sight crisscrossing alleys balancing rice soup pails on their heads Goats turkeys and guinea fowls were reared and cookery recipes ranked as prized dowry items Dessert always the high note cucumber cake rice atola sweet potato chatch ambrosial almond and cashew marzipan filled festive trays Sweets or savouries cafeacutes and bakeries across Bandra continue to offer delectable treats My family haunt used to be Blue Circle the small shop beside New Talkies mdash now Globus mdash where we got our weekend film fix every Sunday morning Blue Circlersquos buttery fresh wafers melted in the mouth a delight second to none With a hat tip to the times of its cultivatorfarmer ancestors beloved Bandra feasts foreverWrite in to Meher at mehermarfatiagmailcom