Absurdly confusing in fusing one extremity of Bombay with another, this question did get asked. Leaving SoBo-ites aghast to think their elegant Edwardian business district could be so casually transplanted north. "That-s the most shocking enquiry I-ve heard," says Anita Garware, chairperson of the Indian Heritage Society, Mumbai, who had to answer that unfortunate question. "People should take interest in the city before airing such ignorance and grumbling about what the authorities have or have not done."

To repair the despair in some measure, Garware writes the lead piece of The Voice of Malabar Hills. "Many people, here all their lives, aren-t aware of anything beyond their doorstep. I am no historian but respect what we have inherited. We are mere guardians of culture passed on to us, which it-s our duty to preserve for the future."