The day my parents decided to get hitched, they enrolled in JJ Rodriguez's dance class. After feather-footed Joao Joaquim Rodriguez of Margao wowed the city with his school in 1951, it was de rigueur to show the object of your affection some smooth ballroom moves. Couples happily headed to Sethna House on Allana Road, practising pirouettes and gliding with grace.

Then largely populated by Anglo-Indians and Europeans, Allana Road—facing Electric House on Colaba Causeway—was Barrow Road when constructed by the Bombay Port Trust. HW Barrow, chief reporter of The Times of India, was Municipal Secretary from 1870 to 1898.

The shuttered Irani-turned-Lebanese-and-Continental restaurant, Piccadilly, leads into the lane at virtually deserted Donald House, standing since 1905, now in decrepitude. "Piccadilly opened with my father Ardeshir and partners in 1957. The BEST headquarters opposite had no canteen, so its staff came in for our brun maska-chai and kheema pao," says Parvez Burzog. "Dad manned the counter from 5 am to midnight. In the 1980s, we introduced chelo kebab, khoresht gormasabzi and khoresht gameh gravies, zabaan (tongue) and paya (trotters) soup. At a post-Independence public auction Vithoba Shanbag bought the building where he later started an Udupi called Samarambha."

A A photograph of Joao Joaquim Rodriguez and Dorothy striking a classic ballroom pose