Today, the Hitlist section of this newspaper in its Weekend Guide pages carries a story about how the Bhendi Bazaar area is gearing up for its Urdu festival. The three-day festival to be held in early January is celebrated with the aim to revive and celebrate the Urdu culture the area has specially contributed to. Under the cultural umbrella, the event will include a programme called ‘Hundred Years of Urdu Cinema’.

Bhendi Bazaar is one of Mumbai’s biggest redevelopment projects. It is only a part of a pan-city movement. Redevelopment certainly aims to enhance the lifestyle of the inhabitants but, inevitably, the builders’ bulldozers also crush the history and heritage of the place. Communities get uprooted, as lifestyles change owing to physical and infrastructural changes.