Some thoughts don't leave easily. One stuck in my mind started with a line I wrote in this column on Opera House: "Roxy Cinema was bought in 1932 by the brothers Kapurchand, Zaverchand and Kevalchand Mehta who lent their names to Kapur Mahal, Zaver Mahal and Keval Mahal on Marine Drive." This is the baaki picture of that teaser trailer, its plot resembling one of those golden jubilee hits the theatre announced on neon-lit billboards. Sparkling like The Queen's Necklace's triple-jewelled pendant, these buildings were its early pride. Between 1937 and 1939 when they were erected, few facades of their kind flanked Kennedy Sea Face, the arc imperially saluting Lieutenant Colonel Michael Kavanagh Kennedy.

Kennedy passed away years before this western shore Backbay Reclamation began. Inscribed in stone outside the Mafatlal Baths, 1915 dates the foundation of this grand sweep of street. The 1930s Art Deco skyline developed in tandem with RCC gaining popularity as construction material. By the 1950s a plainer cluster accommodated immigrants from Karachi waterline homes nostalgic to sight another promenade.