Tomorrow, Sunday, August 18 is Parsi New Year. The time then is apt to reflect on Parsi baugs (baag) or colonies struggling to hold their own in an age of high-rise towers and booming new age construction. These baugs or colonies give Mumbai a unique flavour and still keep alive a lifestyle that is fast disappearing. The baug has been immortalised in so many films and books, one can remember Rohinton Mistry's ‘Tales from Ferozesha Baag’ as just one example of how the quirks of this community were captured in short stories through the daily vicissitudes of Ferozesha Baag residents.

Today, when the builders’ bulldozer shadows several old, residential structures in the city, it is important that people work together to strive to save these baugs from being razed down and replaced by hi-rise towers.