What's in a name? A whole lot across town

Agripada the hamlet pada of the Agris wedged between west Byculla and east Bombay Central was where a trio of cultivators Agris camped Bhat Agris or rice planters Mitha Agris or salt manufacturers and Bhajipala Agris or vegetable farmersAltamont Road it is not Altamount Road as most misname it Colonel Altamont served the Nawab of Lucknow before settling on this lush Cumballa Hill slope leading up from Kemps CornerApollo Bunder is traced partly from bandar meaning port Palla fish was sold on these shores Corrupted to the Portuguese Pollem the word finally emerged as Apollo Another version has it that Apollo is an adaptation of palava a fishing vesselmdashPalava la jaavu ya meant Lets go fishingWho sailed solo to 19thcentury Bombay to pioneer education for girls in the Esplanade area PicSuresh KarkeraBandra being prime monkey habitat was called Vandra or ape The general allusion is the Portugueses hailing Bandor from bandar or port Variations aboundedmdashBandera Bandura Bandore Bandorah Bandaramdashtill a railway signboard conclusively printed BandraBhendi Bazar isnt only a nod to Indian tulip tree groves Thespesia populnea locally dubbed bhendi The Brits referred to the area as behind the bazar which people colloquially slurred to Bhendi BazarBorivli gets its name from plantations of boras fruit berries which used to fall in thick carpets on the ground of this northern suburb the English insisted on spelling as BerewleeBreach Candy comes from breach a gap in the rocks the land mass formed here linking its Arabian Sea flank to the Mahalaxmi and Byculla flats beyond Candy could be the Anglicised pronunciation of khind meaning a passByculla partially alludes to European carriages called gharries read purring Plymouths and stately Studebakers rolling past Cassi fistula treesmdashthe Indian laburnum bhaya Suffixed with khala which was a threshing floor the words combined as BycullaCarmichael Road with residences Claude Batley and George Wittet imagined along the eastern edge of Cumballa Hill acknowledges David Fremantle Carmichael of the Civil Services It has been renamed ML Dahanukar Road honouring the first postIndependence Sheriff whose family lived midstreet at Shree SadanChembur stems from the charming Marathi chimboree big crab like Kurla from kurlya little crab At low tide its sunhardened soil withstood the tread of bullock carts carrying Pathare Prabhu Koli Bhandari and Agri settlersChowpatty combines chau or four and patti the channels that tides flowed into till the western foreshore was reclaimed Interestingly though the word signified four inlets from the sea to Girgaon today this is an outlet for people to the seaChurchgate refers to St Thomas Church it became a cathedral in 1837 half a kilometre from the railway station roughly where the Flora Fountain stands Till the 19th century Bombay was fortified with walls a moat and three gates The other two were Apollo Gate and Bazar GateDongri derives from dongar or rock rising on a hill levelled by the City Improvement Trust Dongri is supposed to have given its name to the dungaree Indian calico used for workmen and labourers clothes before it became a fashion itemForjett Street takes after Charles Forjett the AngloIndian Deputy Commissioner of Police 185664 who organised Bombays first police force Slipping into clever disguises to bust 19thcentury crime rings he donned the desi dress spoke local lingo and artfully slunk along dark streets to feel the pulse of the peopleFrench Bridge is in fact fully English The 1866constructed Gamdevi bridge is named for Colonel Patrick T French British founder chairman of the BBampCI Railway Indophile and musicologist French submitted the Royal Irish Academy essays like Catalogue of Indian Musical InstrumentsGhatkopar some say alludes to the suburban hill range tapering off at Thane ghat ke oopar Others ascribe it to the Marathi word for cornermdashkhopramdashof the Western Ghats therefore GhatkhopraGoregaon Goregaon activist Mrinal Gore socialists Baburao Samant and George Fernandes at Baburaos daughters wedding in the 1970sGoregaon is not a hat tip to activist Mrinal Gore dubbed Paniwali Bai she campaigned for drinking water among other crusades Ghodegaon was the horse trade centre for Maratha warriors They bought horses from Ghodegaon market after trial trots 10 kilometres away on the rugged hilltop which came to be called GhodeghoomGowalia Tank has a bucolic connotation Gow meaning cow Gowalia referred to shepherds bathing their cattle and sheep in the boatfilled tank that once stood adjacent to Nana Chowk A wilderness the site was cultivated with rice and pomelo plantations before being built overHughes Road touching Bombays first flyover at Kemps Corner from 1964 salutes Sir Walter Hughesmdashinaugural chairman of the Improvement Trust which developed this vicinity of New Gamdevi as a model suburb in 1908Kemps Corner was birthed by everybodys favourite prescription chemist in a roofed store at this junction Kemp amp Co The pharmacy dispensed medicines as well as soda water in a siphon bottle Kemps had an extremely accurate weighing scale available at no chargeKhar from the Marathi khara or salty the area was seawater marshy unravels in a patchwork of Pathare Prabhu Sindhi Sikh East Indian Parsi Gujarati and Muslim influences and confluences When the suburb got its train station in 1924 premises on these khara tracts were declared ready to rentKhetwadi lauded for sprawling paddy fields and groves khetwadi now presents a barren spectre Residents have slowly watched lanes lined with an abundance of peepul mango and ashoka trees flowering bushes almond and drumstick trees disappearKhodadad Circle at Dadar takes after travel writer Gustasp Iranis ancestor The four buildings ringing this roundabout were erected by his grandfather Gustasp and his brother RustommdashThe municipal commissioner agreed to name the circle for their father Khodadad my greatgrandfather Clockwise as Tilak Bridge ends stand Empress Mahal Empire Mahal Imperial Mahal and Harganga Mahal formerly Rustom Mahal Ishwar Singh Chowhan says the property was renamed Harganga in 1944 passed on to his uncle Harnam Singh and father Ganga SinghMatunga claims a dual etymology The word Matang is Marathi for elephant This was where Raja Bhimdevs 14thcentury elephant stables were Another legend has it that sage Matang of the Ramayana rested here after wandering the subcontinentMulund Girija Chandramouli a Mulund oldtimer at a flower show in the suburb Emperor Ashoka himself was among the first to step into PicDatta KumbharMulund in Emperor Ashokas reign was where Buddhist monks rested as they did near ports assigned names of gods and goddesses This ancient precinct went from being called Mahabali to Muchalind to MulKund A 10thcentury Tamrapatra copper plate from the Shilahara era is inscribed with the word MulundPasta Lanes 1 2 3 and 4 in Colaba sound like la bella Italias delectable dish but really salute Kutchi Bhatia philanthropistGoculdas Liladhur Pasta Sheth Mohanjee Goculdas cotton merchant forefather was declared pasta or prince for his generosity Honouring the legacy Goculdas and his son Madhavdas sponsored temples dharamshalas wellsand tanksPrescott Road remembers Mary Prescott who sailed to the subcontinent to start a school for girls In 1860 the Englishwoman established JB Petit High School Earlier called Miss Prescotts Fort Christian School its current name owes thanks to Jehangir Bomanji Petits later financial aid it might otherwise have fused with the Cathedral Girls SchoolSanta Cruz translates as Holy Cross in Portuguese The village known as Khulbhowree was hailed Santa Cruz by Salsette Christians reciting the Rosary together on a hillock around a rough wooden cross A chapel at the spot in 1850 marked the inception of Sacred Heart Church on SV Road in 1936Siri Road led from Gamdevi village up junglecovered slopes of Malabar Hill to the Walkeshwar temple Worshippers ascended the winding path which being narrow was named Siri ladder RoadSleater Road near Grant Road Station on BBampCI Railway land commemorates JM Sleater its Chief Engineer in the 1880s It was renamed Naushir BharuchaMarg to honour the corporatorMLA credited for concretising the road among the first tarred in South BombayTardeo like other precincts taking after the flora that proliferated in and around them was christened for palm tads flourishing below midtown Cumballa Hill With a deity installed the term Taddev was coinedVile Parle goes back to a pair of hamletsmdashPadle near Santa Cruz and Irle near Andherimdashresulting in the station between named Vidlai Idlai to those dropping the V Padlai From Vidlai Padlai to Vile Parle was a step for East Indian Christian villagers whose paddy patches fruit and rose gardens fanned out zoned eastwestWadala Kazim Ahmedji and Shakeb Ahmedji washing a stone at the Shaykh Misri Dargah believed to be 500 years old and indicative of the era in which this saint came to Wadala PicFalguni AgrawalWadala has two stories suggesting its origin Trees planted in 13thcentury Bombay lent localities their names Parel derived from the paral trumpet flower Wadala from wad banyan We prefer the colourful claim that a tiger roamed the area eyes glowing and a fierce flick of his tail sweeping the ground he prowled down to from the hill The Marathi wagh dolatiger eyes became Wadala This folksier version is offered by Kazim Ahmedji from the Sunni family of mujawwar caretakers whose ancestors worked in the service of saints at Shaykh Misri DargahWalkeshwar is literally valu ke Ishwar derived from the Sanskrit for a sandsculpted deity It is where Rama is believed to have rested a night fatigued searching for kidnapped Sita Picking a handful of sand from this spot he moulded a lingam Then Walkeshwar gave its name to the main Banganga temple tooAuthorpublisher Meher Marfatia writes fortnightly on everything that makes her love Mumbai and adore Bombay Reach her at mehermarfatiamiddaycomCatch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates