Zoya Kathawala’s family moved to Kamathipura after the Bombay docks explosion of 1944. They lived there until the ‘70s, the family still maintains the property there (they traded in cotton rope), and Kathawala—an artist and docent at the Bhau Daji Lad museum—was a little at unease about the reputation the neighbourhood had. “With the docks at Mazagaon and the British soldiers at Fort, men’s needs had to be met,” she says, rolling her eyes. “So, Kamathipura became a place of subversive pleasure. But there is so much more to it. There are pockets of devotion and purity in this ‘unpure’ neighbourhood. I wanted to show that.”

That’s how Kathawala began her weekend walks, Beyond Brothels, which this writer undertook one Saturday morning. The genesis of the name Kamathipura lies in two roots: ‘Kamathi’ as in workers for the daily wage labourers, craftsmen and small traders who lived here. “Just to clarify,” begins Kathawala as we meet at Royal Cinema at 7 am, “we will not be going to the red light areas. Many people sign up thinking that’s where we are headed and are left disappointed.” Royal Cinema and Nishat Talkies opposite it are amongst the last of the single screen theatres in the area, residues of a time when they were centres of family recreation. They’re on a clock; apparently in line to be pulled down to make way for taller buildings that are still rare in this congested part of the city.