‘My kids will never know the Bandra I grew up in’

When we heard that an eightyearold was run over by a car in Bandra we wanted to see for ourselves if it was infrastructure failure to blame negligence or none of the above So a couple of days after the accident on a Tuesday afternoon we headed to the spot on John Baptist RoadTo our left was the Veermata Jijabai Bhosale Kridangan and on the right the boundary walls of housing societies The lane itself was almost too quiet the vendor at a milk stall a little ahead of the garden was the only one willing to speak to usldquoThe road hardly has any traffic to be honest and the accident happened on a Sunday afternoon so it was even quieter than it is nowrdquo he tells us ldquoTo be honest it was a freak accident The boy was playing cricket in the garden the ball bounced out onto the road he chased it and the woman ran him over It is no doubt a tragedyrdquo he addsThe area in which the eightyearold lost his life in the accidentWhile early reports had alleged that the woman at the wheel was distracted by her phone the milk vendorrsquos account seems to match what the motorist 45yearold nutritionist Megha Rawal has stated that her call data record CDR proves she wasnrsquot on a call while drivingWhile the facts of the case are yet to be established by the police the accident has made the locals confront an uncomfortable truth Bandra is no longer the slow safe haven where a child can simply play in his neighbourhood mdash he lived just a building away from the garden mdash without the fear of oncoming traffic rushing towards the latest cafe to sprout in the suburbIn the last six to seven years alone residents have witnessed Bandra become increasingly unrecognisable Redevelopment is steadily stripping the villages of the charming bungalows that have always been Bandrarsquos highlight Meanwhile bougie cafes no pun intended are a dead giveaway of gentrification of historically East Indian and Koli hamlets One canrsquot help but liken it to what happened in Brooklyn New York City in the 1940s and 1950s as AfricanAmerican and Latinx residents were edged out of their neighbourhoods as beaniewearing hipsters and overpriced artisanal cafes took over the boroughThis story is Sunday middayrsquos love letter to the suburb that this paper also calls home Much like Brooklyn Bandra is now unaffordable for many of its original inhabitants whether thatrsquos because of skyrocketing rent or the impossible cost of maintaining bungalows At the same time the need to make way for the new generation of Bandraites cannot be dismissedWe cannot stop progress but we can always tarry a little longerlsquoManaging chaos and traffic is the cafe ownerrsquos responsibilityrsquoShormistha Mukherjee came to live in Bandra 24 years ago and is the mind behind the Instagram page housesofbandraWe tell Shormistha Mukherjee about our conversation with Bernie Tellis and Mukherjee is very conscious of the fact that in comparison she is a newbie to Bandra ldquoMost people think I am very new Just 24 yearsrdquo she says We tell her that not everyone needs to live in Bandra for 100 years to love and treasure it like she has She chucklesTalking about the genesis of housesofbandra the Instagram page where she documents the hood via architecture culture and oral history in the Queen of Suburbs Mukherjee says it started with her obsession for walking and cycling around the suburb ldquoAs I walked and cycled I thought that maybe I should document it all Because for me if you donrsquot know your past how will you make sense of your presentrdquo she saysMukherjee believes that change is the natural order of things but she just wanted to bear witness to what wersquore losing in the process ldquoSo the idea was not make judgment or anything like that but just document how Bandra was beforerdquo she addsTo newer residents now making this suburb their home she says ldquoIf people want to come in and live here but donrsquot want to know anything about its history I am very nonjudgmental on these things But if even one out of 10 people wants to know more then this Houses of Bandra is for yourdquo The digital archive on Bandra has a print avatar as well with Mukherjee publishing a book titled Pudding It is now going for a second reprintAs far as the overcrowded cafes that most locals cannot afford Mukherjee feels itrsquos the responsibility of the cafe to manage the chaos ldquoI feel like the responsibility lies with the cafes You come open a cafe in a village then itrsquos your responsibility to manage the traffic and crowd to ensure you donrsquot disturb the fabric of the village That culture is why you opened a shop there right So you canrsquot go and ruin that calmrdquo she sayslsquoEarlier wersquod spot maybe one car in the entire neighbourhoodrsquoBernie Tellis is a thirdgeneration Bandra resident will soon see her childhood home turn into a high riseBernie Tellis an educationist freelance writer social activist sounds like a woman with a cando spirit and who wears her opinion well After initial introductions Tellis wants to get down to business ldquoOkay now letrsquos get started Tell me what you want to knowrdquo she commands and we canrsquot help but smile over the callBernie Tellis is third generation Bandra resident and says that change is inevitableThe 79yearold was born and raised in Bandra ldquoMy family has been living here for around 92 years Our house was at the crossroad of Mount Carmel and Rebello Road just behind Mehboob Studio Its gone for redevelopment It was once named Belvedere now 9 Belvedere and itrsquos going to be 19 floors tallrdquo she says adding that she is staying on rent nearby until the house is handed over to the new ownersEverything around the house is changing too Now cars parked along the roads make it near impossible to take a walk Tellis recalls a time when ldquoThere was maybe one car that you might spot in the neighbourhoodAnd that too would be a car given by the office no one owned a personal car here in those daysrdquo says Tellis whose family has lived in Bandra for 92 years and countingTellis reminisces about a childhood spent fishing and staying in tents behind her home during summer vacations building a clubhouse in the backyard and roads that had not a drop of cementWe ask how she feels about the changes ldquoYou cannot stop change at the same time with the towers will come new people who donrsquot know us donrsquot understand the culture and community of this hamlet Infrastructure hasnt kept pace with rapid redevelopmentrdquo she ruesBefore we even ask her if shersquod ever move out of Bandra perhaps to her native home in Mangaluru she quotes a Walter Scott poem mdash The Lay of the Last Minstrel mdash ldquoBreathes there the man with soul so dead Who never to himself hath said This is my own my native landrdquoI have lived here all my life and hope to be buried here I will be buried here she finally sayslsquoCommunity spaces are shrinkingrsquoFootballer Brian Drsquosouza has petitioned the Bombay HC and got a stay on the conversion of the iconic Neville Drsquosouza ground into an exhibition centreBrian Drsquosouza 50 has realised that he doesnrsquot know most of his neighbours anymore ldquoWhen riding around to meet friends I realised how much had changed not only open spaces lost each bungalow had a garden which is now a parking space but you hardly know anyone in the new buildings Earlier we knew almost 80 per cent of the residents by name Today as the high rises come we are losing our sense of communityrdquo he saysBrian Drsquosouza at Neville Drsquosouza ground that might be levelled for a exhibition turf says its a key socialisation groundThe threat to iconic Neville DrsquoSouza football ground mdash tipped to become an exhibition centre mdash is another symptom of what is happening to the suburb he says ldquoItrsquos not just a playground itrsquos more a place for the football community to gather Where kids start their initiation into the game from under eight onwards Its almost like a right of passage Its where players who have trained here who have gone on to play for the state and country he says The footballers here remain friends for a lifetime ldquoThe bond the players have with the ground is indescribablerdquo he addslsquoCanrsquot even take my kids out for a walk herersquoBorn and raised here Joan Fernandes moved out with her family to escape the constant digging chaos and dustBandraborn Joan Fernandes took a call to move to Goa in 2022 Her son suffered from bronchitis and needed some space to breathe especially with the spectre of COVID19 still looming over their heads ldquoIn Goa my kidrsquos bronchitis was in control and they wouldnrsquot get as sick as much But it was quite bad when we were in Bandrardquo she saysAnd unlike her childhood memories of walking and cycling with abandon in the villages Fernandesrsquos children could barely step out because of the rampant construction broken footpaths and dugup roads ldquoIt had become difficult to take my kids out even for a walk which was something we could enjoy in the nature in Goardquo she addsJoanna moved away from Bandra after it became unlivableThe final nail in the coffin were the exorbitant school fees Bandra schools sought as the suburb was steadily occupied by the affluent ldquoThey told us to pay Rs 5 lakh for KG and Junior KGrdquo she recallsAs luck would have it the family was already pursuing emigration to Australia by this point and it ended up working out ldquoWe have been in Melbourne since 2025 It just came down to wanting a better life education and health for our children Here we get all Every time we return to Bandra we realise just how much we were missing when we lived hererdquo she addslsquoThe policy now spells doomrsquoAlan Abraham a wellknown architect who lives in Bandra feels that maintaining the balance between businesses and community is the need of the hourAlan Abraham has been a advocating for better fusing of community and development for yearsSo when we really wanted to know what he felt about the rampant development of his neighbourhood ldquoBandrarsquos population is increasing but its civic spaces parks and social infrastructuremdashincluding hospitals schools and open spaces and other basic amenities mdash are not keeping pace he saysArchitect Alan Abraham FILE PICASHISH RAJEAbraham also points out that current infrastructure policy does not work We need a balance where businesses can grow without pushing out the local community or destroying the culture and charm that made Bandra special This has to happen through policy and it has to happen now The current policy is causing doom he addsWe ask Abraham if he feels that this feels akin to Brooklyns gentrification ldquoI agree there are some parallels especially the way rising property values and new businesses can change a neighbourhood But Bandra is different because its history communities and cultural mix are very unique We should learn from other cities but find a solution that works for Bandrardquo he adds