Mumbai, as a city, can surprise you. The more you search, the more there is to find. But, it's also quickly altering. City chronicler, author and Sunday mid-day columnist, Meher Marfatia was aware of the transience of the Bombay she was born into—one that she felt she was losing "unimaginably fast". It was, in a way, the genesis for the idea of a fortnightly column with this paper. "Luckily, when I shared the thought of an in-depth column with [the editor] Tinaz [Nooshian], she was super receptive," she says. That's how Once Upon A City launched in mid-2016.

The column couldn't have come at a more appropriate time. "When I researched three Catholic villages of Dhobi Talao and came to Cavel [in Chira Bazaar], the women in its fish market told me it was a timely visit, the market was shutting down forever in another two months. It was in fact, gone in two weeks," says Marfatia, author and publisher of Laughter in the House! 20th-century Parsi Theatre and Little Mumbai: All The City's A Playground.