I don't wish to show up like a chokra boy," chuckles Kenneth James, paying no heed to a companion's advice to slip off his blazer on a muggy afternoon right before he steps in for a meeting with Commodore Rakesh Anand, Chairman and MD, Mazagon Docks Limited (MDL) . For Anglo Indians, "chokra boy" is a popular way to describe a good-for-nothing, unkempt youngster.

An hour earlier, James, 85 had hit rewind mode as he pored over years of history that grace the insides of Dharohar, the revamped maritime museum gallery at MDL. Accompanied by his daughters, Deborah O'Gorman and Annemarie Sharp, James was keen to visit the place where he spent the last years of teenage life. He had joined the Apprentice Engineers of MDL when he was 16 and completed the course in 1955. Playing his part in the gallery upgrade, James shared information on his training days with the experts team. "Uncle Ken [James] played a huge role in putting me in touch with the last of the Chinese fitters who were part of the skilled workforce at Mumbai's oldest shipbuilding yard, 60 years ago. I owe him a debt for loaning us his precious photographs, too," says Dr Fleur D'Souza, city historian and former HoD (History) at St Xavier's College.