I live in Andheri, a much-maligned suburb of Bombay that makes me cringe at times. It's also a place that I have grown to love over time. A maddening concrete jungle, Andheri has some hidden patches of greenery like the tranquil campuses of Bhavan's college and the Hansraj Moraji school, both of which have been recently nailed shut to the members of the public.
These green patches are a bird sanctuary and since my building is close enough to the campuses, a lot of beautiful and exotic birds come to my balcony garden. A couple of weeks ago, I was surprised to find out that a large and visible rock in my neighbourhood, Gilbert Hill was once a much larger hill that stretched all the way to S.V. Road. The co-author of 'Once Upon A Hill' even pointed out that my building is actually on the hill.
This wonderful book traces the origins of Andheri and goes back a long way before the advent of human beings. The authors went through a painstaking process of getting old maps from lazy bureaucrats and accessing old books from nasty librarians.
Our journey begins in Andheri East from a Christian village, where there were actually paddy fields till the mid-1970s! We read about local heroes and the earliest converts to Catholicism, as well as the communities that trace their origins to the sun.
Coming back to the western part of Andheri where I stay, I get a proper sense of the length of the hill that once included the part behind the Navrang Cinema, which has been taken over by slums. The writers explain how and when the quarrying was done. The Bhavan's campus is on flat land but now lies where a big part of the hill did.
The writers are rightfully very sympathetic to the poor who settled down by the hill and formed slum clusters.
I don't want to spoil the surprises in the book, so I'll leave that to the readers. But the book is a great guide to those who want to know more about the history of Andheri and Jogeshwari and places that seem to just be names like the Mahakali Caves.
As I stand on my terrace on this pre-monsoon Sunday evening, I remember a time in the 1990s when I could see hills towards my north. Now the metro station and the line is the first sight, followed by high-rises. In the 1990s, I could see Gilbert Hill when I turned towards the south from my terrace. Now I see a monstrous high-rise that came where a beautiful bungalow called Chaman stood. Change is the only constant in life. As the book mentions, the building of the temple on top of the hill is likely to cause untold damage to the basalt columns, but then again, if there was no temple, the land mafia would be more than happy to tear down what's left of the hill!
Like with all books written by Kalpish Ratna, there are welcome lessons in history and science. I learnt a lot about the plague in 'Room 000' and 'The Quarantine Papers' and in this book I got an introduction of the science of geology.
'Once Upon a Hill' is a good read that's incredibly hard to put down, although I think it would have better off without the chapter on the 60 million year journey of a turtle and a frog, or if the chapter stayed with the wider script of the book.
Also, it would only be fair to note that this book is yet another tribute by Kalpish Ratna to Bombay's unsung heroes.
These green patches are a bird sanctuary and since my building is close enough to the campuses, a lot of beautiful and exotic birds come to my balcony garden. A couple of weeks ago, I was surprised to find out that a large and visible rock in my neighbourhood, Gilbert Hill was once a much larger hill that stretched all the way to S.V. Road. The co-author of 'Once Upon A Hill' even pointed out that my building is actually on the hill.
This wonderful book traces the origins of Andheri and goes back a long way before the advent of human beings. The authors went through a painstaking process of getting old maps from lazy bureaucrats and accessing old books from nasty librarians.
Our journey begins in Andheri East from a Christian village, where there were actually paddy fields till the mid-1970s! We read about local heroes and the earliest converts to Catholicism, as well as the communities that trace their origins to the sun.
Coming back to the western part of Andheri where I stay, I get a proper sense of the length of the hill that once included the part behind the Navrang Cinema, which has been taken over by slums. The writers explain how and when the quarrying was done. The Bhavan's campus is on flat land but now lies where a big part of the hill did.
The writers are rightfully very sympathetic to the poor who settled down by the hill and formed slum clusters.
I don't want to spoil the surprises in the book, so I'll leave that to the readers. But the book is a great guide to those who want to know more about the history of Andheri and Jogeshwari and places that seem to just be names like the Mahakali Caves.
As I stand on my terrace on this pre-monsoon Sunday evening, I remember a time in the 1990s when I could see hills towards my north. Now the metro station and the line is the first sight, followed by high-rises. In the 1990s, I could see Gilbert Hill when I turned towards the south from my terrace. Now I see a monstrous high-rise that came where a beautiful bungalow called Chaman stood. Change is the only constant in life. As the book mentions, the building of the temple on top of the hill is likely to cause untold damage to the basalt columns, but then again, if there was no temple, the land mafia would be more than happy to tear down what's left of the hill!
Like with all books written by Kalpish Ratna, there are welcome lessons in history and science. I learnt a lot about the plague in 'Room 000' and 'The Quarantine Papers' and in this book I got an introduction of the science of geology.
'Once Upon a Hill' is a good read that's incredibly hard to put down, although I think it would have better off without the chapter on the 60 million year journey of a turtle and a frog, or if the chapter stayed with the wider script of the book.
Also, it would only be fair to note that this book is yet another tribute by Kalpish Ratna to Bombay's unsung heroes.
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