Old Bombay Photos

Nearly 50 years after this ad of 1971, 5 Star still remains the Energy Bar. Of course its not Re.1, anymore.

In the olden days, it was a common custom for shopkeepers to keep a small chair outside the shop as soon as they opened the shop in the morning. As soon as the first customer would arrive, the shopkeeper would lift the chair from that place and take it inside the shop. But when the next customer would come, the shopkeeper would look around the market. Pointing to a shop with a chair still placed outside, he would say to the customer – “You will get what you need from that shop.” I have already got my bohni (the day’s first business) in the morning.” This was because having a chair outside the shop was a sign that the shopkeeper had not received any customers yet. This inspiring affection and care between competing businessmen was probably the reason for the growth in not only their profits, but also in the respect they earned.

Old Bombay – Duncan Causeway @ Sion (1896 and now). The Duncan Causeway was a major causeway in Bombay which connected Sion in Bombay with Kurla in Salsette. The construction of the causeway began in 1798 and was completed in 1805 by Jonathan Duncan, Governor of Bombay (1795–1811), at a cost of £5,037 (Rs. 50,370). In 1826, its breadth was doubled and improved at a further outlay of £4,000 (Rs. 40,000). The causeway was 935 yards long and 24 feet wide, and the roadway was raised to a maximum height of nine feet above the swampy ground. The side walls were of plain stone and lime masonry with earth and stone filling between. It was one of the busiest roads in Bombay during the 18th century. A toll on the causeway used to yield a yearly revenue of £2700 (Rs. 27,000). The toll rates were: 1s. (8 as.) for a four-wheeled carriage with one or two horses; 6d. (4 as.) for a palanquin or for a loaded two-wheeled carriage drawn by two bullocks; 3d. (2 as.) for a two-wheeled carriage, loaded or empty, drawn by one bollock; 2s. (Re. 1) for an elephant; ¾d. (6 pies) for a camel, horse or bullock; ⅜d. (3 pies) for a donkey; and ⅛d. (1 pie) a head for swine, sheep, or goats

The dhobi or parit in Marathi is one of the oldest communities of washer men in India. It is said that it was a dhobi who was responsible for the events of the latter half of the Ramayana. A dhobi used to be one of the twelve trades (balutedars) in any village. The washer man used to go to each house to collect dirty laundry and tying them in a large cloth he would load it onto his donkey and go to the river or any water body in the village to wash the clothes. One would never find a dhobi in one place, maybe that’s why the saying goes that ‘a washer man belongs neither to his house nor to the riverside. Some people also say, ‘dhobi’s dog’, but I have always wondered why a washerman would need a dog? Surely his donkey is more useful to him for carrying his loads. Maybe a dog could have been useful to look after the clothes while they dried. In olden days, even a city like Mumbai had a lake for washer men which went by the name of ‘dhobi talav’. In later years, it was filled up. There is a dhobi wadi in Girgaon’s Thakurdwar area where once upon time washer men lived. Even today a Dhobi ghat exists at Mahalaxmi. Since the last century, with education came a change in lifestyle, and the way people dressed changed too. Dhotis slowly went out of fashion. All educated Indian men started wearing ironed trousers. Slippers went out of fashion and shoes and socks took their place. Khaki coloured shorts too became popular. During World War II, folding one’s trousers at the ankle was no longer considered fashionable. Bush coats and Manila shirts became fashionable. Some years later, Safari suits came into vogue. Rajesh Khanna made the ‘Guru shirt’ extremely popular. These days, denim jeans are the trend. Up to 30 or 40 years ago, almost all households had ‘Rama’ servants or a maid to wash the utensils. But people mostly washed their clothes by themselves. It was an everyday task for women to cook in the mornings and wash the clothes before the sun came up. Even though some households had servants for every chore, no one gave women’s clothes to male servants to wash. After taking a bath, the women washed their own clothes and hung them out to dry. Before washing machines came into use, there was a particular way of washing clothes. There used to be a big, broad, rough-textured stone in the bathroom or near the water tank in the courtyard. The wet cloth was spread on this stone and washed with ‘501’ brand or ‘Sunlight’ soap bar. Then the clothes were ‘beaten’ with a wooden club to remove all the dirty water from them. After that, each garment would be wrung and then brought down with a swinging action from the back of the shoulder and beaten on the stone once again. In wrestling, there is a move where one wrestler lifts the other one off the ground and hurls him down to the ground. In Marathi this move is called ‘dhobi-pachhad’ derived from this way of washing clothes. Once the clothes were washed properly, they were wrung and flicked before hanging them out on a rope, a wire or on the balcony railing to dry. If one did not flick them properly, the clothes would retain a lot of wrinkles when dry. The dhobis had coal fired stoves at their homes. They would put the clothes in a huge vessel full of water and washing soda and boil them well for a couple of hours. Afterwards, they washed them with soap and thrashed them on a stone as described above. Clothes washed this way looked exceptionally clean and white. White cotton clothes were usually starched. Ironed clothes meant clothes made stiff with starch! Some people added a touch of indigo dye in the water while washing to give a bluish tinge to the clothes and also put Tinopol, a famous powder brand to give them a little shine. Leech and Brebourni, Band Box, and Comet were some of the expensive and prestigious laundries in Mumbai and getting your clothes laundered there was a status symbol. Band Box had around 150 branches in Mumbai, with the main office in Worli. They also had many delivery vans. Hotels, hospitals, and other Corporates gave their employees’ uniforms and other linen to such laundries to wash. Every lane in Mumbai had at least one dry cleaners’ or laundry. In villages, bicycles eventually replaced the dhobi’s donkey. Their houses were converted into laundries. Splurging money on washing clothes in a laundry was considered fashionable. In middle class households only the clothes of the family head which he wore to office and the clothes worn only on festivals, marriages and such special occasions were given to laundries to wash. The other daily clothes of the women and children were just neatly folded and kept under the mattress for ‘ironing’! In the washer man’s business, it is very important to be able to identify the customers’ clothes. Every laundry has its own mark or a small logo. When one gives the clothes for washing, a man behind the counter checks everything carefully with an expressionless face. He looks for stains, the laundry mark, the colour of the clothes, the customer’s initials if any, if the shirt or saree is torn, and if anything has been forgotten in the shirt or trouser pockets. Then the clothes are classified into woolen, silk and cotton piles. Only then is a receipt made. As for the name on the receipt, a dhobi usually writes the initials which he can identify immediately. Just like a doctor’s prescription, only the dhobi himself can read what he has written on the receipt! In the evenings, rafuwallas (darners) sat outside the laundries. They were skillful in mending clothes with small tears, or stitching patches on torn clothes. Before giving

  Flora Fountain is a Fountain located at the Hutatma Chowk is an ornamentally sculpted architectural heritage monument located at the southern end of the historic Dadabhai Naoroji Road, at the Fort business district in the heart of South Mumbai, Mumbai, India. Flora Fountain, built in 1864, depicts the Roman goddess Flora. It was built at a total cost of Rs. 47,000, or 9000 pounds sterling, a large sum in those days. The fountain originally intended for the Victoria Gardens, is now surmounted by the figure of Plenty (“Courtesy of Special Collections, University of Houston Libraries.”). History of the Flora Fountain is traced to the time when the Old Mumbai Fort was demolished in 1860 as part of the then Governor, Sir Bartle Frère’s efforts to improve civic sanitation (municipal improvements) and the urban space requirements of the growing city. Prior to this demolition, the Fort had been built between 1686 and 1743 by the British East India Company with three gates (the Apollo Gate, the Church Gate and the Bazaar Gate), a moat, esplanade, level open spaces on its western fringe (to control fires) and residences. A small road called the Hornby Road, named after the then Governor of Bombay (Mumbai) between 1771 AD and 1784 AD, also existed at the old Fort area. Consequent to the demolitions, the Hornby road was widened into a broad avenue and on its western side commercial plots were developed to build new commercial buildings in Neo Classical and Gothic Revival designs. The Dadabhai Naoroji Road (D. N. Road), developed into a veritable sight of colonial splendor with Crawford Market linked to the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus anchoring the northern end and the Flora Fountain, forming the southern end of the Mile Long Road.[ The Flora Fountain was erected at the exact place where the Church gate (named after St. Thomas Cathedral, Mumbai ) stood before its demolition along with the Mumbai Fort. It was constructed by the Agri–Horticultural Society of Western India, out of a donation of Rs 20,000 by Cursetjee Fardoonjee Parekh. Designed by Richard Norman Shaw, it was sculpted in imported Portland stone by James Forsythe. A white coat of oil paint has to some extent marred the antiquity of the structure. The fountain was originally to be named after Sir Bartle Frère, the Governor of Bombay at the time, whose progressive policy had resulted in many of the great public buildings of Mumbai. However, the name was changed before the fountain was unveiled as Flora Fountain, named after Flora, a Roman Goddess of flowers and the season of spring; her majestic and pretty Portland stone statue adorns the top of the fountain. The four corners of the fountain are decorated with mythological figures.The fountain was originally intended to be built at the Jijamata Udyaan at Byculla but, in 1908, the grass plot and the palm trees that had camouflaged the fountain were cleared for creating space for pedestrians and horse–traffic between the tram lines and the kerb of the fountain.