A Heritage Walk To Reminisce…
On the bright Sunday morning of on 10th of Jan R/anne Sandhya Jaidev Merchant led a group of 22 Rtns on the much-awaited Heritage Walk to Bhuleshwar. Kothari Hospital at C.P Tank was the scheduled meeting point. Bhuleshwar is known as a dynamic, over- crowded area of small streets and teeming entrepreneurship, but what one didn’t know is that it contains about two hundred places of worship, some of them dating back to the 10th century!
R/anne Sandhya began the walk at Madhav Bagh Complex which was built over a century ago by a local Kapol merchant in the memory of his father. Adjacent to the bagh is the Panjrapole animal shelter started in 1834, with 350 Gir cows where families come and feed the animals in the early hours of the morning. She led the group through Bhuleshwar and Kalbadevi explaining the generous charity that the Jains, Parsis and Gujaratis did to develop the areas. Sites visited included one of the oldest Jain temples called the Godiji Temple; the Samudri Mata Mandir; the Mumba Devi Mandir; the Jalebi Wallah (started in 1897) known to serve the best jalebis in Mumbai and Phool galli . The walk ended at the Dwarkadeesh Krishna temple on the street where the mill worker Baba Genu was martyred in 1930 during the Swadeshi movement.
The Bhuleshwar Heritage walk comprised walking alongside temples, bazaars, food stalls and historic RCB’s Asiatic Project Committee offers Rotarians and their guests the exclusive opportunity to witness a unique performance by the world-renowned, contemporary dance maestro, Astad Deboo perform a mesmerizing sequence titled ‘Interpreting Tagore’ on Tuesday, 16 February 2016 at 7 pm at (cont’d from Page 1) Asiatic’s historic Durbar Hall. Astad has especially choreographed this sequence for the occasion and it will be presented to an exclusive audience of only 150 people. Refreshments will be served after the performance.
Donor cards are available at Rs. 2, 000 each. Interested members are requested to get in touch with the Rotary office immediately as seats are limited and filling up fast! The event is part of our Club’s on-going partnership with the Asiatic Society, to renovate its Library (housed in Mumbai’s iconic Town Hall at Horniman Circle) and to help preserve valuable books and manuscripts which need immediate restoration. monuments… but more than that it was a walk where Rotarians bonded amid wonderment of history and Rotary fellowship. Thanks to R/anne Sandhya Merchant for a fabulous morning! Here’s to many more such walks in the future!