Worli Village - Worli Gaon - Worli Koliwada

Worli village. A place in south of Mumbai. The word "village" for a place in Mumbai sounds strange -isn't it. So do sounded to me when I came to this place in 1970 for staying here shifting from Lower Parel area. Here I stayed till 1990; almost 18 years-from teenage to youth to married matured man. Lower Parel was area with lot of textile mills, chwals around inhibiting mostly workers and labors working in mills around. This one was different - one of the important islands of Mumbai was Worli and it was like a small beautiful village then. 

The new address was NSE Bldg, 4th floor. When we came here, I stood in the balcony facing the beautiful landscape which I had never seen before in Lower Parel and that too from 4th and the top floor of the tallest building of that time in that area. It was triangular peninsular land extending into the Arabian Sea with small boats floating in the sea on right side and with an extension of sight further one could sea Mahim and Bandra islands and if skyline is clear then Juhu also. On left side on background of Golfadevi temple was all blue water of the Arabian Sea along lonely, windy, rocky Worli Sea face coast.

With head straight there was a fort like structure - yes I later found that it was a fort. Worli fort. Later I visited with my maternal grandmother and found nothing there. It was deserted with notorious elements like drunkards and gamblers moving around there in the afternoon around 1600 hrs. This fort was build by British in 1675. It was just 5 years before death of Shivaji Maharaj. British built it to keep watch on Mahim island and on Arabian Sea. Mahim in fact has old history and was ruled by King Chaul and that time Mahim was known as Mahikavati. British had realized importance of Mahim and Worli, There was also fort on Mahim equally in deserted state as Worli fort. I had learned in school that Mumbai was made up of 7 islands. Now myself I was standing on one of the islands and understanding the same. I could myself see Worli a and Mahim linked. Thanks to Britishers for connecting islands of Mumbai.

Further there were two Main small Street going into village. These roads were very narrow. One along Golfadevi temple and other coming from Bengal Chemicals side going straight into the fort. The roads were free without any encroachment by street side vendors. On left hand side was stone wall with gates opening into the sea. Later I came to know that it to be Worli Gutter where all sewage from Mumbai was collected and disposed off into the sea. The road on the gutter going to sea face or coming into village was so narrow that at time only one taxi could pass. Sea face was very broad. There was one bus stop for route 82. Later more routes (89) were started. At sea face entry once could see lot of fish kept on ropes for drying and in the evening fishermen used to collect it. That clarified the the reason for typical salty, fishy, filthy smell that lingered in the wind blowing over on Worli village. The was small primary Municipal school where we used to see children from around area studying in it in two sessions - morning and afternoon. Today the school is not there - perhaps the school is vacated for high rising real estate money - where all those hard working teachers and those children are gone? 

The main inhabitants were Koli. So it was known as Koliwada. They used to earn their livelihood mainly by fishing and used to take their small boats into the sea. trollers were yet to come or yet to get affordable to become popular. So it was and is also known as Worli koliwada! I used to see lot of Koli women carrying fish in buses to various market places like Agar Bazar, Lower Parel, Dadar etc. There still exist fish market in Koliwada where locals in their typical dress used to sell fishes. It was and probably today also in a good deal to buy cheap fish here. There were different groups and sometimes fights used to take place between these groups on various issues. Besides some used to brew DESHI COUNTRY liquors to earn extra money. It is possible that original inhabitants were Koli or fishermen or Agri or Warli and probably the island got the name WORLI from these Warli inhabitants. This area was not well known for its reputation as it used to be lonely and scary after 8 pm. No taxi driver was willing to come after 8 to come inside koliwada. They used to come only upto our building. This was like an isolated place and nobody wanted to come and settle here or buy house here.

Official name of our building is NSE Bldg but popularly known as Post Office building as there was small post office on its ground floor where all the residents used to come for doing their transactions - mainly money orders used to be sent from this post office between 7-12 of every month. I had seen long queues in front of the post office. As mentioned before, this was probably first tall four storied building in this area built somewhere in 1963-65. That time most of the rooms especially on third and fourth floor were - most of the time found closed giving deserted look. Few rooms on first and second floors used to keep their doors open. This was unusual for me. I came from open door chwal system and here it was like an empty building. Lot of wind blowing, very rarely somebody opening the door and closing promptly without bothering who the hail is around .... This annoyed me. How I would make friends here? The wind blow was so strong that the door used to get slapped very fast and very hard and one had to be careful with hands and fingers to make sure that they do not get crushed. After 8 pm the fourth floor looked like curfewed area. Nobody around, cool breeze, starry sky and sea waves sound coming from sea in the background. Looked scary to me.

At lower Parel everything was available at door step - grocery, stationery, flour mill, saloon, milk depot, chocolate & toffee shop, cold drink house, ice cream shop, medical shop, doctor, hospitals, theater, ration shop - almost everything. And here-really nothing. In our building we had Annapurna Restaurant which was another landmark to identify our building. The used to be tea/dosa/idly/Wada available there. Then there was one grocery shop run by Tamilian - I still remember name of one of the persons there Tambee who used to bring home delivery. He also used to sell kerosene. Then the was laundry shop. Also on other side near post office was carpenter workshop runner by Sardar and cycle shop owned by Lalan sheth. I still do not know why suffix sheth s attached to Lalan-probably once he was really in financially sound condition. Main grocery shop was MANOHAR GOVIND COMPANY, then The only doctor available nearby was Dr. Desai, medical shop was at least 10 minutes walk from our building and used to get closed by 8 pm, ration shop was away, flour mill was not nearby, book & stationary shop was ARVIND BOOK DEPTO almost inside village, no bakery nearby. Government milk centers were there below our building and most people had taken afternoon delivery milk card as people we afraid to o on centre early in morning because of threat of being looted on lonely streets. If you want to buy good stuff only place was Bengal Chemicals area where there was Honesty Store and good bakery plus some medical shop and a market with other shops and foothpath vendors. it got some time to get accustomed to new environment and get to know who is what and where is what?

Obviously after coming to stay here the curiosity was to find out what is around the area. Before entering koliwada there is God CHEDE DEO temple who is supposed to be the entry / exit God. Inside koliwada there was Irani restaurant near cross. Newspaper vendor used to sit here. Also famous Marathi singer BALAKRAM WORLIKAR was staying here and his tempo or vanity van used to stand in this open space. Further down was Hanuman temple followed by Lord Shiva temple the road then lead to the fort through the village market with shops on either side of the road. There was Golfadevi temple on other side - The Godess of Koli residents. On other side was the famous WORLI sea face. The rocky beach. Well laid pavement for walking extending till WORLI milk dairy. Sea face has beautiful landscape - at least those days it was on one side sea, other side small beautiful bungalows of rich and famous including film personalities, police camp and then open area. This was favorite place for film producers & directors to carry out shooting. Many films were and are shot here with most star Bollywood heroes. The Lion Garden was well known for film shooting. There was Sacred Heart Church and convent school as well. The sea face and around area including roads used to be so lonely that children used to play cricket on Sundays and paid holidays! It is worli sea face where I learned cycling. We sometimes used to get moody to go on sea face in the morning for jogging. Me, my brothers and Johnny Fernandese went on few occasions in the morning. i used to see ladies and gents jogging, brisk walking etc., especially people in and around 40's. We were just teens then. i was so thin, slim and lanky that there was no need for lifestyle change or this kind of exercise. My friend Julius has those days pictures and I am looking forward to browse them sometimes now in coming months (if he permits and has time) and get lost in that time. Just get nostalgic. Most of the times evening stroll (especially saturdays or sundays) on sea face by we teens was common. I have special memories of sea face which will last and rest with me forever. 

When we came here that time the slum around our building was just coming up. Slowly it developed so much on the sewage canal that it was given name MAHAKALI NAGAR. With slum thrived related industries like MATKA, HAATBHATTI, GAMBLING,EXTORTION, flesh market and what not. Initially we were not comfortable but later got used to it; we knew secret zig zag routes through huts to sea face, Sacred Heart School, Bengal Chemicals etc. just below our building there were three four huts but later at least ten were set up in row. Initially they were brought down by corporation, built-broken, rebuilt and finally with political support became permanent. Those were fetching good rent. At least it saw two generations as long as those were intact. There was supposed to be public road passing from our building through MAHAKALI nagar slum. For sure these slums were to go sometimes when authorities are ready to implement the road construction plan. It happened in after year 2000. Today Mahakali Nagar slum is gone, gone is movie shows screened during Ganesh Festival, gone are Cyclewala shows! In those days, we were hearing about the plan of bridge coming up between WORLI and Bandra; imagine it was sometimes in year 1974. We were imagining and wishing it to come up fast so that we could easily walk from WORLI to Bandra in just half an hour! The bridge Bandra WORLI sea link was built much later and was opened to public on 30 June 2009-almost 35 years after! Unfortunately pedestrian are not allowed on it. Our 35 years old dream of walking from Worli to Bandra till today is unfulfilled. 

Now let me take you on other side. On our opposite side from back balcony and on other side was MIG colony and Adarsh Nagar extending upto Bengal Chemicals. There was big play ground inhibiting worli sports club. There was last bus stop called WORLI village - route numbers 162,163,44,169 were plying from here to Sewree, Sewree, Museum and Kings Circle respectively taking en-route railway stations like Elphinston/Parel, Lower Parel, Dadar. Later 163 route was discontinued and route 50 was started. In those days WORLI was isolated area, not well connected by railways and neither by good frequency buses. It was like small industrial area with factories like Hind Cycle, Glaxo, Dunlop, Raptakos Brette, NOCIL's laboratory near Century Bazar and on other side was Bengal Chemicals, small ice cream making unit, VIP bags making unit, ware houses of burrows welcome and other pharma companies. I also remember branded laundry BAND BOX near Glaxo factory. in fact the BEST bus stop was named BAND BOX because of this exotic and hi fi laundry. The area called Nagu Sayajichi wadi was full of pharma and coconut trees giving an impression of countryside. We used to walk through these farms and fields taking short cut from our building to our Pinto Villa school. It used to take 30 minutes. That time frequency of route 169 was every hour which was too low for the route getting crowded day by day. Sky scrapers like Beach Towers, Twin Towers and societies like Prathamesh came later and then started concrete jungle coming up in this area with prices sky rocketing. There was one movie theater by name Kismat which was so so, later came posh Satyam Shivam Sundaram theaters here. It was boom for us. At Satyam stall ticket costed Rs 1.75. We saw lot of matinees here. These theaters slowly lost to escalating real estate prices, changing technological advancements and multiplexes taking over. Gone are the days of advance booking. There was first of its kind window shopping departmental store by name Century Bazar. It was semi circular panoramic glass window show cases displaying articles sold in the basement departmental store. Items in general were expensive. The concept itself was unique in those days and I think it was ahead of the time. Indians at that time were not at all used to this "mall" concept which was yet to come to India but 35 years later! The famous temples in area were Sidhdhivinayak temple (where we used to take short halt for drinking water while walking to school or back home from school) and prabhadevi temple. The nearest big church was Portuguese Church.

The road on Kismat theater that time, unlike today, was running two ways traffic and so also the road on its back side. At Century Bazar entry gate there was bus stop (watch movie Sachcha Zoota). Two well known landmarks besides Kismat theatre and Siddhivinayak temples were Gammon India building and Rajashree Production office building. Sidhdhivinayak temple was small dome shaped temple with two entries. There was small lake with very tiny temple where the Patil family used to offer lights in the evening. Dome shaped temple was built later and the God started getting popularity and celebrities like Amitabh Bachchan started visiting. I remember to have seen Amitabh and Jaya at Petrol Pump opposite the temple;probably it was time when they had just got married. I was going to school in the afternoon when I saw them. Besides temple is Nardulla tank ground; actually it was water tank which was dried and land filled and converted into ground. Cultural center Ravindra Natya Mandir and Sane Gurujee Udyan was built there. These all happened before we came to WORLI but we witnessed construction of Ravindra Natya Mandir.

On sea face side after crossing the Chinese restaurant FLORA, was WORLI Naka leading further to Mahalaxmi or on sea shoe side to Lotus theater -to Vallabbhai stadium (where wrestling competitions were held) - Lala Lajpatrai College - Haji Ali mosque - Mahalaxmi temple -Tardeo-Girgaon to Churchgate. Around end of 1970 and beginning of 1971 started construction of TV tower in WORLI. We could see its progress from our balcony. It was one of the tallest structure in Mumbai that time and was visible from Mahim and Bandra. During construction stage when it was almost ready we children went to that place and looked at its top and we realized that the neck had to be moved up slightly more than 90 degree and hat or cap on your head came straight down. It's height is 300 meters. The tallest building of that time (1970) was Usha Kiran (80 meters high). The TV station in Mumbai started on 2nd Oct 1972 with black and white telecast. we had few TV sets in our building and used to go to those neighbors to watch programs. The TV set owners used to show lot of attitude. The brands of TV set that existed that time were STANDARD, EC, CROWN, TELEVISTA, TELERAD, WESTON, NIKYTASHA. The idiot box in those days was operating only 7 pm to 11 pm! Then came Nehru Science Center and Nehru planetarium - add on attraction at WORLI. 

As far as education institutes are concerned, they were located in and around Dadar - Matunga area, and many students were and also today commuting between WORLI village and those places. Very good Convent school Sacred Heart Highschool was there and is there. Besides there was Janata Highschool for higher education. Two Municipal schools existed of which one is closed. However there is very good catering college at Prabhadevi. In those days hardly anybody was interested in catering courses. Limited Five stars hotels were there but 3 and 4 stars hotels were yet to come. Today catering and hospitality industry has gain popularity. Sanjeev Kapoor and other Chefs are hosting cookery shows; it was not so in those days. Cooking and catering today is profitable business; in those days it was looked down. There is Sasmira Institution for textile specialisation. Textile industry was in boom. It was like catering college one of the posh institutes. Datta Samantha provoked mill workers for strike or mill workers went to him for his leadership to get better pay, whatever it was but the textile strike in 1982 had tragic end. There was Architecture college RACHANA, it was group of small buildings with roofs - it was like ashram; now at that place is multi-storied building of the same college. Other important institute is blind school that has rendered great service to the society for noble cause.

I remember one incident. It was 1st January 1978 midnight. Dubai bound Air India Boeing 745 jumbo jet took off late night with 213 passengers including crew members from Sahar Airport. The plane was already late. It was in air moving towards Bandra and then Worli island flying in west direction. it flew for about less than five minutes. Suddenly there was explosion and the plane crashed down plunging into deep Arabian Sea. Few people heard the sound but thought that it could be of fire crackers lighted on account of new year celebration. Some people on Bandra and Worli coast witnessed this sad accident and were not ready to believe that it actually happened and that life is so vulnerable. We came to know next day after reading in newspaper. We could see from our common balcony, in that cold windy weather, the search activity going on by boats, hovering helicopters looking for debris and corpses in that huge sea. The search operation was on for a week. Few luggage pieces, few parts of the plane were found but no body was fished out. All 213 passengers had deep under water grave for them just on the first day of a new year 1978! It was bad and unhappy year for them all, but good for those lucky ones who for whatsoever reason missed that flight and the the tragic unfortunate death; stories of the narrow escape of death were coming in newspapers for about fortnight after this horrifying incident. The next horrifying incident that WORLI saw was 1993 (12th March) serial bomb explosions in Mumbai and at WORLI it was at Century Bazar near Bata showroom. I that Time was staying at Mahad and not at WORLI so nothing much is known to me about what was the scene at that time there.

That is all about WORLI. Couple of months ago I had been to NSE Building. I met Julius. He is the only one of the pals and neighbors whom I meet whenever I go there. Know people have gone with the flow of life, the artists on the stage are changed. Mr. Nair & family - gone to Kerala (Mr. Nair is no more), Xavier Fernandese passed away of heart attack in 80s and Johnny went to Goa, Mr. Kotian had committed sucide by jumping off from 4th floor and they went to Karnataka -later Mr. Todankar who came to his room also finished his tenure on this plant and shifted to other place, Mr. H R and Bhavana Mistry with their daughter Vaishali and son Pragnesh went back to Ahmedabad. Punjabi family Puri was short lived one except for their daughters Rajani and Seema -Babu was entrepreneur but died at young age; from Chari family I see only Mohan, Raju died again at young age, while Chunnu Apputi are seen occasionally. These young ones had bad voices and probably that is cause for their death at young age. Next was Dani family who shifted to other place, Alex and Michel went back to Goa, Pednekar died recently but their family is there; Mr. Pavitran was I think only one on our floor or the first one on our floor to have TV. Then was Hede family followed by their neighbor Chhatre (Jayant and Vishwas). All these are no more staying on our floor. Time flew. Whenever I go there I see unknown faces and so glimpses of old days flash very fast on the screen of my mind. 

So last time when I went Julius mentioned to me about commercialization of WORLI Koliwada. That this place is now used for shooting films and accordingly infrastructure is set up there. He also mentioned that incoming times all these small houses with sloping roofs will get replaced by sky scrapers. I felt very sad. The small, cute village, with small houses with brown sloping roofs and narrow lanes surrounded by coconut trees is all set to get vanished soon. The village glittering in the night with yellow bulbs (later replaced by white lamps and then again with yellow sodium vapor lamps) will not be seen anymore. The new generation will see all skyscrapers on this peninsular island and will find it hard to believe that something like "village" existed here. A strong thought came to my mind that some authorities must take it strongly to preserve and maintain this village on " as is" basis so that it can become heritage property and not only local but also foreign tourists can be invited to see it as exclusive exhibit. I remember during one of my visits to The Netherlands they took me to "fishermen village". They have maintained that place as it existed in 16th Century. It has old styled houses, structures, market places,shops, boats, fishermen nets etc. People still stay there. It takes almost half day to take an excursion to this village. It gives impression how life was in those old days. 

Why our Government, authorities and civilians are not thinking on this line? In Mumbai most old heritage properties are already washed out in real estate tsunami. Today you don't see Koli ladies carrying fish baskets and waiting in bus queue to go to fish market (this species has become extinct around 1980-1985), today you don't see typical local selling fish in Koliwada fish market, today taxi drivers don't hesitate to come to Koliwada in midnight, today you don't have to go to Bengal Chemicals area to fetch medicines after 8 pm. It is modernized now. However to my best knowledge WORLI Koliwada is still one of the old existing areas having antique impressions. It will be sad if that also vanishes in due course of time. This WORLI was once upon time lonely, deserted place and most hated destination where nobody wanted to come and stay; today with sea link and so called development that has taken place, it is the most favorite, preferred, premier destination and most prestigious address to stay. Time flew and changed many things, especially it's Midas touch has converted WORLI village into gold mine for real estate market. These all made me to take deep dive into past and the time gone by and recollect the memories of old days WORLI and finally I put all those thoughts on this paper. Tomorrow peninsular (175 acres) WORLI village may get changed into skyscraper's peninsula but the old small, sweet village of WORLI will remain forever in my memory.

Prakash Sawant
18th September 2013
Pune.