Exploring Mumbai's Past on an Urban Jeep Safari

Mark Twain once stayed in a top-floor suite in this hotel, our guide Bharat Gothoskar told us, pointing at a building across the street from the artsy Mumbai enclave of Kala Ghoda. “And Mohammad Ali Jinnah, Pakistan’s founding father, used to come here to play billiards.” We scrutinized the structure, looking for signs of its former glory. Watson’s Hotel is India’s oldest cast-iron building and was once the grandest hotel in old Bombay.

- Kamakshi Ayyar

It’s hard to imagine this past glory considering the facade is crumbling and the window shutters are all but gone. But listening to our guide from Khaki Tours, I began to see the building differently. Built during the British Raj of the 1860s, Watson’s once had an airy atrium and a grand ballroom where guests often danced the night away. I pictured lords and ladies pulling up to the hotel in their carriages, top hats erect, jewellery sparkling.

Watson’s was only one of many sites on my guided open-top jeep tour of south Mumbai’s Fort precinct. Dubbed an “urban safari,” it seemed like an exciting way to explore my own urban jungle. Instead of keeping my eyes peeled for crocodiles lazing on rocks, I was scanning for reptiles carved into the Gothic facades of the neighborhood.

An added plus: It was less tiring than a walking tour, and it allowed me to enjoy the engaging narrative kept up by my guide Bharat, an engineer and history buff. The tour began on the steps of the grand Town Hall building, now called The Asiatic Society of Mumbai, with a quick lesson on Mumbai’s colonial history. Bharat recapped how Mumbai was once ruled by the Portuguese, changed hands to the British, and the crucial role it played in the freedom struggle and the drafting of the Indian Constitution. It reminded me of just how long my city has been around, and how much exploring I still had to do.

AMBEDKAR’S FAVE CHAI SPOT