Bombay Then | Mumbai Now: Two tales of one city

Bombay Then

“It was a beautiful place,” says Sharayu Daftary, recalling the city of her youth. “I would wake up to the sound of temple bells and peacocks. That was Bombay.”

Daftary, the city's first female entrepreneur, is a woman of elegant simplicity who in 1958 at the age of 25, single-handedly established the Bombay-based Bharat Radiators.

Leafing through "Bombay Then | Mumbai Now" Daftary spies an image of Malabar Hill, an area close to her heart. "You see where these horses are? Today there'll be cars. You see these beautiful old bungalows with balconies? Today there'll be apartments,” she sighs. “I miss the old Bombay.”

A procession in state from Government House down Walkeshwar Road, Malabar Hill, c. 1900.

And one can understand why. Daftary's childhood was nothing short of magnificent. Growing up, she was privy to private performances by classical singers like Bhimsen Joshi, visits to Maharajas’ homes, and "box seats" at the latest movies. The city was going through a literary renaissance at the time and Marathi and English plays, not "Bollywood-type movies", were the preferred entertainment of the educated class. It may not have been a financial or technological hub back then, but Bombay was very much a world-class city.

Sheikh Fatehlal (1897-1964), seen here with a silent camera, was a leading Marathi director whose best known film was "Sant Tukaram." Facing image: Bollywood icon Amitabh Bachchan on the sets of the 2001 movie “Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham.”

Even as a child, Daftary was keenly aware of her country’s politics. Her father’s meetings with ministers and statesmen made her socially conscious, eager to reform the economic plight of her people. While her uncle founded the successful Walchand Hirachand Group, partially responsible for Bombay's automotive, shipping and construction industries, Daftary, being a woman, was not allowed to join the family business. It was from such inequity that Bharat Radiators was born.

"In 1958 it was unheard of for a woman from one of the city's wealthiest families to set up her own factory,” Daftary says. “I had to train myself in finance, marketing, personnel, materials management and industrial engineering. I was truly an entrepreneur because I started with two lakh rupees and five workers and worked on the machines myself."

When we turn to a photograph of legendary Hindi film actor Amitabh Bachchan, any trace of indifference towards Bombay’s film industry is erased. “A great actor,” she beams. “He was a hero who always fought injustice.”

In 1981 Daftary became the first woman President of the Indian Merchant’s Chamber. The city was riddled with corruption, and Daftary felt disappointed at how money and instant gratification had defined the city, with the successful looking to gain and not give back.

One evening, when her daughters were still young, Daftary took them to Peddar Road to look out at the sea under a full moon. “You see that silver light reflecting off the ocean like a silver-brocade sari?” she recalls telling them. “That is what we call treasure.”

But that was Bombay then; Mumbai today is very different.

Mumbai Now

At 27, Akshay Raheja, director of the Rajan Raheja Group represents a more competitive era in the city’s history. A graduate of the Columbia Business School, Raheja is part of frenzied contemporary Mumbai where poverty and wealth rest cheek by jowl.

Seen above, the 5.6 km Bandra-Worli Sealink which cost Rs 1,600 crores to build.

As one of the city’s wealthiest entrepreneurs, Raheja can afford to be indifferent to the city’s problems, after all, Mumbai provides him with a fantastic lifestyle. But he is well aware it doesn’t do the same for everybody.

 The city’s infrastructure "sucks", says Raheja. “What good is the Bandra-Worli sea-link when a man in Malad can’t connect to it?  Let’s not forget he is an integral part of the city. Today, that’s where all the action is.”

 In the book there’s an image of two local trains, Raheja utters the word “lifeline;” another image of beggars sleeping on the street and he reiterates just how fortunate he is.

 Raheja says gentrified South Mumbai embodies a bygone era. Gone are the days when the city's high-spenders lived in Colaba and Nepean Sea Road. Old money and heritage are synonymous with the city’s southern parts today. But not the fire in the belly that drives the new generation of entrepreneurs -- that belongs to the North.

Pavement dwellers near Matunga Road station carry on sleeping as a car whizzes by.

 A photograph of a new housing complex in Andheri, a Northern Mumbai suburb, evokes an unexpected response. “At an emotional level, as a real-estate developer, I am happy to see this,” Raheja says. “But this picture also shows you the madness. Look at the volume of construction. Look at the chaos. But I guess that is the soul of the city. This madness is the soul of Mumbai.”

For Raheja, this is modern “Mumbai”, while Daftary might never call it anything but “Bombay.” And what of the continuous comparisons between Mumbai and the cosmopolitan culture capital by which all modern cities are compared: New York?

 You can’t compare the two, Raheja insists. “New York has space for everybody. What is there in Mumbai for everyone? Whether one is very, very wealthy or an average earner -- what can we all do together? Cinema is the only thing that binds the rich, poor, Gujarati, Marwari.”

Bollywood aside, the young businessman says that Mumbai’s burgeoning restaurant industry has changed the flavor of the city entirely. From Wasabi by Morimoto, the high-end Japanese establishment at the Taj hotel and Raheja’s personal favourite, to Salt Water Café, a more affordable, European-style eatery on the other side of town, foodies in Mumbai have more options than ever before.

Lokhandwala colony in Andheri lies extremely close to the mangroves responsible for draining monsoon water.

“The eating scene is good. The drinking scene is improving, too. Aurus in Juhu is slick -- it would stand up to a bar anywhere in the world,” says Raheja.

 It is obvious that Mumbai has given Raheja the ability to expand his business in a manner that no other city in India would have ever allowed in the past. A giant consumer base, services from top investment banks to international law firms, and a workforce that is becoming increasingly educated, have all contributed to the overwhelming success of the family business.

 Raheja speaks highly of industries like Bollywood, praising their ability to generate employment. He says the city's film industry has provided a livelihood to thousands of people from spot boys to dancers and cameramen to actors. He’s not so convinced about the acting, but then that doesn’t really matter does it? It’s the commerce, not the art, that makes Bollywood part of Mumbai.

 “A lot of people have made a lot of money in a very short time. That's the power of  this place. A hard-working, intelligent nobody can become a somebody in less than a lifetime -- that’s what Mumbai does for you.” 

Mumbai's 464-kilometre suburban rail network transports about 6.1 million travellers daily.