A Road By Any Other Name
My daughter is in love with Bandra. She has lived here since birth and now, as a teenager, she can’t imagine living anywhere else in Bombay, not even at Napean Sea, Malabar Hill or Altamount Road. For her, Bandra is a little city in itself, with the sea, the restaurants, the night life, the parks, the shopping and the theaters.
So yesterday, I decided to test her knowledge on her beloved her Bandra. I named certain roads and crossroads in Bandra and asked her to identify them. I am sharing below these as a little quiz for die-hard Bandraites. These are roads and chowks around Bandra West that we pass every day. Some we know by there traditional, old names and some we know by descriptions… Let’s see how many you can recognize:
- Ramdas Naik Marg
- R K Patkar Marg
- Guru Nanak Road
- Master Vinayak Road
- Nargis Dutt Road
- Sangeet Samrat Naushad Ali Marg
- Mummy Ena Pereira Chowk
- Arun Podwal Chowk
- Smt. Sunita Nanda Chowk
- Amjad Khan Chowk
- Freedom Fighter Harsh Chandra Goyal Chowk
Of course, she could name only two of the above ten. How many did you identify? As I said, we use these roads so often, but are unable to recognize them by their current names. It is the same as we still say Fort or Fountain and not Hutatma Chowk or VT rather than Chtrapati Shivaji Terminus and call our city Bombay and not Mumbai.
See how well you know Bandra and were you able to come up with these answers:
1. Ramdas Naik Marg - Hill Road
2. R K Patkar Marg - Waterfield Road
3. Guru Nanak Road - Turner Road
4. Master Vinayak Road - Perry Road
5. Nargis Dutt Road - Pali Hill
6. Sangeet Samrat Naushad Ali Marg - Carter Road
7. Mummy Ena Pereira Chowk - Pali Naka
8. Arun Podwal Chowk - The Camy Wafer Crossroad
9 Smt Sunita Nanda Chowk - The old Candies Crossroad
10. Amjad Khan Chowk - Opposite Shatranj Restaurant
11. Freedom Fighter Harsh Chandra Goyal Chowk - The crossroad opposite China Gate
Of course, I know my daughter will never be caught dead saying, “Mum, I am going for a walk to Sangeet Samrat Naushad Ali Marg”, or “Dad, can I have some money. I am going shopping on Ramdas Naik Road with my friends”.
Sangeeta Almeida
