The plan is to rewrite and update all my Matunga pieces that I wrote for Mumbai Mirror and to write a few more, to create a comprehensive historical and contemporary repository for the Matunga mentality.

I would love to hear from you in the comments section and do subscribe if you would like a Matunga post in your email box every Tuesday morning. And do share with friends and family, if you think they would like to read these once a week Matunga pieces.

The Index catalogues the pieces.

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Background: This write-up is an amalgamation of two pieces, the first published in October 2005 (How Green in My Matunga) and the second in September 2006 (Aamchi Mumbai), before and after I had acquired a copy of Jehangir Sorabjee’s amazing book, “Above Bombay”.

I had always believed I knew everything one needed to know about Matunga…until Jehangir Sorabjee in mid-2005 sent me two pictures he had shot of Matunga from a helicopter. Whenever he had an opportunity, Jehangir would get into a chopper and fly over the city, shooting pictures from overhead vantage points. These photos eventually became the book, Above Bombay. 

The photo of King’s Circle on page 162 shot hovering just above Don Bosco immediately catches your eye. It is seen as a round, completely green island, circled by a grey concrete road, in turn rimmed by squat, flat buildings. Radiating from the circle, in a Beybladish manner, are its seven spidery arms,  including the main arterial Ambedkar road, which is part of NH1 and runs North-South. So, if you face north (12 o’clock), Ambedkar road makes up the 12 and 6 o’clock positions with three roads at  7 (Bhandarkar Road), 9 and 10 (Bhaudaji Road) o’clock towards the West and 3 and 5 (Adenwalla Road) o’clock towards the East.

Matunga is a green place, when seen from a height, all the roads lined with trees, masking the drabness of the old, landlord-owned, 1+3 storied buildings, with their peeling plaster and rain-water streaks, though the new high-rises are changing the landscape, at least aesthetically for the better. 

This recent picture (Aug 2021, 17 years later) of King’s Circle from Google Earth, shows that the green cover has not changed. The only difference is that the Circle is now interrupted by the long Sion-Dadar flyover, like the face of a wrist watch, with its strap.

The 2005 image (which was likely shot in 2004 or 2003) is interesting. There is almost no traffic, except for a few cars facing northwards on the wrong side of the Circle, with a huge number of people, lining both sides of Ambedkar road and the entire circumference of the Circle. There is one truck, opposite Amar Petrol Pump, in which, from that height, you can just about make out the Ganpati idol, on its way to Shivaji Park to be immersed into the ocean. 

Jehangir couldn’t have chosen a better day to shoot King’s Circle, perhaps the only day, when people-power takes over the roads and pavements. The photograph does full justice to what the Circle looks like on the evening of Anant Chaturdashi. What the photograph does not capture though is the energy at ground level.

That year (2005) we had taken the kids to be part of this jamboree. At all times, I had one or the other kid on my shoulders (Ganpati-bapa style), trying to make sure they wouldn’t miss the fun. The number of eating carts were too many to count, and there was everything from pav-vada to Chinese American chopsuey, to “golas”, “buddhi-ke-baal”, kulfi and multiple types of ice-cream with kids and adults walking around selling cheap plastic Chinese toys and a variety of balloons. 

There were people and people and people everywhere.  Towards Dadar, Ambedkar road was clogged, with Ganpati-laden trucks and hand-carts, trying to make their way through the throngs of people crowding them, with intermittent cries of “Ganpati Bapa Morya” along with the latest “dhin-chak” music, interspersed with people blowing horns, for no reason whatsoever.  An equal number of people were settled on the large divider, some enterprising women having brought their plastic chairs and stools to sit on…the mistresses of all they could survey. These days, they sit in the garden and on the benches, “under the flyover”.

As on all Anant Chaturdashis, the Circle was throbbing with an indescribable energy, drawing from and then in turn enveloping everyone present, as if part of a huge orgy, in honor of Mumbai’s favorite deity.

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The plan is to rewrite and update all my Matunga pieces that I wrote for Mumbai Mirror and to write a few more, to create a comprehensive historical and contemporary repository for the Matunga mentality.

I would love to hear from you in the comments section, but you will need to subscribe with your email ID. Subscription is free. And do share with friends and family, if you think they would like to read these once a week Matunga pieces.

The Index catalogues the pieces.

Subscribe now

There are two theories of how the name Matunga came to be.

The first is based on the shortening of the name of a cluster of small hamlets called “Marubai Tekdi Gaon”, which became “Ma…Tun…Ga”. Marubai has been the kuldevi of the village of Matunga for the last 300 years and has grown in stature over the last few decades. The initial idol was under a peepal tree near King’s Circle, where a Jain derasar now stands, likely the one next to Anand Bhavan, but was shifted during the development of Vincent Road (the road from Dadar Circle to Sion Circle, now called Babasaheb Ambedkar Road), to its present location diagonally opposite Don Bosco High School, sometime in the early 1900s.

The second theory, which seems more likely is that the name, Matunga, is a corruption of the Sanskrit word for an elephant, “Matanga”. Matunga was part of Mahim, together forming one of the seven islands of Mumbai, called Mahikavati. The King of Mahim had his stables in what is now Matunga, and hence the name.

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After the plague epidemic in 1896, it was decided to decongest the city of Mumbai. The Bombay City Improvement Trust was formed to create a planned suburb and 440 acres of land was procured by the Goverment for the Dadar-Matunga-Sion corridor, with different communities given their own localities (hence we have Parsi Colony, Hindu Colony, etc). The main city was connected to Dadar-Matunga-Sion by the tram line, which ended just beyond King’s Circle at the BEST depot that now stands besides Aurora Cinema. It was also stipulated that no building will be more than 3 stories tall, which is why the entire area until recently had only ground plus 3 floor tall buildings. 

The idea was to also have multiple educational institutes in the area, which is how Don Bosco High School, ICT, VJTI and so many others came to be situated in Matunga. 

Jehangir Sorabjee in 2012 sent me a  treatise on Matunga written by Ms. Ruchira Banerjee in “The Bombay Explorer”, published by the “Bombay Local History Society”. Neither the Society nor the Journal is online, though the Society is active on social media. Ms. Banerjee’s fascinating article traces the history of Matunga and the Greater Matunga area, starting with its conception after the Great Plague of 1896, all through the displacement of the East Indian villagers in the VJTI - Five Gardens area, the relocation of the Marubai temple, the growth of the Kutchis and upper caste Tamils, the development of Parsi Colony and Hindu Colony on the outskirts of Matunga and the rise of Vardarajan, up to the current situation where the older buildings are giving way to high-rise condos and the area is becoming more and more homogenized with a Gujarat-Kutchi population.

That same week Mehroo had sent me a pdf of the origin of Mumbai street names by Mr. Ashwin Panemangalore, which is also available online. As Ashwin explains, in a meeting in 1911, the Chairman of the City Improvement Trust proposed that the road from Crawford Market to Sion Circle be called Kings Way and the central Circle in Matunga be called King’s Circle. While it has been renamed Maheshwari Udyan, most people still refer to the Circle as King Circle (without the “s”) or KingSircle, where the “’s” and the “C” merge into a single continuous syllable. 

In the last decade, I have twice taken friends on a walking tour of Matunga, starting at Aurora Cinema and ending at Koolar, one of the last standing Irani restaurants. Matunga is like a city within a city, heterogeneous, revealing different facades of itself as we walk from one street and area to another. 

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Matunga at the Centre of the Universe

Mapless in Matunga

How Matunga Came to Be

Above King’s Circle

Active Matunga

The Dangerous 3-4 in a Row Road Runners in Matunga

I would love to hear from you in the comments section, but you will need to subscribe with your email ID. Subscription is free. And do share with friends and family, if you think they would like to read these once a week Matunga pieces.

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Background: This was the first piece that appeared on June 04, 2005 in Mumbai Mirror, in a section called Writer’s Bloc. My brief was to cover Matunga and depending on the number and frequency of the contributions by other authors, I would get published once in 10 days or two weeks. Not much has changed since then as far as our “Matunga mentality” is concerned. I have added a map.

We, Matungaeans (I hope I get the credit for coining this word) are a bit schizoid…at least those who live in the “right” part. Oh! You don’t know which the “right” part is? Let’s save that for another time.

So, coming to the “schizoid” part. When you ask people in Wadala or Sion or for that matter, even those in far-flung, remote places like Powai or Napean Sea Road, where they stay, they’ll say that they stay in Wadala or Sion or Powai or Napean Sea Road, as the case may be (or swap places, depending on who they are trying to impress). When you ask people in Matunga where they stay, the majority, and especially those who stay in the “right” part will say, “King’s Circle”.

Why “King’s Circle”? I am not entirely sure, but this central garden on Ambedkar road, though now called Maheshwari Udyan, does serve as the epicentre of Matunga, the other magnet being the Matunga market area. But the preference for “King’s Circle” may also have to do with our innate preference for old British names as against “Indian” names.

Having said that, a good number will actually just say things like, “behind Aurora”, “next to Don Bosco”, “opposite Sahakari Bhandar”, “behind Gandhi Market”, smug in their insularity that the entire world knows exactly where these places are. 

As if that’s not enough, the entire swathe between Nathalal Parekh Marg (i.e. the road on which Don Bosco school stands) and Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Road (“char rasta” in local parlance) is called “Sewri-Wadala Road, Scheme xyz, Rd 123”. I am sure this has some historical basis, but both Sewri and Wadala are reasonably far away and except for driving courier and delivery boys crazy, these names serve no purpose whatsoever. 

And things, don’t get any simpler. There are two stations; King’s Circle on the Harbour line and Matunga station on the Central line. On the other side of the tracks from Matunga station, is another station on the Western line, called Matunga road, which supposedly is a part of an area called Matunga (W), a tiny place nestled between Mahim and Dadar BB. And though our Matunga is actually Matunga with an unfashionable (E) for East, in a perverse reverse snobbishness, most people in King’s Circle / Matunga, don’t even bother to acknowledge the existence of Matunga (W).

Worse off are those at the boundary zones of Matunga. Does Sion start at the end of Gandhi Market, or at the end of King’s Circle station. Does Wadala start after UDCT or at the Wadala (E) bridge. Does Dadar start after Matunga Gymkhana, after Ruia college or after King George school. Which part of Bhaudaji road is in Sion and which part is in Matunga. The reason this is important, is because the “Matunga mentality” actually extends beyond these physical boundaries, making many of the border zone inhabitants reasonably confused as to their actual status. Oh, and now you want to know what the “Matunga mentality” is? Have patience…

Are you confused? Think about what we have to go through, living there, not even knowing what to call our place of stay! And you thought I was kidding about the schizoid part…

Addendum: The map here shows the mental Matunga map. Gandhi market is definitely Sion, though the police station opposite it and the King’s Circle harbor line station are obviously part of Matunga. Some parts of Wadala, especially the SIWS college lane and its surroundings are also assumed to be part of Matunga. St. Joseph’s and beyond is Wadala. Five Gardens is part of our Matunga, but J B Vachha school is not. Matunga Gymkhana is obviously in Matunga, as is Ruia college, but everything beyond that is Hindu Colony, in Dadar. 

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It’s been some years now since I have written about Matunga. The idea was to start with a piece on the difference between the mental and pincode geographies of Matunga, but I couldn’t help but begin with this, given the growing menace of this problem.

If you are one of those 3-4 in a row pack road runners in Matunga, but ignorant of the danger you pose to other solo runners and to yourself, then read on... I hope this will get you to change your running behavior. 

For those of you are not runners and have no clue what this is all about, here goes. Runners belonging to one of the many running groups that have come up in Matunga over the last few years, typically run together in a pack. Usually, there is one person in front and one at the back, the rest spread out in the middle. Many of those in the middle, run 3-4 together in a row, occupying and hogging most of the road as you can see in the figure below.

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The pack runners are anyway in danger, the one closest to the median of the road running the risk of being mowed down by a car or a truck or one of those killer BEST buses that now plows the morning roads at dangerous speeds, paying no heed to traffic signals. 

But the solo runner is also in danger with one of four options available, each with its own problems. One, run across to the other side of the road, with the danger of oncoming traffic? Two, run onto the median and then back, which perhaps is the most dangerous option? Three, plow through the pack with potential injuries all around? Or, four, run onto the pavement full of broken paver stones and potholes and twist an ankle? There is no good solution here, is there? 

Matunga has good running roads, but they are narrow. Running in the morning means negotiating other runners, walkers, late night lovers on their way home, milkmen on cycles, recreational cyclists showing off their shiny clothes and helmets, bikers, private cars, cars with parents in a tearing hurry rushing to drop off their young kids to sports training in Don Bosco, taxis of all kinds, tempos, buses, trucks, dogs, cats and double-parked stationery cars with full headlights on. Except for the dogs and those headlight-on, double-parked stationery cars, all the rest are fine…a runner is always acutely aware of their surroundings and can easily adapt to the fluid situation, especially if they run facing the traffic. 

But as a runner, I find it difficult to adjust to other runners who seem uncaring and oblivious to what they are doing. In the SIWS lane for example, every once in a while, I come across one particular private group of runners that just occupies the entire road from pavement to pavement, as if they own the space and everyone else is irrelevant. If you are reading this, you know who you are…please stop doing this!  

So, if you are one of those 3-4 in a row pack runners, I hope I have convinced you to run single file, or at best, two abreast, from now on, both for your safety and the safety of solo runners coming towards you or from behind you. And, if you are the owner, manager or coach of Striders or Stunners, or any other similar running group that is doing a wonderful job getting people in Matunga to be physically active, please, please teach your runners some running etiquette. You really don’t want any one getting injured on your watch, do you!

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To read more about the health benefits of running, without the need to run marathons, you can check out my piece on my other site, Matka Medicine and Atmasvasth titled, Runnn…Not Race.

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