COLABA CHRONICLES

COLABA, THE DIAMOND AT THE TIP OF MUMBAI

- REKHA DIXIT

By Shabnam Minwalla Published by Speaking Tree

Shabnam Minwalla is an amazing writer. So much comes through in each of her sentences—detail, description, research.... Above all, she puts her soul into her writing. So, when she writes about Colaba, that southern nub of Maximum City—that little corner where her world begins and ends, even though she may have travelled far and wide—one knows, even before opening the book, that it will be an intense read. She knows this place, and how.

Colaba is that Mumbai locale which is so quintessentially Mumbai. It is from where the BEST's Bus No 1 plies. It is sometimes wrapped in the past—with those old houses with Italian-tiled floors and ancient lifts and ancient people who are still dressed in styles from the 1970s and 1980s. Yet, it still remains one of the most happening places in the city, even though the action may now have shifted to the queen of suburbs, Bandra, and beyond. It retains top spot in every tourist's itinerary, and has the most recall value internationally, for both good and bad events, the last being the terrible 26/11 attacks, where three Colaba spots—the Taj hotel, Cafe Leopold and Nariman House—were targeted.