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In Malabar’s Kamala Nehru Park which is named after the late Prime Minister’s wife, children were playing in a serene setting. The views of the Arabian Sea shore through the well-attended gardens were quit pleasing. There was Marine Drive, “the most popular promenade” of the city, and Chowpatty Beach, everyone’s favorite location for outing in the fresh air.
That was how my tour guide related this urban legend. She took me to see Watson’s Hotel a few blocks away. Now an office building, it looked as if it was falling apart.
Hard-to- catch images of big balloons offered for sale to the milling tourists melded into the background of sail boats, some already away from the wharfs and into the Arabian Sea.
I walked into the old style atrium which reminded me of the design of ancient caravanserais. I brushed past the inattentive guard to examine the grand staircase here.
When the Taj first opened its doors some fifty Maharajas of India came to celebrate, one with his live tiger. The display window of the hotel’s more recent guests had a picture of the peripatetic former President Bill Clinton.
The Gateway’s architecture, rooted in the Islamic styles of Gujarat, was matched by the Islamic and Renaissance styles of the dome of the Taj Mahal Palace which I could see just to my right. Workmen were busy repairing the damages from attacks a year earlier by Muslims militants.
Through the mesh shielding my balcony small figures looked like dots in a painting on the plaza before this monument that was the symbol of Mumbai.
The view from my window the next morning was like a dream. Several stories below me was the famous Gateway to India.
The chaos of the crowded and noisy circle, which is crisscrossed at irregular angles by several streets full of daring drivers, exemplifies Mumbai. I gathered my courage and crossed the hazardous streets in the direction of the Regal Cinema.
The Regal Cinema is a Mumbai institution that predates Bollywood’s fame. It is located on yet another new memorial to Shivaji, whose statue is nearby, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Marg (Road), but the Regal Cinema is so venerable that the locals still refer to the area as the Regal Circle.
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