Zero Point Bombay: In & Around Horniman CircleEd by Kamala Ganesh, Usha Thakkar, Gita Chadha,Roli Books, Rs 695The city is a mythical woman. To understand her, one needs to explore her pulse points. When the city happens to be Mumbai, you have to keep the finger on the Horniman Circle, walk around the heritage precinct, breathe its sea breeze-mingled-air and watch the day’s flurry of activities peter out into a languid evening.This is exactly what gave the contributors to Zero Point Bombay: In & Around Horniman Circle — who took part in a series of heritage walks in 2004 — the idea for the book. The compilation of 20 essays, accompanied by black-and-white photographs by Rafeeq Ellias (above, the Asiatic Society of Mumbai), takes the readers through an engaging tour of the 400-year-old place, which can be called the birthplace of Bombay (now Mumbai).As the book looks at the metropolis’ former zero point — distances were measured from St Thomas Cathedral at Horniman Circle until it was replaced by the GPO — with a magnifying glass, its intangible heritage unfolds in vivid descriptions, brimming with historical facts. Each chapter — dedicated to one edifice or character of the area, like the collectorate, Town Hall, Reserve Bank of India and the Mint House, St Thomas Cathedral, quaint bookshops and street food — seamlessly juxtaposes the past and the present. The lengthy essays are based on research and repeated visits, while the shorter pieces are by people closely associated with the subject. The writers thankfully eschew an academic style and adopt a conversational tone and lucid prose. Kamala Ganesh, who has co-edited the book, writes the introduction, encompassing the history, activities and the architectural splendour of the Circle. Her piece on the Horniman Circle Garden establishes it as a multivalent public space, by stringing together all the action that takes place there: people reading newspapers, lunching and taking a nap in the afternoon. It also gives an account of the cotton trade that used to take place there, while Sanjna Kapoor talks about forging an association of Horniman Circle Garden and Prithvi Theatre in 1998, necessitated by the requirement for an open space to stage a play. The essays on the BSE, dotted with nuggets, read more like stories. Neeraj Hatekar tells how the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) came to life in 1851 as an informal group of 22 stockbrokers traded under a banyan tree, which exists even now. Jawahir Mulraj travels back and forth in time, writing about how the old system of speculative transactions, called badla system, made way for screen-based trading.The book, combining historical and ethnographic research, is a delight for all who want to understand the city. It also brings into focus the heritage and culture of the Circle, which at times get blurred as the Central Banking District, nestled there, gains prominence.
