Hindu colony

Hindu colony is an old locality situated in Dadar, India. Hindu Colony is located in the heart of the bustling city of Mumbai, two blocks north of the Dadar train station, and a stone’s throw from the Lokmanya Tilak Bridge.

Hand in hand with the development of the northern suburbs in Mumbai in the 1930's there was a lot of activity in the Dadar-Matunga area. The Hindu Colony, north of Tilak Bridge, expanded up to Ambedkar Marg (then Kingsway) and around the Khodadad Circle. These developments were completed by 1935. In 1937 Ramnarain Ruia College was founded and in 1939 the Ramniranjan Anandilal Podar College of Commerce and Economics, thus completing a transition of Dadar from a residential suburb into a variegated enclave.

On entering Hindu Colony, one encounters little streets that are numbered as 1st Lane, 2nd Lane etc. No more than 75 yards long, each side of a Lane is lined with approximately nine seasoned and weathered four-story buildings, all about 70 monsoons old.

These Lanes are not mentioned in any of the travel guides, and even someone 10 minutes’ walk away in neighboring Matunga might need a refresher course on its attractions. When walking down each Lane, it is difficult to see the sky, for the entire street is roofed by a canopy of trees, thus making it relatively cool even on the hottest of days.

At both ends of first lane there are little stores selling all kinds of candies, spicy snacks, sodas, breads, soaps, razors, and just about everything you might need on a daily basis. There is a pharmacy, a shop that buys old newspapers, and a stall that sells bottles of saffron- and cardamom-flavored milk. There are also vendors with carts full of tomatoes, vegetables of all sorts, and green chilies.At another end is a man who sells fresh-squeezed sugarcane juice. All day long, for the past 40 years, the sugarcane vendor magically transforms stacks of vibrant green cane housed in his stall into an irresistible drink of pure sugar juice mixed with ginger and lemon.

In the early morning, before the automobiles have woken up, Hindu Colony is sleepy, and the crows and other birds serve as the neighborhood alarm clock, and then a bit later, a fisherwoman walks along, guarding a basket on her head from the diving crows, and a vegetable seller starts calling from below, “kande batata lo (onions, potatoes for sale!)”

Later, a parade of black pint-sized taxis with yellow roofs inch along at five miles per hour, honking at intervals, and in the mornings and afternoons, legions of schoolchildren in uniforms of different shades of blue and white (and red ribbons in the girls’ hair) file past on their way to the many schools sprinkled throughout the area.

Hindu Colony also houses the popular Mani's Lunch Home - a place to have wadas, masala dosas and top class filtered coffee. The geography of the stretch from Hindu Colony to Matunga has not changed though most of the south Indians have migrated to Dombivili or Kerala. But Mani's Lunch Home remains unchanged, except for the grim, young owner, who thinks a smile is a sin.