Mount Mary Church, Bandra, Mumbai

Mount Mary Church, Bandra, Mumbai

The Basilica of Our Lady of the Mount, more commonly known as Mount Mary Church, is a Roman Catholic church located in Bandra West, Mumbai was built initially around 1640 by the Portuguese.  The church is one of the most visited churches in the city. It is very close to Bandstand. Every September, the feast of St. Mary is celebrated on the first Sunday after 8 September, the birthday of the Virgin Mary. This is a week long celebration known as the 'Bandra Fair' and is visited by thousands of people.

The church stands on a hillock, about 80 metres above sea level overlooking the Arabian Sea. It draws lakhs of devotees and pilgrims annually. Many of the faithful attest to the miraculous powers of St. Mary. The shrine attracts people from all faiths who pray to Virgin Mary for expressing their gratitude or requesting favours.

During the Bandra Fair, the entire area is decorated with festoons and buntings. Many pitch up stalls selling religious articles, roasted grams, snacks and sweets. Wax figures of the Virgin Mary, along with an assortment of candles shaped like hands, feet and various other parts of the body are sold at kiosks. The sick and the suffering choose a candle or wax figure that corresponds to their ailment and light it in Church, with the pious hope that Mother Mary will consider their appeals for help.

Although the current church edifice is just 100 years old, the history behind the current statue of Our Lady goes back to the 16th century when Jesuit priests from Portugal brought the statue to the current location and constructed a chapel. In 1700 Arab pirates interested in the gold-lined object held in the hand disfigured the statue by cutting off the right hand. Apart from the main statue, there is another statue of Mother Mary installed outside the church, in front of which people light candles and pray for the welfare of their near and dear ones.

In 1760, the church was rebuilt and the statue was substituted with a statue of Our Lady of Navigators in St. Andrew's church nearby. This statue has an interesting legend. It goes that a Koli fisherman dreamt that he would find a statue in the sea. The statue was found floating in the sea between 1700 and 1760. A Jesuit Annual Letter dated to 1669 and published in the book St. Andrew's Church, Bandra (1616-1966] supports this claim. The Koli Fishermen call the statue as Mot Mauli, literally meaning The Pearl Mother (Mot= Moti= pearl and Mauli= Mother). Both Hindu and Christian Kolis visit this shrine often giving it a kind of syncretic nature. In 1761, the original statue was renovated with a child in her arms and is worshiped here ever since.

Here is the Mount Mary Prayer:-

Hail Mother, full of grace divine,
Sweet Mary of the Mount,
With fervor we approach thy Shrine,
On thy protective count.

Take us, O Mother by the hand,
These pilgrims faint and weak,
And guide our footsteps to that land,
Th' eternal home we seek.

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

- Rabindranath Tagore, Gitanjali, 1912

Horniman Circle, Mumbai

Horniman Circle, Mumbai

Horniman Circle Gardens in Mumbai is a mega park in the Fort District of South Mumbai. Encompassing an area of 10.101 sq meters, the Horniman Circle Gardens is surrounded by premier banks.

Primarily known as Bombay Greens in the 18th Century, Horniman Circle Gardens was meant to be an open space in the middle of the Walled city. With well laid out walkways, the Bombay Greens had trees planted all around. Later the whole complex was renamed as Elphinstone Circle after the then Governor, Lord Elphinstone.

In the late 19th Century the condition of the park became atrocious and appeared as the dumping ground for the debris. However, the then Police Commissioner Charles Forjett resurrected the circle with active support from governors Lord Mountstuart Elphinstone and Sir Bartle Frère. By 1872, the Garden gained a new and captivating look. It was renamed after India's Independence in 1947 into Horniman Circle Gardens, after Benjamin Horniman, a pro-freedom editor of the Bombay Chronicle.

A replica of London's Park Crescent, the Horniman Circle has the neoclassical colonnade that faces a small park, flanked by the Historic Asiatic Society Library. Consisting of a circular ensemble of buildings, the Horniman Circle Gardens is one among the most dynamic urban design settlements in Mumbai with pioneering structures from British Colonial era.

Years of neglect since 1947 caused deep damage to this historic landmark of Mumbai. However, with an active citizen initiative, the Horniman Circle Gardens saw another phase of restoration. Today the Horniman Circle Garden Trust and the Horniman Circle Association are making some praiseworthy works of restoration of this colonial vestige.

One can easily reach Horniman Circle Gardens by boarding buses or trains, or by hiring autos or taxis from the city. Board a local or hire a taxi/auto or bus.

Location : Shaniwar Wada, Pune
Camera : Sony CyberShot H10