I went to Khotachiwadi on a Sunday afternoon, armed with a camera and instructions on how to get there, and promptly lost my way. Eventually, after a lot of wrong turns and direction-seeking, I chanced into Khotachiwadi, and there was a sudden difference in the vibe. No car horns, no pedestrians walking hither-thither, no roadside shops hawking their wares – there was just a narrow alley, with multi-colored houses on both sides, and ending at a very brightly painted red-and-yellow two-storey house. It was heart-warming.

I walked through the colony, and it is a maze, with lanes criss-crossing with each other, which make it seem a much larger area than it really is. And every lane has something new to offer. The kaleidoscope of sights makes it even more difficult to button-hole Khotachiwadi into any one narrow niche. Ancient and well-maintained, Khotachiwadi is.

Some of the sights that I was able to frame are here, and illustrate the diversity of experiences on offer in Khotachiwadi. A shrine of Jesus, the committee chawl (see ‘17 families, 1 house‘), beautiful window arches, cast of the face of the Buddha, a wide-porched house being rennovated, wall temple of the Sai Baba, gym whose façade looked more like a nursery, pretty children, shrine of the Virgin Mary donated by the Patkars, a Maharashtrian family.
All in all, tremendous diversity on offer.

‘Wadi’ in Marathi means an orchard, and colloquially, a village. There are many Wadis in Central Bombay – Fanaswadi, Ambawadi, Sitafalwadi, Khotachiwadi being some among those. Khotachiwadi was founded in the late 1700s by a Pathare Prabhu Brahmin called Khot, who sold plots to East Indian Christian families. Today, there are a number of Christian and Brahmin families living in the village.

The architecture is distinctly Goan – quaint low-rise wooden bungalows, with large open verandahs, trellised balconies, latticed windows, bright colours and an external staircase leading to the first floor. Khotachiwadi has been marked as a heritage precinct of Bombay since some years now, and the residents have been very steadfast about not selling of their houses / plots to developers. In spite of all efforts, only 30 or so of the original 65 bungalows still remain, and it in an uphill battle to maintain those in the same way as before.

One of the high points of the Khotachiwadi visit was the house of Willy Felizardo. Seeing the camera in my hand, and taking me to be the ersatz photographer that I am, the family welcomed me in. The first look of the courtyard was mindblowing – bright colors, patterns, figurines, lanterns, stools, fishes, birds. The mind boggled! Kitschy, but very attractive. Apparently,Willy ends up buying interesting things as and when he sees them, and the result is the open courtyard with its various artifacts. The house has been featured in various travel magazines as well.

More than colours

Another high point of Khotachiwadi is an eating place called Ananthashram, where one can get the cheapest seafood, and where the food is cooked on wooden fires, and served on standalone wooden tables. But more on that in another post.

I came away from Khotachiwadi, very pleased at having been able to take a peek into a Bombay that existed years earlier. Like seeing a sepia-toned photograph of a friend’s younger days.

How to get there? From Charni Road railway station, walk east past the Central Plaza theatre, and turn right at the traffic light intersection. Another 200 meters, past a GSB (Goud Saraswat Brahmin) colony, and then turn left into the first lane. You are in Khotachiwadi.
Or just get to St. Teresa’s church, and ask for directions.

For the next few days, I will post some of these snapshots from the walk, and also a short essay about the walk.