From Chowpatty Beach at five minutes walking distance across the road is the Royal Opera House. Moving ahead upto the square, you enter Girgaum, the middle class district of Bombay's Maharashtrian Hindus with old dilapidated buildings and tenants living there for several generations at rents fixed in the 1940s.
The second lane to your left is Khotachi Wadi, a nineteenth century settlement to Bombay\'s East Indian Christians.
"Wadi" literally means an orchard, one of the many, which dotted Girgaum including the now urbanised Fanas(jackfruit)Wadi and Amba(mango)Wadi. Like most Goan Catholics, the residents are all Portuguese, leading latin lifestyles in this forgotten pocket of Portugal. |
