Three Bridges connecting to Opera House Junction

Just as the  Ganges, Yamuna and Saraswati  rivers meet at Triveni Sangam in Allahabad,  Sandhurst Bridge, Kennedy Bridge and French Bridge meet at Opera House Junction. Their respective importance is also in the same order.


Pious Ganapati immersion processions pass through Sandhurst Bridge, with people thronging on both sides for the “darshan”. After Gandhiji’s death, an urn containing his ashes had also passed through the same bridge, with a large part of Mumbai’s population converging at the Bridge.

A photo studio, at its Chowpatty end, continued to display Raj Kapoor’s photo, taken at the studio, in his early twenties. At the Hughes Road end of the bridge, a tailor’s shop (YAKs) also similarly basked in the reflected glory of Raj Kapoor, by prominently displaying a photograph of Raj Kapoor, in a suit stitched by them in his early twenties.

More or less next to this historic building is Farbes Sabha building. It was built in memory of  Forbes, a British national in India, who mastered the Gujarati language and published articles in Gujarati, 

Just as the Yamuna passes through Delhi, which is the seat of power, few in Mumbai know that Kennedy Bridge, is right next to Congress House.

Queen Mary School for girls, is situated in the same surroundings, Among others, Nargis has been a well known alumni student of the school.

The other end of Kennedy Bridge had a cinema studio (Jyoti Studio) and also an excellent shop on an upper floor of a building. It offered excellent varieties of home grown cheese from Karen Anand’s farm in Pune.

Tutorial High School, also situated at the Nana Chowk end of the Bridge, is hardly spoken of. Yet, very few know that none other than the great Nani Palkhiwala studied here.

One of the many high profile cases won by him was the case against the Government after Indira Gandhi abolished the Privy Purse, filed by princes for restoration of Privy Purse. She then turned the tide against them by passing an ordinance.

 Mr R K Laxman, the eminent cartoonist of “The Times of India”  and actually of India, had published a front page cartoon in the TOI, showing a typical prince on one side of a chess game and Indira Gandhi on the other. She was shown getting up in anger and disgust (against the court’s decision), picking up the chess board and throwing it, saying “ So I win !”

Nani Palkhiwala liked that cartoon  so much that he got it enlarged to  a very large size and displayed it permanently behind his desk in his chamber at Tatas’ headquarters in Bombay House. I happened to be working in the same office building and had the privilege to meet him in his office. Hence this first person  account  !

The third bridge at Opera House, viz. French Bridge, like the Saraswati, is relatively a quiet  place. It has Theosophical Society’s head quarter, set up by Dr Annie Besant. The Bridge’s Opera House end is swarming with doctors. Morarji Desai’s personal physician, Dr Mohanlal Popat, who had roaring practice, and became a minster in the State   Government, practiced there.  
 
Another eminent doctor there was  the renowned orthopaedic surgeon Dr K T Dholakia. I was once sitting in his waiting room, waiting for my turn, to seek his instructions for post operative treatment of my ailing grandfather (87). The only other person waiting with me was the well known singer Mukesh, with his son Nitin, who had a fracture, in his lap. When Mukesh learnt, through our conversation, that I had my mathematics paper of my final year engineering degree exam the next morning, he, on his own, let me go in before him. I was touched by his gesture.  I will never forget his gracious offer, which, just like his songs, came from the bottom of his heart.