Gowalia Tank

Shepherds stopped long back bringing cows to a pond for quenching their thirst but the name Gowalia Tank stuck on, even after the pond dried up and became a maidan. Overlooking the maidan is Tejpal Auditorium. Next to it stands the historic Gokuldas Tejpal Hall, where Indian National Congress was set up. Then came the 9th August, 1942 and the Congress held a historic meeting at the Gowalia Tank maidan, to give a clarion call of “Quit India” to the Britishers, then ruling the country. A publisher of a daily newspaper from Kutch was one of thos who attended that meeting and suffered from lathi charge. Gowalia Tank was later renamed as August Kranti Maidan. People of India were reminded recently about August Kranti once again, when Anna Hazare’s hugely successful mass movement took place in August 2011.
Historically, Gowalia Tank shares limelight with a nearby location: Mani Bhavan. Gandhiji stayed there often. My school (New Era School) being very close, we used to often climb up the stairs of Mani Bhavan and stare at Gandhiji’s spectacles and other belongings preserved there for display.
Shammi Kapoor also studied in the same school, though much before me. Our sports instructor always recalled teaching him lessons of cricket at Gowalia Tank.
Our school’s founder late Shri Maganlal T Vyas had excellent contacts. The then Defence Minister V K Krishnamenon, Information and Broadcasting Minister P V Keskar, Social activist Ravishankar Maharaj. Narayan Desai and a host of other luminaries visited our school and addressed us. Out of these, Keskar earned a not so enviable reputation, by banning Hindi film music and also playing of harmonium on All India Radio. (Better sense prevailed, however, when Indira Gandhi promptly reversed his illogical decisions on taking over charge as the I & B Minister.)
Other VIPs, who had achieved prominence in the field of culture were V Shantaram, Avinash Vyas, Ninu Mazumdar and Pandit Jasraj.
Another prominent school located on another side of Gowalia Tank is Fellowship High School. Its students have done very well in various fields.My most pertinent and cherish able memory of Gowalia Tank dates back to mid forties. My father took me along to attend a public performance of a young girl, who was slated to
be a promising singer. She came on stage, wearing a light blue frock and pig tails. When she started singing, she kept the audience spellbound. She got a standing ovation. She was none other than the nightingale Lata Mangeshkar.
Close to Gowalia Tank is an obscure Pan Gully. Its junction with Cumballa Hill had Dr Shirodkar’s Maternity Home. He had shot into fame by inventing the world famous “Shirodkar stitch”.
Little would he have imagined, however, that his best would come when he was to conduct a delivery of late Mr Firoze Gandhi’s wife. Indira Gandhi delivered Rajiv Gandhi in his hospital.
The same hospital was later bought over by Dr K R Shetty, a Cardio Vascular Thoracic Surgeon, who renamed it as Cumballa Hill Hospital. He also bought a dilapidated building next to it, which housed a post office. He plans to demolish it and expand his hospital.
This post office once gave me an unexpected pleasant surprise. I went there to encash a National Savings Certificate, which had matured. I had expected long queues and inordinate delay in checking up old records, before giving payment. To my utter surprise, there was no queue at all and I got my payment within flat four minutes. There were no computers then and still this unbelievable feat happened !

A street beginning from just opposite this post office is Forjett Street. It houses Mumbai head quarters of Johnson & Johnson. It also has a temple of Sai Baba in a residential flat.
Gowalia Tank had an unique distinction of having probably the city’s first booth for Dial a Taxi service. Just next to it is an Irani restaurant, which offered superb cheese sandwich. I wonder how a simple recipe of a cheese sandwich could be perfected to make it consistently superb.
Right behind was Shreyas Hotel, as a part of a residential building. Government officers from Kutch patronized it and gave word of mouth publicity. If someone else looked at it, he would not even give a second look.
Right opposite it was Mahavir Jain Vidyalaya Hostel. Immaculately clean and serving wholesome food, it gave shelter to many students.Next to the Fellowship School was an extremely competent tailor, R I DSouza. He named his shop
RIDS. Known for his perfection, he was recommended by my cousin, who worked for Parke Davis and was proud of his immaculately stitched suits. The tailor was very well read and could recite long passages from Shakespeare. He was very conscious of his excellent capabilities, so much so that he would never touch a piece of cotton clothing. He stitched only woolens. Once I went to him to get my trouser stitched. He measured my waist, compared it with my past measurement in his diary and told me, in a firm voice, that I had put on weight. He refused to stitch, saying he did not wish to waste his talent for something which would not look like a piece of art ! Unfortunately he died early.
Gowalia Tank was a tram terminus. After trams were discontinued in Mumbai, Trolley buses were introduced. They ran from Gowalia Tank to Mazagaon. The contact shoe rubbing the overhead wires would often slip out several times en route. The buses were imported from the then Czechoslovakia. The experiment failed. That was the end of Trolley Buses in Mumbai.