Breach Candy Explained

Breach Candy
Settlement Type:Neighbourhood
Pushpin Map:India Mumbai#India Maharashtra#India
Pushpin Map Caption:Location in Mumbai, India
Coordinates:18.967°N 72.805°W
Subdivision Type:Country
Subdivision Name: India
Subdivision Type1:State
Subdivision Type2:District
Subdivision Type3:City
Subdivision Name1:Maharashtra
Subdivision Name2:Mumbai City
Subdivision Name3:Mumbai
Government Type:Municipal Corporation
Governing Body:Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (MCGM)
Unit Pref:Metric
Population Density Km2:auto
Demographics Type1:Languages
Demographics1 Title1:Official
Demographics1 Info1:Marathi
Timezone1:IST
Utc Offset1:+5:30
Area Code:022
Blank1 Name Sec1:Civic agency
Blank1 Info Sec1:BMC
Postal Code Type:PIN
Postal Code:400026[1]
Registration Plate:MH 01

Bhulabhai Desai Road, also well known by the old name Warden Road (and the part at and near the swimming pool as Breach Candy), is a niche up-market residential and semi-commercial locality of South Mumbai.

The area has many famous landmarks beside its long and winding stretch, from the Breach Candy Hospital to the Amarsons and Tata gardens and Lincoln House, former location of the Consulate General of the United States, Mumbai. The elite Breach Candy Club in the neighbourhood features the country's largest India-shaped swimming pool. Just off Bhulabhai Desai Road is the women-only Sophia College.

The 18th century Mahalaxmi Temple, which honors the Hindu goddess of wealth and wisdom, is situated nearby on the edge of sea. It is one of the most famous temples of Mumbai and attracts millions of devotees and tourists each year.

The area falls under the 'D-Ward' of the BMC and shares the postal code 400 026 under the Cumballa Hill post office. It lies 21 kilometers south of Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport and just 2 kilometers from the Mumbai Central station. It is well connected by local buses run by BEST.

Geographically, this road curls around the Arabian Sea. Because of its picturesque location, real estate prices here are among the most expensive in the country.

Etymology

The origin of the name Breach Candy, first attested by 1828 at least,[2] is widely given as an Anglicisation of an Arabic-Marathi name Burj-khāḍī ('the tower of the creek').[3] [4] [5] However, this interpretation is disputed. In seventeenth- to nineteenth-century English, breach had meanings including 'the breaking of waves on a coast', 'surf made by the sea breaking over rocks; broken water, breakers' and 'a break in a coast, a bay, harbour',[6] and may in the context of Breach Candy even have been used to refer to a breakwater at the location.[7] Thus, although the breach part of the name could be an Anglicisation of a local word, it could simply be an English word in its own right. Meanwhile, Candy may be an Anglicisation of Marathi khind ('mountain pass')[8] or Kannada khindi ('a breach').[9]

History

Not long ago, Breach Candy was sparsely populated with very few bungalows and mansions. Most of the residents were born into old money. Some of these bungalows and mansions still stand. The Breach Candy House, the Breach Candy Swimming Club and the Breach Candy Hospital have been present since the time of British rule.

At the northern foot of the Cumballa Hill, in the part now called Breach Candy, was a temple to three goddesses—Mahakali, Mahalakshmi and Mahasaraswati. A creek to the north separated the island of Bombay from the Koli island of Worli. This creek was filled after the completion of the Hornby Vellard in 1784. Soon after, the modern temple of Mahalakshmi was built here.

What are now the Amarson and Tata gardens were landfills with abandoned construction trucks, cranes and bulldozers probably used in land reclamation projects. A few of these trucks were parked in a truck-sized garage behind Scandal Point. Similarly, trucks, cranes and bulldozers were seen abandoned on the land which is now known as Priyadarshini Park.

Notable residents

Education

Picture links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Pin code : Breach Candy, Mumbai. 9 February 2015. pincode.org.in.
  2. Samuel T. Sheppard, Bombay Place-Names and Street-Names: An Excursion into the By-Ways of the History of Bombay City (Bombay: The Times Press, 1917), p. 78.
  3. News: Know Your Bombay! – 14th January 2017. Parsi Times.
  4. Henry Yule and Arthur Coke Burnell Hobson-Jobson: The Anglo-Indian Dictionary (Ware: Wordsworth, 1996), p. 114 [first publ. 1886].
  5. Book: MacMillan, Michael . The Globe Trotter in India Two Hundred Years Ago: And Other Indian Studies . gymkhana. . 1895 . S. Sonnenschein & Company . 88 . 24 August 2018 .
  6. "breach, n." OED Online, Oxford University Press, June 2017, https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/22879. Accessed 13 December 2017, §§2, 8, 9 (cf. 7b).
  7. Samuel T. Sheppard, Bombay Place-Names and Street-Names: An Excursion into the By-Ways of the History of Bombay City
  8. Samuel T. Sheppard, Bombay Place-Names and Street-Names: An Excursion into the By-Ways of the History of Bombay City
  9. Chidambara Martanda Kulkarni, Studies in Indian History (Bombay: Sri Dvaipayana Trust, 1974), p. 114.
  10. "Contact Us ." DSB International School. Retrieved on 11 February 2015. "Garden Campus: Students from Kindergarten to Year 3 / Klasse 4 DSB INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL 76 Bhulabhai Desai Road, Breach Candy Mumbai - 400 026 India." and "Aurum House: Students from Year 5 / Klasse 5 DSB INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL 25 Dadi Seth Road, Babulnath Mumbai - 400 007 India. "