My Heritage Chronicles

For any person raised in Mumbai, Since childhood, you would have walked past the grandest colonial architectural buildings, visited the Gateway of India and famous temples or other religious places as well enjoyed shopping in major bazaars of the city. This would be the case with most of us including me, so when I got interested in knowing more about the heritage of my city, I was pleasantly surprised to know that there exists a different layer of the city which I didn't know anything about and this lay in the next-door neighbor, in some alleys or in some quaint street. That started my quest to explore, get off the beaten path and rediscover a different Mumbai.  One of the online articles I read, referred to a Masjid in Mumbai with gleaming blue Persian tiles with a well-maintained lawn and a pond. My first reaction was is this in Mumbai? So on the first opportunity on one weekend, I was on my way to see this slice of Persia in the middle of the narrow bylane of Dongri tuck...

UDVADA - This coastal town lies 200 km from Mumbai. Udvada means "The grazing ground of Camels" which it was before it became a fishing town. This town is renowned for Zoroastrian Atash Behram of the holy fire which has been burning for over 1250 years. The oldest place of worship still a functioning example of its kind. Udvada is to Parsis what Mecca is to Muslims, Kashi for Hindus, and the Vatican for Christians . Not many would be aware that Udvada Atash Behram (Holy fire temple) is one of the nine Atash Behram worldwide (four are in Mumbai, two in Surat, one in Navsari, and one in Udvada), The only other place outside India is in the town of Yazd in central Iran.  Legend has it that during the Muslim conquest of Iran in the 7th century marginalized Zoroastrians fled to the Indian sub-continent to preserve their diminishing culture and populace. It is said that they first landed onshore in the small beach village of Nargol from where they settled in Sanjan and o...