MM: Mazagaon, original hanging garden,Joseph Baptista park is a lush slice of history: Dec 16, 2010

The green mile
Nestled over the din of Mazagaon,the original hanging garden,Joseph Baptista park is a lush slice of history……Malay Desai

If Jack and Jill lived in Mumbai,they would definitely be found somewhere in Mazagaon.For it is only the quaint dock suburb,besides its churches and bungalows,which offers a fairytale hill to fetch a pail of water.And unlike other places of attraction having water reservoirs,it doesnt feature on Mumbai darshan tours or on the list of noisy weekend picnickers.Welcome to Joseph Baptista Garden.

It may be the only place in the city where you can look over a bustling railway station,dockyard and arterial roads minutes after hopping off a train.This elevated expanse is a tenminute walk and a five-minute climb away from Dockyard Road station on the Harbour line.Christined after freedom fighter Kaka Joseph Baptista,it has had many name changes in its over-150-year-old existence.The most popular of these,apart from Mazagaon garden of course,was,believe it or not,hanging gardens.

The reason behind this link with its cousin on Malabar Hill (Kamla Nehru Park) is that here too stands a mammoth reservoir which once stored water for the region.In 1884,the civic corporation selected the hill,among others,to address the water shortage in the city and erected the reservoir.Water,before being supplied to the city,was brought in to this Bhandarwada Hill reservoir from Vihar Lake.The corporation named it after the late John Hay Grant,ex-Municipal Commissioner of Bombay.And as the disintegrating plaque at the entrance proclaims,the storage capacity of the stone tank was increased to 20 million gallons in 1925.Sharda Dwivedi,the citys most loved historian,told us more: The garden had a deep connection to the Agri-Horticultural Society of Western India of Sewri.It was influential with eminent members from the city.Its function was to stock plants that the Agri-Horticultural Society was researching on.

Historical reasons apart,a walk in this park is a unique experience.It is flanked by the off-limit docks on its east,while another perspective is over the Gamdevi temple with the railway tracks below and monstrous houses around.Peer hard and you can spot the Taj tower on one side and Chemburs industries on the other.While the imposing reservoir (laced with creepers) is out of bounds,the lush surroundings of the nowrevamped joggers track are worth your time.The parks green house and senior citizens corner makes it extraordinary.

Climb up any morning and youll see keep-fit fanatics,while afternoons and evenings belong to students scattered about finishing their homework.Burkhaclad women is a common sight (Mazagaon is a Bori Muslim neighbourhood) while there are enough corners to cuddle up or gossip.That said,the garden isnt a hit with all locals.Most of them miss it for what it was only three years ago before BMCs revamp.The tracks,we were told,were rough and not tiled,hence better for walkers and the centre also bore Joseph Baptistas name formed using bushes and mud bricks.The maintenance has been handed to contractors,the cops say,and they arent really doing a great job.

However,for a city which craves for open spaces,this green slice of history atop the din is only more than welcome.

The disintegrating plaque flaunting the capacity of the water tank

* Visit the Baptista Garden on a weekday evening and bump into Bori students studying,sans the Mumbai Darshan crowds littering

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