A lost world

Mumbai usually veils its beauty behind a curtain of pollution and haphazardly-raised buildings. But a few pockets of the city still hold the power to spring surprises. One such area is Mazagaon and within its warren of lanes lurks Mumbai's only Chinese temple.

The Kwan Tai Shek temple does not flaunt itself needlessly, although the scarlet saloon door and the balcony painted in cherry red make its Chinese origins fairly obvious. The temple bursts into life only on the Chinese New Year, when the Chinese community in Mumbai gathers to light fireworks and offer prayers at the temple's gilt altar. The walls within are painted a vivid red—an auspicious colour—and decorated with gleaming dragon motifs and pretty lanterns.

Occupying the place of pride is a big statue swathed in silk, of Kwan Tai (Guan Yu), a warrior deity. At his side stand two lieutenants at attention and scattered at his feet are various other deities. It was in Kwan Tai's honour that Cantonese sailors who worked for the East India Company established the temple in 1919.

"The earliest Chinese settlers who arrived in Bombay around 1850 set to work at a factory, which the Parsi merchant Framjee Cawasjee had opened in Powai to manufacture silk, tea and sugar. Other Chinese people found employment as carpenters in the docks," writes Naresh Fernandes in The City Adrift. Once, Mumbai had its own bustling Chinatown, but all that changed after the Indo-China War, when most residents were hustled out of their homes. Today, all that remains is the temple and the Chinese cemetery in Mazagaon. Both bear mute witness to the turn of the tide.