Writing about Cities: Personal Essay

Punjabi Refugee Colony, Sion, Mumbai

The partition of India and Pakistan is often regarded as one of the most extensive migrations in the history of humankind. Henceforth, it isn’t wondrous that the partition has been a recurring theme in the literary work of many writers.

From the instant I learnt that the City of Dreams houses a Punjabi Refugee Colony, I felt much more than a strong urge to experience the place. On one fine Saturday in February 2021, I decided to travel to Sion from Worli, where I lived. Getting on the Mumbai local was out of the question due to the CoVID restrictions. Hence, I merrily opted for a kaali-peeli until Bandra and then hopped onto an autorickshaw, where I got to do my favorite thing: watch the meter change numbers!

The Punjabi refugee colony is located in Sion, Central Mumbai, a lively neighborhood northeast of Dadar. Also known as GTB Nagar (Guru Teg Bahadur Nagar, if you ask a Punjabi about it, they will tell you with the biggest and brightest smile on their just lit-up face that they have lovingly christened it Mini Punjab and prefer to call it that! The inhabitants here are mainly Punjabi Hindu and Sikh refugees who relocated to this land from Pakistan. While they had to kiss goodbye to their homeland, the tales in their heart, their upbringing, and all things intangible moved with them to Bombay. Even today, these partition stories pervade the air here.

Within a minute of getting down from the autorickshaw, I had already spotted women adorning salwar suits and men dressed in crisp white kurta pajamas and colorful turbans, as is typical of followers of the Sikh faith. Perhaps they would have had them stitched at the Colony’s tiny tailor shop. To explore and understand how life looks for these residents today, I chose to walk to the Dashmesh Darbar Gurudwara in the hope of overhearing conversations post the evening prayers.

Heading towards the holy shrine, I caught sight of some informal vendors selling sought-after banta soda. I could see some more permanent shops selling nitty gritties used in Sikh households. Situated close to the Gurudwara, these shops offer items such as kadas (a steel bracelet worn by people of the Sikh faith), hair fixers, turbans, phulkari chunnis, spices, and masalas used in typical North Indian cuisine. On my trip to one of these shops, where I halted to get a new kada, I could hear a lady ask for Rajmah and Punjabi Chole Masala in her slightly Punjabi accent, unlike the voices I was accustomed to hearing. A shaded walkway with a trussed roof led me to the holy building’s white marble steps. The almost G+2 structure boosts a simple yet very inviting facade. I walked upstairs, did my prayers, read some sacred chants, and walked outside the darbar. As I inferred about the history of the same from the incharge sitting at the entrance, I learnt that the Gurudwara was built to extend help to the victims of the 1968 Koyna earthquake.

Surrounded by slums and tucked in a backdrop that speaks of immense disparity from sky-kissing buildings to tiny slums, the Refugee Colony is a world of its own! Many food walks are synonymous with Sion. Unsurprisingly, a food blogger acquaintance recommended I visit Sion for good Punjabi cuisine, further strengthening my resolve to let my taste buds witness the same. As one walks past the unavoidable and enticing aroma of tandoori chicken, one can sense that what the workers and owners of these famous food joints have managed to retain goes beyond a source of income or a meal! Getting interviewed by a bunch of journalism students, the owner of one of these food joints, with the slightest change of expression, began to narrate the tale that many asked him about. He mentioned that the Punjabis from Pakistan, particularly those with no relatives in North India, chose to board the train to Bombay. It was in 1957 that the government allotted the refugees 360 sq. ft houses each. In about 25 buildings, the then government explicitly prepared 1200 apartments for housing over 1200 refugee families. While the per sq. ft price in the 1960s in Sion was something like 14-15 rupees, today, the same sq. ft easily cost between 20,000 to 30,000 rupees or even more.

Today, declared dilapidated by the BMC, these buildings have been vacated because they have lived their life and are now beyond habitation. A notice on a modest-sized flyer written in Marathi hangs outside a rusted metal gate and reads that the buildings are dilapidated; hence one must not go near them. While the inhabitants have vacated and relocated to other areas in Mumbai and even abroad and are now paying heavy rents, it is still undecided who will redevelop the area. I could hear a 30-year-old describing the saga of the redevelopment of their Colony was well something that they have heard from their childhood, but the actionable part of it is yet to happen. Living here for decades, these families have even witnessed the transition from Bombay to Mumbai in 1995 but are now clueless about what the future holds for them.

Mumbai may be one of the world’s most populous cities, but it always welcomes everyone with open arms, and before you know it, you’ve fallen in love with the city. Immigrants from around the world populate Mumbai, significantly strengthening and enriching its fabric.

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