Stories on a map

The book is a revelation, opening up the streets and alleys and the iconic "park" of the area to a new light

In these strange times, it is perhaps a little surreal to be reading about a place that emerged out of a plague-ravaged city in 1896-97. Truth, as they say, is often stranger than fiction and it turns out Shivaji Park, a place that is indelibly associated with the spirit of Bombay and Mumbai, owes its origins to the bubonic plague of the late 

19th century. 

Shanta Gokhale, resident-raconteur, lovingly chronicles the place in a book that is a rarity in Indian publishing, a biography of a location. She knows the place like the back of her palm and in a slow and