Know Your Bombay! – 3rd December 2016

[otw_shortcode_info_box border_style=”bordered” css_class=”boxed”]Parsi Times brings you interesting facts about our beloved Bombay! Explore this city’s amusing history and get to know why and how so many streets and places got their names with KYB![/otw_shortcode_info_box]

Chowpatty

Chowpatty is really ‘Chau-pati’ meaning four channels, and is evidence of the inroad of the tide before the western foreshore as reclaimed. This name is analogous to that of Satpaty, a village in the Mahim Taluka of the Thana District, which is approached through a channel or khadi, containing seven pats or divisions of water!

.

.

Colaba

Colaba was derived from the word ‘Kolaba’- the name of the district which lies on the far side of the harbour, which in turn derived the name from Kolvan or Kolbhat, a koli hamlet or village – as the Kolis or fisher-folk undoubtedly settled here, as in other parts of the island since centuries. A certain research states that the name of the mainland district is taken from the Arabic word, ‘Kalabeh’, meaning a neck of land jutting into sea, a description which exactly fits Colaba. Dr. Jivanji Jamsetji Modi writes, ‘One remembers having heard when young, that Colaba meant the ‘ab’ (Persian term for water) of the Kolis.