Talaash! Which part of Mumbai do you want to see?

Causeway



The Volga.

Most cities in India used to have and continues to have at least one Volga bar, restaurant or hotel. Even Mumbai has one. It's a hotel behind Leopold.

Today, it would be strange that a new affordable bar, restaurant or lodge would be named after a river that is considered the Ganges of Russia. But then, the Volgas of Indian cities were named during Soviet days and catered to the working class. The stories of wars and struggles along the river probably resonated or just the Soviet idea would have given macho meaning to the strong rum drinking Comrades (or whatever they drank those days) from those forgotten years.

Sam, tweets from Bangalore to inform me that the other popular name from that era is Tashkent, a city that was part of the former USSR and for us Indians, forever associated with the talks with Pakistan, where then Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri represented us.

There's no popular Russian word for cheers, so let's just say Laal Salaam to BJP, Trinamool and similar surviving communists of our days from Volga.



Photo Books by Mumbai Paused







Digital photo books with stories from the streets of Mumbai are now available at Footpath Bookshop


Explore by places

Archive