Pudding: The Memory Keepers of Bandra arrives as a considered tribute to one of Mumbai’s most recognisable suburbs. Curated by Shormistha Mukherjee, who runs the popular Instagram account @housesofbandra, the anthology collects essays, memories and images that map Bandra’s social and architectural history.
Memory Keepers of Bandra captures neighbourhood’s past and present
The collection ranges from affectionate sketches of Art Deco bungalows and East Indian cooking to more formal historical reconstruction. Murali Ranganathan contributes a striking piece that pieces together diary entries and letters to present a picture of Bandra in the 1830s, when the area was an important stop for travellers crossing the creek from Mahim to reach Ghodbunder Road. Ranganathan traces major shifts in control, from Portuguese to Maratha to British hands, and observes how the English largely overlooked Salcette and its Roman Catholic farming communities that supplied Bombay with vegetables.
Mukherjee’s own essays form the backbone of the book. She writes with clear affection about how she and her husband became part of the Bandra community after moving there 23 years ago. Her account is candid: a nomadic childhood as the daughter of an Indian Air Force pilot; a later diagnosis of cancer in 2018 that turned slow walks around the neighbourhood into a period of discovery. Those walks, she says, allowed her to read, to investigate the suburb’s history, and ultimately to understand that roots can be made as well as inherited.
An unusual element of the project is its use of an AI-generated image derived from an 1850 painting by William Carpenter held at the V&A Museum. Denied permission to reproduce the original print, Mukherjee commissioned an image from a prompt that captures the Mount Mary Church steps in an antique style. The image appears in the anthology and in promotional pieces, and serves as a visual shorthand for the book’s blend of archival material and contemporary storytelling.
Pudding’s physical design is intentionally retro. Mukherjee wanted a volume that readers could hold, share and enjoy without needing an internet connection. She explains that the format was chosen to suit older readers who might be put off by digital links or websites. The book is made to be picked up between cups of tea, dipped into and returned to later.
Beyond nostalgia, the anthology offers a layered portrait of Bandra as a place where history and modern affluence coexist. One evocative passage reprints a line from Mrs CP Farrar, writing of a house in the nineteenth century that “has the benefit of every breeze that stirs, either from land or sea.” The sentence might equally describe the present-day view from Mannat, the home of a contemporary film star, yet the continuity of place is what the anthology seeks to preserve.
Published with evident care, Pudding: The Memory Keepers of Bandra appeals to local readers and anyone interested in urban history or community memory. It celebrates small, everyday features — architecture, cuisine, social habits — while also recording the archival traces that explain how Bandra became the suburb it is today.
Key Takeaways:
- Memory Keepers of Bandra is a new anthology celebrating Bandra’s architecture, food and history.
- Curator Shormistha Mukherjee combines personal memoir, archival research and art to document the suburb’s past and present.
- Murali Ranganathan’s historical essay reconstructs Bandra in the 1830s, while an AI-derived image evokes the Mount Mary Church steps.
- The book’s retro design aims to be accessible to older readers and to be enjoyed casually with tea and cake.
