Places impact you for a variety of reasons. And the same place impacts different people in different ways. This is especially true when it comes to spiritual experiences, where every single person’s experience is unique. And personally, every spiritual experience is unique, the same person can have different deeply spiritual experiences at different places, at different times. This thought has emerged because of my own experiences over the years, but especially so this year, with different and unique experiences at various places I have visited recently. I began this year with a visit to Baroda (Vadodara) with friends. It was meant to be a relaxed trip, a touristy trip, with our sons. We enjoyed ourselves to the hilt, but the highlight of that trip was a visit to the Lakulisha temple at Pavagadh. It was the iconography of the temple that I connected with, and I spent a few hours simply lost in the details of the figures carved around the temple. There was an indefinable connect with
A security guard at the gate
signs us in, and points us to a building. “Third floor” he says, laconically.
We walk the short distance, and are told we have to climb, for there is no
elevator here. Three flights of stairs later, breathing heavily from the
exertion, we finally arrive at our destination – the BEST Museum.
Located at Anik Depot, the BEST
Museum is an attempt to preserve the heritage of the BEST Undertaking, and
educate people about the development of the transport and electrical supply in
Mumbai.
The museum is a treasure trove
for transport and heritage enthusiasts, with a number of old photographs (or
reproductions of old photographs) and snippets about the setting up and running
of the transport system, more than a hundred years ago.
The exhibits tell their own
story, of the growth of public transport, from the horse drawn trams of 1874,
to the advent of electric trams in 1907, the first omnibuses introduced in 1926
and the first special ‘sightseeing’ buses, which also ran in the same year; the
earliest double decker buses which began operations in 1937, and the
modifications they endured over the years; which eventually led to the buses we
see on the roads today.
Makers of Trams and Buses... over a century of BEST |
Tickets of trams and buses, going
back to the last century, tell their own story – of the cost of living, the
inflation, and the change of political regime.
An old tram ticket... the front with the rates, and the back with the routes... more than a century old! |
One of the earliest Bus tickets... |
Old photographs of Electric
House, and the exhibitions meant to educate people of the benefits of
electricity tell another story – of the transition of a city from a small
island to a modern metropolis.
An original bus engine, cut to
reveal its secrets, serves to beautifully explain the concept of engines, and
the long way they have come since then. Old tram seats and bus windows take us
back to another time, giving us a better peek into life, as it was then, as do
ancient type writers, coin counting machines, and ticket vending machines, all
operated manually.
Tinkering with a bus engine twice his size, and almost ten times as old as him! |
Framed photographs of directors
make us aware of the people behind the efficient transport system of the city,
and some of their personal items on display tell us more about the men
themselves. Old plans for further development serve to show the foresight of
some of them, and the fact that these plans lie disused, show us just how petty
politics influences our day to day lives, making us wish we had better leaders,
who could actually take the system a step further.
The story of the transformation
of the Bombay Electric Supply and Tramways Company to the Brihanmumbai Electric
Supply and Transport Undertaking is a fascinating one, but even more
fascinating, at least to children, and to the child in us all, are the models
of trams, buses, bus stands, and depots, which the museum is filled with!
Especially fun for kids are the remote control operated models of BEST buses,
which kids are allowed to try out, under supervision of course!
And we get to run a double decker bus!!!!!! |
Actual models of all BEST Bus
Depots show us just how well organised the system is, and, as we look around
one last time, I just wish the museum, with all its wonderful exhibits, was
better maintained.
Those in charge of it, however,
seem to be pleased with things just the way they are. There are enough schools
bringing students for visits, and enough footfalls to justify its existence.
Making it more popular, or maintaining it better doesn’t seem to be high on
their list of priorities. After all, it is a free museum, not bringing in any
revenue. The people working here are enthusiastic, but they are only employees,
not decision makers.
The lone guide here is an
especially enthusiastic man, filled with pride for the organisation he works
for. He is, however, hampered by his lack of fluency in English. He is most
comfortable speaking in Marathi, and was relieved when I told him I could both
understand and speak the language. However, more commendable was the fact that
he wanted to improve his English, for, as he himself says, not all visitors to
the museum know the language.
It is people like him – the ones
who collected and preserved all these materials, set it up, and today, run it –
who make the museum the interesting place it is. All it needs is a little more
attention and care to make us proud of it too.
Information:
- Location: The BEST Museum is located at Anik Depot. To those unfamiliar with the place, this is right opposite IMAX Wadala.
- Timings: The Museum is open from 10 AM to 5 PM from Wednesday to Sunday. The Museum is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.
- Tickets: Entry to the museum is free of cost.
Tips:
- It takes easily 2 hours to go through the museum at a leisurely pace. There are enough items on display to warrant that amount of time.
- The guide speaks fluently in Marathi, his Hindi is quite decent, and his English is faltering but understandable. Do not let language dissuade you from a visit. The exhibits have explanations, and though most are in Marathi, they are self-explanatory.
- Read up on the detailedhistory of BEST posted on the BEST website before you go. It will give you a better sense of the events.
- Please take your kids along. And if they haven’t been on a BEST bus yet, make sure you take them soon!
P.S : Photography is allowed inside the museum, and I clicked loads and
loads. However, when I mentioned that I was a blogger, they suddenly were wary
of me putting up images on the net. They asked me to take permission from the
BEST PRO, whom I duly called up, and also sent mails to, asking for permission.
Unfortunately, I haven’t received any reply from them, which is why I decided
to go ahead with the post with a minimal number of photographs. I have chosen
to only use photos which either have Samhith in them, or those which I felt
would help in giving you, my readers, an idea of what to expect. I simply wish to reiterate that my only aim here is to
encourage more people to visit the museum, so I hope no one will be offended by
my use of these photographs.
Wow,I love the choice of words,sentence contruction and the way you relate your experience. You make me what to visit that place. I will one day
ReplyDeleteThank you so much!! I would love to hear what you think of the museum after you visit it.
DeleteExcellent as always... enjoyed it so much. So happy to see Samhith growing tall and becoming a very handsome young man!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much, Chitra/ good to see u here again!!! and samhith will be so happy to hear himself being described as 'tall and handsome"
DeleteHi Anu! Such a lovely post about the BEST Museum. It's really a pity that most conductors do not know of this museum. I had to ask a journalist friend of mine to help me out with the location. The BEST Museum is one of my favourite places for learning about Mumbai. It is more special because this was the first write-up of mine that got published. A better version of my take on the BEST museum can be seen here: http://reflectionsofpassions.blogspot.in/2012/03/bus-ek-pal.html
ReplyDeleteThanks, Akshay. your post is a lot more detailed than mine. I simply wanted to put down my thoughts on the museum rather than the museum itself. After all what we all see or notice in the museum will depend more on us than the museum! and you are right about the lack of knowledge about it. i too had to make two trips before i finally got to see it! its amazing how little we know about such interesting places. and then ppl say there is nothing to see in mumbai!
DeleteNever knew that BEST had such a maintained museum. thanks for sharing such a nice post !
ReplyDeleteYou are welcome, Paresh! Hope you can visit the museum some time. would love to hear what you think of it too!
DeleteThis place is so unexpected! Applause!!!
ReplyDeleteI will surely make a vist here. All thanks to you :)
Thanks Aarti!!! Yes, you should certainly go visit. And write about it too!
DeleteLovely!
ReplyDeleteI had been to BEST museum in late 80's or early 90's. I think it was near Taraporewala aquarium then.