Bhulabhai Desai Road, also well known by the old name Warden Road (and the part at and near the swimming pool as Breach Candy), is a niche up-market residential and semi-commercial locality of

South Mumbai South Mumbai, colloquially SoBo from South Bombay in Indian English, administratively the Mumbai City District, is the city centre and the southernmost precinct of Greater Bombay. It extends from Colaba to Mahalaxmi (Western side), Byculla ...

. The area has many famous landmarks beside its long and winding stretch, from the

Breach Candy Hospital Breach Candy Hospital is a private hospital located in Mumbai, India. It is located in the Breach Candy area of South Mumbai. It is well known for the rich and famous patients that have been in the hospital. History It was established in ...

to the Amarsons and Tata gardens and Lincoln House, former location of the

Consulate General of the United States, Mumbai The Consulate General of the United States of America in Mumbai represents the interests of the U.S. government in Mumbai, India and nearby surrounding areas. The Consulate General serves the Indian states of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pra ...

. The elite Breach Candy Club in the neighbourhood features the country's largest India-shaped swimming pool. Just off Bhulabhai Desai Road is the women-only

Sophia College Sophia College (Autonomous) is an undergraduate women's college established in 1941 by Society of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It is affiliated to the University of Mumbai. The governing body of The Society for the Higher Education of Women in In ...

. The 18th century Mahalaxmi Temple, which honors the Hindu goddess of wealth and wisdom, is situated nearby on the edge of sea. It is one of the most famous temples of Mumbai and attracts millions of devotees and tourists each year. The area falls under the 'D-Ward' of the BMC and shares the postal code 400 026 under the Cumballa Hill post office. It lies 21 kilometers south of

Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport is the international airport serving Mumbai, the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the second-busiest airport in India in terms of total and international passenger traffic a ...

and just 2 kilometers from the Mumbai Central station. It is well connected by local buses run by

BEST Best or The Best may refer to: People * Best (surname), people with the surname Best * Best (footballer, born 1968), retired Portuguese footballer Companies and organizations * Best & Co., an 1879–1971 clothing chain * Best Lock Corporatio ...

. Geographically, this road curls around the

Arabian Sea The Arabian Sea () is a region of sea in the northern Indian Ocean, bounded on the west by the Arabian Peninsula, Gulf of Aden and Guardafui Channel, on the northwest by Gulf of Oman and Iran, on the north by Pakistan, on the east by India, and ...

. Because of its picturesque location, real estate prices here are among the most expensive in the country.

Etymology

The origin of the name ''Breach Candy'', first attested by 1828 at least, is widely given as an Anglicisation of an Arabic-Marathi name ''Burj-khāḍī'' ('the tower of the creek'). However, this interpretation is disputed. In seventeenth- to nineteenth-century English, ''breach'' had meanings including 'the breaking of waves on a coast', 'surf made by the sea breaking over rocks; broken water, breakers' and 'a break in a coast, a bay, harbour', and may in the context of Breach Candy even have been used to refer to a

breakwater Breakwater may refer to: * Breakwater (structure), a structure for protecting a beach or harbour Places * Breakwater, Victoria, a suburb of Geelong, Victoria, Australia * Breakwater Island, Antarctica * Breakwater Islands, Nunavut, Canada * ...

at the location. Thus, although the ''breach'' part of the name could be an Anglicisation of a local word, it could simply be an English word in its own right. Meanwhile, ''Candy'' may be an Anglicisation of

Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India **Marathi people (Uttar Pradesh), the Marathi people in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Mar ...

''khind'' ('mountain pass') or

Kannada Kannada () is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly in the state of Karnataka in southwestern India, and spoken by a minority of the population in all neighbouring states. It has 44 million native speakers, and is additionally a ...

''khindi'' ('a breach').

History

Not long ago, Breach Candy was sparsely populated with very few bungalows and mansions. Most of the residents were born into

old money Old money is a social class of the rich who have been able to maintain their wealth over multiple generations, in contrast with new money whose wealth has been acquired within its own generation. The term often refers to perceived members of th ...

. Some of these bungalows and mansions still stand. The Breach Candy House, the Breach Candy Swimming Club and the

have been present since the time of

British rule The British Raj ( ; from Hindustani , 'reign', 'rule' or 'government') was the colonial rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent, * * lasting from 1858 to 1947. * * It is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or dire ...

. At the northern foot of the Cumballa Hill, in the part now called Breach Candy, was a temple to three goddesses—

Mahakali Mahakali () is the Hindu goddess of time and death in the goddess-centric tradition of Shaktism. She is also known as the supreme being in various tantras and Puranas. Similar to Kali, Mahakali is a fierce goddess associated with universal po ...

Mahalakshmi Lakshmi (; , , sometimes spelled Laxmi, ), also known as Shri (, , ), is one of the principal goddesses in Hinduism, revered as the goddess of wealth, fortune, prosperity, beauty, fertility, sovereignty, and abundance. She along with Parvat ...

and

Mahasaraswati Saraswati (, ), also spelled as Sarasvati, is one of the principal goddesses in Hinduism, revered as the goddess of knowledge, education, learning, arts, speech, poetry, music, purification, language and culture. Together with the goddesses ...

. A creek to the north separated the island of Bombay from the Koli island of

Worli Worli (ISO 15919, ISO: ''Varaḷī'', Help:IPA/Marathi, �əɾ(ə)ɭiː is a locality in central Mumbai in Maharashtra, India. It is one of the four peninsulas of Mumbai with the others being Colaba, Bandra and Malabar Hill. The sea connect ...

. This creek was filled after the completion of the

Hornby Vellard The Hornby Vellard was a project to build a causeway uniting all seven islands of Bombay into a single island with a deep natural harbour. The project was started by the governor William Hornby in 1782 and all islands were linked by 1838. The wo ...

in 1784. Soon after, the modern temple of

was built here. What are now the Amarson and Tata gardens were landfills with abandoned construction trucks, cranes and bulldozers probably used in land reclamation projects. A few of these trucks were parked in a truck-sized garage behind Scandal Point. Similarly, trucks, cranes and bulldozers were seen abandoned on the land which is now known as Priyadarshini Park.

Notable residents

Kailash Surendranath Kailash Surendranath (born June 24, 1950) is an Indian advertisement filmmaker, director, and producer He has a career spanning several decades, he has directed more than 6,000 television commercials, along with numerous films promoting na ...

, film director * RK Laxman, Cartoonist *

Asha Bhosle Asha Bhosle (; ; born 8 September 1933) is an Indian playback singer, entrepreneur, actress and television personality who predominantly works in Indian cinema. Known for her versatility, she has been described in the media as one of the ...

, Singer *

Ronnie Screwvala Rohinton Soli Screwvala (born 8 September 1956), known professionally as Ronnie Screwvala, is an Indian entrepreneur, investor and film producer. He has been named on Esquire's List of the 75 Most Influential People of the 21st Century in 2008 ...

, producer and CEO and founding chairman of UTV Group *

Annapurna Devi Annapurna Devi (17 April 1927 – 13 October 2018) was an Indian surbahar player of Hindustani classical music. She was given the name 'Annapurna' by Maharaja Brijnath Singh of the former Maihar Estate, and it was by this name that she was ...

, notable Indian classical musician and former wife of

Pandit Ravi Shankar Ravi Shankar (; born Robindro Shaunkor Chowdhury, sometimes spelled as Rabindra Shankar Chowdhury; 7 April 1920 – 11 December 2012) was an Indian sitarist and composer. A sitar virtuoso, he became the world's best-known expert of Indian cl ...

Homi Adajania Homi Adajania (born 28 February) is an Indian film director and writer. He made his directorial debut with ''Being Cyrus'' (2005), an English-language psychological drama. He followed this with the commercially successful Hindi-language romantic ...

, Filmmaker *

Bhanu Athaiya Bhanu Athaiya (née Rajopadhye; 28 April 192915 October 2020) was an Indian costume designer and painter. She was the first Indian to win an Academy Awards, Academy Award. Alongside being Bollywood's most iconic costume designer, she had a his ...

, Oscar-winning costume designer for ''Gandhi'' *

Naina Lal Kidwai Naina Lal Kidwai (born 14 April 1957) is an Indian banker, chartered accountant and business executive. She was a Group General Manager and the Country Head of HSBC India. She is also a former President of the Federation of Indian Chambers of ...

, businesswoman * Gautam Singhania, businessman *

Jagjit Singh Jagjit Singh (born Jagmohan Singh Dhiman; 8 February 1941 – 10 October 2011) was an Indian composer, singer and musician. He composed and sang in List of languages by number of native speakers in India, numerous languages and is credite ...

, classical singer *

Aarti Chhabria Aarti Chabria (born 21 November 1982) is an Indian actress and former model who appears in Hindi, Telugu, Punjabi and Kannada films. Modeling career Aarti Chabria started her career as a model in advertisements at the age of three years. Her ...

, actress *

Salman Rushdie Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie ( ; born 19 June 1947) is an Indian-born British and American novelist. His work often combines magic realism with historical fiction and primarily deals with connections, disruptions, and migrations between Eastern wor ...

, author. Born and raised in Breach Candy, he describes the area as it was from Indian independence to the 1960s in ''

Midnight's Children ''Midnight's Children'' is the second novel by Indian-British writer Salman Rushdie, published by Jonathan Cape with cover design by Bill Botten, about India's transition from British colonial rule to independence and partition. It is a pos ...

''. *

Azim Premji Azim Hashim Premji (born 24 July 1945) is an Indian businessman and philanthropist, who was the chairman of Wipro Limited. Premji remains a non-executive member of the board and founder chairman. He is informally known as the Czar of the India ...

, chairman and CEO of

Wipro Technologies Wipro Limited () is an Indian multinational technology company based in Bengaluru. It provides information technology, consulting and business process services. It is one of India's Big Six IT services companies. Wipro's services include cloud ...

Shibani Bathija Shibani Bathija is an Indian screenwriter known for her works in Bollywood films such as '' Fanaa'' (2006), ''Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna'' (2006), ''Kidnap'' (2008) and ''My Name Is Khan'' (2010). Bathija studied English at DePauw University and Com ...

, screenwriter *

Supriya Sule Supriya Sadanand Sule (''née'' Pawar; born 30 June 1969) is an Indian politician from the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) and currently a Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha representing Baramati (Lok Sabha constituency), Baramati ...

, politician *

Tara Sharma Tara Sharma (born 11 January 1982) is a British actress, entrepreneur, creator, co-producer and host of ''The Tara Sharma Show''. She is the daughter of authors Partap Sharma and Susan Sharma. She made her Bollywood debut in Anupam Kher direc ...

, actress *

Partap Sharma Partap Sharma (12 December 1939 – 30 November 2011) was an Indian playwright, novelist, author of books for children, commentator, actor and documentary film-maker. Background Sharma was born in Lahore, Punjab, India (now in Pakistan) and ...

, author and playwright *

Alyque Padamsee Alyque Padamsee (5 March 1928 – 17 November 2018) was an Indian theatre personality and ad film maker. He played Muhammad Ali Jinnah in the 1982 British period film ''Gandhi''. He was conferred with Padma Shri in 2000. Besides being involved ...

, theatre producer and actor *

Ramesh Balsekar Ramesh S. Balsekar (25 May 1917 – 27 September 2009) was an Indian Advaita teacher and physical culturist.Singleton, Mark. (2010). ''Yoga Body: The Origins of Modern Posture Practice''. Oxford University Press. p. 128. He was disciple and ...

, Advaita Vendanta master *

Kishore Kumar Kishore Kumar (born Abhas Kumar Ganguly; ; 4 August 1929 – 13 October 1987) was an Indian playback singer, musician and actor. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest, most influential and dynamic singers in the history of modern India ...

, Singer *

Lata Mangeshkar Lata Mangeshkar (; born Hema Mangeshkar; 28 September 1929 – 6 February 2022) was an Indian playback singer and occasional music composer. She is considered to be one of the greatest and most influential singers of the Indian subcontinent. He ...

, Singer *

Yusuf Hamied Yusuf Khwaja Hamied (born 25 July 1936) is an Indian scientist, billionaire businessman and the chairman of Cipla, a generic pharmaceuticals company founded by his father Khwaja Abdul Hamied in 1935. He is also an elected fellow of the Indian ...

, Owner of Cipla

Education

* Green Lawns High School * Activity High School *

DSB International School DSB International School, also known as Deutsche Schule Bombay, is an international school located in the city of Mumbai, India. It provides the National Curriculum of England and the German Curriculum of Thuringia and was established in 1961. ...

(German school) Garden CampusContact Us
."

. Retrieved on 11 February 2015. "Garden Campus: Students from Kindergarten to Year 3 / Klasse 4 DSB INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL 76 Bhulabhai Desai Road, Breach Candy Mumbai - 400 026 India." and "Aurum House: Students from Year 5 / Klasse 5 DSB INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL 25 Dadi Seth Road, Babulnath Mumbai - 400 007 India. "

Picture links

Gordon Gibbons Photographs of Breach Candy 1937-1940

References

{{Tourist attractions in Mumbai Neighbourhoods in Mumbai Streets in Mumbai