"I am happy that Bombaywalla has played a role in making history fun and engaging,” historian and soon-to-be author Dr Simin Patel told Parsiana about the completion of a decade of existence of Bombaywalla Historical Works’ (BHW) on March 21, 2023. She is among the early contemporary city chroniclers, much before the now-proliferating talks on heritage and heritage walks became a fad. "In this last decade working on a city has become a small viable business and one can make a small living doing Bombay things,” she stated.
BHW conducts exclusive city tours for specialized groups. Their website is a repository of Bombay memorabilia and forgotten businesses — laundries, Goan food outlets, typewriting institutes, et al. As the website invites in a style befitting a bygone era, "Inhabitants and Strangers to the City will please remember Bombaywalla to know their City Structures and Social History.”
A section of the website is devoted to the Adenwalla Archive which "traces the trajectory of three generations of the Adenwalla family who dominated the commercial and civic life of the port city of Aden in Yemen, in the age of Empire.” Currently a work in progress, the site details the life and times, with images and documents, of Cowasjee Dinshaw (1827-1900), the family progenitor who established his business in Aden. More worthies will go online soon, including Sir Hormusji Cowasjee Dinshaw Adenwalla whose statue stands next to the Bhikha Behram well in the Churchgate area.
Patel’s book that is in the making will dive "into the world of Irani strongmen and dons and cafes they operated from.” One such is the much-talked-about Britannia and Company in Bombay’s Ballard Estate.
BHW carried this snippet on their social media handle on the eatery that will complete 100 years on August 16, 2023: "(Founder) Rashid Kohinoor used to wrestle with the British army people who came to Britannia Restaurant. In the gully next door there was a lawn and Rashid Kohinoor with his big moustache would take them on. He made one pathan sit with a hockey stick outside Britannia because some people used to eat and say they will pay afterwards but afterwards never came. Then Rashid Kohinoor would walk through Ballard Estate from Britannia to Alexandra Gate where he would jump over the parapet and into the sea and swim leisurely.”
Rashid’s son was a die-hard admirer of British royalty and was elated when, as a nonagenarian, he met Prince William and Catherine, then Duchess of Cambridge, in Bombay (see "Fan’s fantasy fulfilled,” Parsiana, Events and Personalities, May 7, 2016). The eatery is now run by Boman’s son Afshin.