Bora Bazaar — a mixed-use locality comprised of residences,
a marketplace, homes and offices. Not only is this area in Fort
named for the Bohra Muslims who moved here from Gujarat, but
many of the signs on its shops and residential buildings are in
Gujarati as well, which keeps the historic legacy of this community
alive. The Parsis, who were monetarily and linguistically wealthy,
also moved to Bombay along with the traders. Originally from
Iran, they fled to Gujarat during the height of the religious
persecution in their home country. When they came to Bombay,
they constructed houses of worship that reflect both heritages.
The Godavara Gamadia Agiary in Fort has both Gujarati and
Persian lettering inscribed on the entrance wall. Parsi priest and
scholar Fardunji Marzban, is responsible for establishing the first
Gujarati-language newspaper, Bombay Samachar (now Mumbai
Samachar), whose sign still hangs on its red building. It remains in
print, now the oldest published newspaper in Asia.
More places, where you tend to see signs in languages other
than English or Marathi, are restaurants that serve regional or
international cuisines. In most cases, the signs are transliterations:
the same words written in different scripts. In some instances, as
with this South Indian Hotel, the English signage just says ‘South
Indian’, but the Telugu letters below it read ‘Andhra Bhojanam’,
as if to signal to a Telugu-speaking crowd that it serves authentic
Andhra meals — a regional script is often used for legitimacy. It is
a certificate: everything sold and served here is reliably sourced.
Dynasty, a Chinese restaurant in Santacruz, has a sign in Chinese
characters, between the ones in English and Marathi, but for
some reason, it reads ‘Government Restaurant’.
Multilingual signage has the added advantage of helping one
pronounce foreign or unfamiliar words more easily, and this can
be useful when you have international brands stepping into India.
Especially so for people who are not fluent in English as wellFACING PAGE: THE
SIGN AT THE OFFICE OF
ASIA’S OLDEST GUJARATI
NEWSPAPER, BOMBAY
SAMACHAR
ABOVE: THE MULTILINGUAL
SIGNAGE OF A CHINESE
RESTAURANT IN SANTACRUZ
RIGHT: BOARDS OUTSIDE
THE GODAVARA GAMADIA
AGIARY IN FORT