Meher Marfatia knows where all the best wafer chip shops are in the city. She knows where the best mahogany trees can be found (Dadar Parsi Colony), and which neighbourhood was once known as the “Paris of Bombay” (Clare Road, Byculla). If you’ve followed her column, Once Upon A City — here in mid-day for the past decade, and now in its digital avatar on mehermarfatia.com/blog — then you probably know these Mumbai secrets too. 

As the city’s memory-keeper in a career spanning 35 years, she has probably marched through every inch of this city in search of its hidden stories and heroes, sharing her discoveries with readers every fortnight. Her association with this paper goes back to 1990, when as a young mother, she penned a column  Kid-Day (a play on this paper’s name) to help mothers and children explore the city. “mid-day has been the cradle for my interest in city history. From Kid-Day to Urban Legend, Bambai Dost, and finally OUAC, my columns here are where I mapped the city’s neighbourhoods, its people, and their friendships,” she says.