“We came from chawls to this building and now from this building we will go in a sankul (tower) this is three tier growth”

- Chandrakant Tamore

Writer, Fisherman Colony Mahim

“The water has to go somewhere, where will it go?”


- P K Patil

Former resident of Mahim Causeway Koliwada

“If the polluted water in the khadi was some of retained to it's earlier state the shivlya might breed again in the Mahim creek.”

- Ramesh

Fishing Co-operative Society Member, Mahim

‍

‍

“No one could stand it, the stench from the fish was terrible.. it took people long time to come back to the market.” 



- Shakun

Old resident of Mahim Causeway Koliwada

“The bokshi nets were used to be put up under the  Mahim causeway bridge, people would catch lot of Boi there.

There was a sudden breeding of Boi (padle hote), people would go and sell even though it would stink of kerosene, you cannot make it out just by looking at it, it would stink only when it's cut open.”

- Shashi

Resident of Mahim Causeway Koliwada


“There is no Koliwada remaining here now.”



- Ashok Meher

Fishing Co-operative Society Member.

"They have not built us a colony ..even if our house is acquired for say building a house we will get a house. I mean if they would have build us a nice and separate colony then that would have been great!”

- Ramesh

Fishing co-operative society member, Mahim

“They (government) has not built us our Koliwada, they have given us MHADA housing. These land parcels (bhookhand) are very given to various parties like PWP (Shetkari Kamgar Paksh) some allocated to gardens.” 


"Tya uthavala (they cleared the chawls) but they didn't make a fishermen's colony!”

- Ramesh

Fishing Co-operative member, Mahim

"Like pollution and global warming affects us, even reclamation affects us a lot. I mean that the water level has risen!”“No, people didn't leave as such (after the high tides)  because, after all, people have to do dhanda paani (earn a living)” he laughed.

“When we reclaim the land, it's bound to affect us!”

- Jayesh

Fishing Co-operative Member, Mahim

“Yes they very alert about high tide 
(savad asyache). They knew every amvashya (no Moon Day) the tides would come near the house. You know samudra khavalto (the sea gets choppy) during the rainy season.

After a few days the tides would go down. Than during the udhan (monsoon high tides) again the the tides would come up . There would be 2- 3 udhan each rainy season but after the bharni (reclamation), the udhan stopped coming after the bharni was done and people built more and more houses ."

- Shakun

An old resident of Mahim

“You know the toilets were washed over by the sea ! These toilets were built into the sea. They were washed away ! One young activist had fought to get the toliets for the people. See it's because of the udhan (pournima/amavasya high tides) which comes during the rainy season, that it was washed away.

After the khadak (rocks) were placed then the water stopped coming in during rains. People took advantage of that that then they started building more houses towards the shore."

- Shakun

An old resident of Mahim Causeway Koliwada

”Tya amach jaga ahet (referring to causeway land) referring to how the entire land belonged to the Koli community. Jaga aplya tabyat hoti … zo vasel tyachi jaga ! Koli loka baher feckle zatil(People had the land… land belongs to the person who resides there.)The Koli people would have been thrown out of their land otherwise! (referring to the government rule of resale)”

- Jayesh Meher

Accountant, Mahim

‍

‍

Then, he started by talking about how his father invested in booking a flat in Mahim, foreseeing that it might be useful for any of his eight children.

The flat was bought through a cooperative society formed many years ago, mainly by fishermen in Mahim, but he said they had to wait many years to get possession.

“When Koli people started staying there (colony rooms), That time there were many fishermen. Fish sorting was done downstairs. Many times the the traders would visit these fishermen's’ houses to buy fish, and prawns. Some women would buy fish from elsewhere and go on foot to sell fish.

But with the new generation this changed they were more attracted to jobs. Now there are very few women who bring in and sell fish, say, 90% Kolis 80% would be involved in selling fish.

Now with an education that has gone down, maybe just 10 to 20 % of fishermen remain, although many women still sell. They buy their fish from Bhaucha Dhakka and sell in the local market, earlier they would sell door to door they don't do that now.”


- Ashok Meher

Fishing Co-operative member, Mahim

“The other colony rooms are small I think the police colony has bigger rooms see everyone got the rooms only we didnt get it. But there was no water (in the chawls). I never liked it (Kajve Koliwada) there (Daryasarang there were more Koli people around… but it was all mix. 


Many houses were owned by Kolis which then were rented out (to Marathi people). There was no water anywhere. We would get water from anywhere available. In the colony people had water, they had separate washrooms.
​


We didn't have any water, we had to get it from old pipelines. My entire life has gone in fetching water, washing clothes…some had separate pipelines. They all had separate washrooms, they had 24 hours water, in old days there was lot of water. I  used to like  the colony building, I used to have relatives there, they had washrooms, so much space!”

-Shashi

An old resident of Mahim Causeway Koliwada.

“If the polluted water in the khadi (creek) was some of retained to it's earlier state the shivlya (clams)  might breed again in the Mahim creek.”

- RameshCo-operative Society member, Mahim

“Tyni sarva samudra saf kela (they finished the entire sea). We would go walking  and then we could see these rocks they were like the size of mountains.

It was like one upon another the rocks were piled up… I used to go with my friend Lata varya var basayal (to enjoy the breeze) and women used to come to defecate on the other side."

- ShashiAn old resident of Mahim

“After the khadak (rocks) were placed then the water stopped coming in during rains. People took advantage of that that then they started building more houses towards the shore . A road was made for the lorries to enter the area.”

- ShakunAn old resident of Mahim Causeway Koliwada

"See the bharti (high tide) would come every year. It wasnt like it just came in only that year. See every rainy season there are udhans (monsoon high tides) at least 2- 4 udhan which come.

See there houses would be washed away by these udhans, but after that people would come back. People would take their belongings and go”

- Shakun, An old resident of Mahim

“Fishermen colony area and the Raheja hospital were just low lying areas full of mud (chikhal), people would come to catch clams and crabs.”

- Shrikant Meher, Resident Marinagar, Mahim

“Reti Bunder you know  the jhahaz ( sail boats) would bring in reti (sand), thats why it's called reti bunder (to fuel construction schemes).

‍There were also vyaparis (traders) from Gujarat who would come. My father would go there and buy Mangoes for us from there, lot of people would go there to buy…

I dont remember much but I remember that mango was bought off the boats."

- Shashi, Old resident of Mahim Causeway

“There used to be big rocks (khadak) which the lorries used to bring in, you know this big ( she made a gesture with her hands , from here till there).

It was behind Jhonny chi Chawl.. If you go straight walking then there was sand and then the rocks. That side was used for defecation"

- Shakun, Old resident of Mahim Causeway Koliwada

“The khalashis would sit in under zavalis (palm tree sheds). I could see them from my house. People never dried fish here. It was more of people selling fish markets. There was no drying kaam (drying work) here like Khar Danda and Vesava (Versova).

We didn't have cement houses, there (Khar, Versova), they had lots of space along with houses (for drying fish).”

- Shashi, Old resident of Mahim Causeway

“There was an old hotel near reti bunder, that was the place were the fishermen would bring in and drop the fish, the lilav (auctions) would take place there. It was the fishermen from the Mahim Kajve (Causeway) Koliwada, then the women would come there to buy fish and then they would take it to Citylight market (Mahim).

But this was stopped after the bharni  (reclamation) took place, there was no more space to park the boats or bring in the fish."

- Shakun, Old resident of Mahim Causeway

“They (the fishermen) would put up vaana (nets along the shore), right from the Mithi river to the killa (Mahim fort). She further spoke fondly about the khadi (creek), about the vaanas which were put up. Fisherwomen would take those fish and then sell them in the markets. 


Those days Boite, Dolas, Navere were caught, also oysters which people would just forage off the shore"

- Shakun, Old resident of Mahim Causeway Koliwada