Skip to main content

Featured Post

2023 - The Year That Was

Places impact you for a variety of reasons. And the same place impacts different people in different ways. This is especially true when it comes to spiritual experiences, where every single person’s experience is unique. And personally, every spiritual experience is unique, the same person can have different deeply spiritual experiences at different places, at different times. This thought has emerged because of my own experiences over the years, but especially so this year, with different and unique experiences at various places I have visited recently. I began this year with a visit to Baroda (Vadodara) with friends. It was meant to be a relaxed trip, a touristy trip, with our sons. We enjoyed ourselves to the hilt, but the highlight of that trip was a visit to the Lakulisha temple at Pavagadh. It was the iconography of the temple that I connected with, and I spent a few hours simply lost in the details of the figures carved around the temple. There was an indefinable connect with

The BEST Museum

A security guard at the gate signs us in, and points us to a building. “Third floor” he says, laconically. We walk the short distance, and are told we have to climb, for there is no elevator here. Three flights of stairs later, breathing heavily from the exertion, we finally arrive at our destination – the BEST Museum.




Located at Anik Depot, the BEST Museum is an attempt to preserve the heritage of the BEST Undertaking, and educate people about the development of the transport and electrical supply in Mumbai.

The museum is a treasure trove for transport and heritage enthusiasts, with a number of old photographs (or reproductions of old photographs) and snippets about the setting up and running of the transport system, more than a hundred years ago.

The exhibits tell their own story, of the growth of public transport, from the horse drawn trams of 1874, to the advent of electric trams in 1907, the first omnibuses introduced in 1926 and the first special ‘sightseeing’ buses, which also ran in the same year; the earliest double decker buses which began operations in 1937, and the modifications they endured over the years; which eventually led to the buses we see on the roads today.

Makers of Trams and Buses... over a century of BEST


Tickets of trams and buses, going back to the last century, tell their own story – of the cost of living, the inflation, and the change of political regime.

An old tram ticket... the front with the rates, and the back with the routes...
more than a century old! 


One of the earliest Bus tickets...

Old photographs of Electric House, and the exhibitions meant to educate people of the benefits of electricity tell another story – of the transition of a city from a small island to a modern metropolis.

An original bus engine, cut to reveal its secrets, serves to beautifully explain the concept of engines, and the long way they have come since then. Old tram seats and bus windows take us back to another time, giving us a better peek into life, as it was then, as do ancient type writers, coin counting machines, and ticket vending machines, all operated manually.

Tinkering with a bus engine twice his size, and almost ten times as old as him!


Framed photographs of directors make us aware of the people behind the efficient transport system of the city, and some of their personal items on display tell us more about the men themselves. Old plans for further development serve to show the foresight of some of them, and the fact that these plans lie disused, show us just how petty politics influences our day to day lives, making us wish we had better leaders, who could actually take the system a step further.

The story of the transformation of the Bombay Electric Supply and Tramways Company to the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport Undertaking is a fascinating one, but even more fascinating, at least to children, and to the child in us all, are the models of trams, buses, bus stands, and depots, which the museum is filled with! Especially fun for kids are the remote control operated models of BEST buses, which kids are allowed to try out, under supervision of course!

And we get to run a double decker bus!!!!!!


Actual models of all BEST Bus Depots show us just how well organised the system is, and, as we look around one last time, I just wish the museum, with all its wonderful exhibits, was better  maintained.

Those in charge of it, however, seem to be pleased with things just the way they are. There are enough schools bringing students for visits, and enough footfalls to justify its existence. Making it more popular, or maintaining it better doesn’t seem to be high on their list of priorities. After all, it is a free museum, not bringing in any revenue. The people working here are enthusiastic, but they are only employees, not decision makers.

The lone guide here is an especially enthusiastic man, filled with pride for the organisation he works for. He is, however, hampered by his lack of fluency in English. He is most comfortable speaking in Marathi, and was relieved when I told him I could both understand and speak the language. However, more commendable was the fact that he wanted to improve his English, for, as he himself says, not all visitors to the museum know the language.

It is people like him – the ones who collected and preserved all these materials, set it up, and today, run it – who make the museum the interesting place it is. All it needs is a little more attention and care to make us proud of it too.


Information:
  • Location: The BEST Museum is located at Anik Depot. To those unfamiliar with the place, this is right opposite IMAX Wadala.
  • Timings: The Museum is open from 10 AM to 5 PM from Wednesday to Sunday. The Museum is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.
  • Tickets: Entry to the museum is free of cost.

Tips:
  • It takes easily 2 hours to go through the museum at a leisurely pace. There are enough items on display to warrant that amount of time.
  • The guide speaks fluently in Marathi, his Hindi is quite decent, and his English is faltering but understandable. Do not let language dissuade you from a visit. The exhibits have explanations, and though most are in Marathi, they are self-explanatory.
  • Please take your kids along. And if they haven’t been on a BEST bus yet, make sure you take them soon!



P.S : Photography is allowed inside the museum, and I clicked loads and loads. However, when I mentioned that I was a blogger, they suddenly were wary of me putting up images on the net. They asked me to take permission from the BEST PRO, whom I duly called up, and also sent mails to, asking for permission. Unfortunately, I haven’t received any reply from them, which is why I decided to go ahead with the post with a minimal number of photographs. I have chosen to only use photos which either have Samhith in them, or those which I felt would help in giving you, my readers, an idea of what to expect. I simply wish to reiterate that my only aim here is to encourage more people to visit the museum, so I hope no one will be offended by my use of these photographs. 

Comments

  1. Wow,I love the choice of words,sentence contruction and the way you relate your experience. You make me what to visit that place. I will one day

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you so much!! I would love to hear what you think of the museum after you visit it.

      Delete
  2. Excellent as always... enjoyed it so much. So happy to see Samhith growing tall and becoming a very handsome young man!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks so much, Chitra/ good to see u here again!!! and samhith will be so happy to hear himself being described as 'tall and handsome"

      Delete
  3. Hi Anu! Such a lovely post about the BEST Museum. It's really a pity that most conductors do not know of this museum. I had to ask a journalist friend of mine to help me out with the location. The BEST Museum is one of my favourite places for learning about Mumbai. It is more special because this was the first write-up of mine that got published. A better version of my take on the BEST museum can be seen here: http://reflectionsofpassions.blogspot.in/2012/03/bus-ek-pal.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Akshay. your post is a lot more detailed than mine. I simply wanted to put down my thoughts on the museum rather than the museum itself. After all what we all see or notice in the museum will depend more on us than the museum! and you are right about the lack of knowledge about it. i too had to make two trips before i finally got to see it! its amazing how little we know about such interesting places. and then ppl say there is nothing to see in mumbai!

      Delete
  4. Never knew that BEST had such a maintained museum. thanks for sharing such a nice post !

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You are welcome, Paresh! Hope you can visit the museum some time. would love to hear what you think of it too!

      Delete
  5. This place is so unexpected! Applause!!!
    I will surely make a vist here. All thanks to you :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Aarti!!! Yes, you should certainly go visit. And write about it too!

      Delete
  6. Lovely!

    I had been to BEST museum in late 80's or early 90's. I think it was near Taraporewala aquarium then.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thanks so much for stopping by. Please leave a comment for me so that I will know you have been here....

Popular posts from this blog

Gokarna Part II – The Five Lingams

We continued our Gokarna trip by visiting four other Shiva temples in the vicinity, all connected to the same story of Gokarna. The story of Gokarna mentions the Mahabaleshwara Lingam as the one brought from Kailas by Ravana, and kept at this place on the ground by Ganesha. (See my earlier post- Gokarna – Pilgrimage and Pleasure). However, the story does not end here. It is believed that, in his anger, Ravana flung aside the materials which covered the lingam- the casket, its lid, the string around the lingam, and the cloth covering it. All these items became lingams as soon as they touched the ground. These four lingams, along with the main Mahabaleshwara lingam are collectively called the ‘ Panchalingams’ . These are: Mahabaleshwara – the main lingam Sajjeshwar – the casket carrying the lingam. This temple is about 35 Kms from Karwar, and is a 2 hour drive from Gokarna. Dhareshwar – the string covering the lingam. This temple is on NH17, about 45 Kms south of Gokarna. Gunavanteshw

Rama Temple, Gokarna

To my right , the waves rush to the shore, eager to merge with the sand. To my left, the same waves crash against the rocks, their spray diverting my reverie as I ponder over the beauty of nature, and wonder what first brought people here. Was it this beauty that encouraged them to build a temple here, or was it the fresh, sweet spring water flowing from the hill here that made this place special? No matter what the reason, I am glad my auto driver brought me here. We are at the Rama temple in Gokarna, just a few minutes away from the Mahabaleshwara Temple, yet offering so different a perspective.

Pandharpur Yatra 2023

The first time I visited Pandharpur was back in 2007 . The names Vitthal and Pandharpur, were just names to me. I had heard of them, but that was about it. Seeing the lord standing on the brick, hands on his hips, was memorable, but more memorable was the sight that greeted us as we walked out of the main sanctum of the temple. In the mandap just outside were a group of devotees singing abhangs , and dancing. This was the first time I had heard abhangs , and even almost 15 years later, I can remember the welling of feeling within me, listening to the songs, and how fascinated I was by the sight of the devotees dancing, lost in their love of the Lord. Over the years, as I have read more about Vitthal, and participated in Ashadi Ekadashi programmes at Puttaparthi, that first experience has stayed clear in my mind and heart. Every time I tell my Balvikas students of the saints who sang of Vitthala, it is that experience that I re-live. I visited Pandharpur again, in 2010, but that experie