Best place you likely haven’t seen in Mumbai: Orchidarium in Borivali and the historic Kanheri Caves

Kanheri Caves are roughly a 6km trek from the Sanjay Gandhi National Park main gate, where the entry ticket for Indian adults is Rs 103 per head. There's another ticket for the caves themselves; Indian citizens pay Rs 15 per head. (Images: Moneycontrol)

To an out-of-towner, Mumbai can feel like a place that’s always abuzz with new openings, exhibits, things to do and eat. Like if you’re heading to south Mumbai this Independence Day weekend, it might be worth your while to see ‘Eckart Muthesius and Manik Bagh: Pioneering Modernism in India’ at the Dr Bhau Daji Lad Museum in Byculla East. Curated by Raffael Dedo Gadebusch, the show comprises photos of a rare design confluence – a moment in the 1930s when an Indian prince and a rising German designer brought Berlin’s post-expressionist New Objectivity to central India.

Between 1930 and 1939, German architect Eckart Muthesius designed and built the Manik Bagh Palace in Indore as a residence for Maharaja Yashwant Rao Holkar II and his wife Sanyogita Devi. The Bauhaus and Art Deco styles Muthesius drew upon and imported to the central Indian city were among the edgiest frontier of architecture and design in the world then. Chairs by Louis Sognot, table by Marcel Breuer, light fixtures that Muthesius himself designed and got made in Europe, design pieces by Ivan da Silva Bruhns – Eckart and the Maharaja filled the palace with some of the best work in modern design. The photos in the exhibition, also taken by the designer of the palace, are transportive in that they capture the excitement of that moment in modernism before World War 2. A kind of minimal opulence with a view to functionality, and no holy cows – so to speak. It still feels clean and inviting, all these years later.

Of course, a lot of the original Manik Bagh furniture has since been auctioned and the palace itself has been repurposed. The exhibition, then, is a way to see how things were, when they were new and sparkly – literally, a lot of the fixtures were high-quality steel and wood. The exhibition has travelled through Delhi and Bengaluru, and is in Mumbai for just two more days. (One almost wishes one could see it in Manik Bagh Palace today, to visualise it as it was when the much travelled and very stylish Holkar maharaja commissioned it and occupied its 40 rooms and massive gardens.)

Speaking of new, it’s not hard to find something new in food and fashion in Mumbai. In terms of food, if Japanese food and flavours are your thing, Gigi in Juhu is worth trying -- though it opened a couple years ago. The Spicy Shifudo Kozi Roll with crabstick, tuna, hamachi, salmon, mango, Kewpie mayo, cashew koji soy and tobiko or fish roe (Rs 1,350 plus taxes) is a generous serve that leans hard – and unabashedly – into Japanese flavours. Same with the cocktails. Like the whisky-matcha paste-lime juice-and-simple syrup spin on a high ball they’ve called Matcha in Heaven. Or the Tokyo Sour, made with Toki Suntory whisky, elderflower syrup, Choya Umeshu (a Japanese plum wine) and yuzu puree, with dehydrated lemon for garnish. The drinks are priced around the Rs 850 (plus taxes)-mark. You’ll need a reservation for Gigi, but beyond this, the restaurant feels unfussed. Even the Japanese chopsticks offered with the sushi are disposable, and the music could be straight off a '90s mixed tape.

Mumbai’s best-kept secret?

Now, on to that perennial treasure that Mumbai has secreted away. Up towards the north of the city, just off the Western Express Highway, in Borivali, is the Sanjay Gandhi National Park -- home to leopards, snakes, other wildlife and... a delightful orchidarium. It's also the entryway to a scenic trek to the historic Kanheri Caves. The big cat safaris are popular with families, but it’s the trek you want to take in, really.

Inside the SGNP Orchidarium in Mumbai. (Image: Moneycontrol)

First, to the orchidarium. In a previous story, Moneycontrol had looked at how orchid mania had flared during colonial times. How the hunt for newer varieties was fuelled by commerce and an insatiable desire for the exotic. India, of course, has some native orchid varieties. The orchidarium at SGNP has over 20 varieties of the plants, with names like fox brush orchid and nun’s orchid (Phaius tankervilleae). An orchid researcher there told us that September-October is a good time to visit, when most of the flowers will be in bloom.

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If you find the botanical gardens abroad fulfilling, the trek through SGNP and the orchidarium – with its water bodies and little groves with just the right conditions for the gorgeous, humidity-loving flowers – can be a treat. Expect to see the occasional monkeys and deer on the way – but remember there’s a hefty fine for teasing the animals or giving them food.

Deer at SGNP, Mumbai

Once you’re done with the orchidarium, the easy trek to Kanheri Caves is roughly 6 km of fairly good track and a very slight slope. You can opt to take the public bus or private taxis from the main gate, but the trek is surprisingly invigorating in the light drizzle of mid- to late-August. The canopy of trees above making it hard for both sun and rain drops to dampen the excitement. There are women selling kairi (raw mango), guava and dal-sprouts snacks along the route. A lemon soda is on the cards, too, if you want it. For tea, you’ll have to trek to the top where there’s a canteen just before the Kanheri Caves ticket counter.

Inside Kanheri Caves, Mumbai. (Image: Moneycontrol)

Once inside the Kanheri Caves complex, there are sudden shifts in scale. The caves, carved out of rock, start out small, gain in size and intricacy, and then go small again the up higher you. A student of design could lose themselves here for weeks. Each nook is so thoughtful and suffused with meaning. Just outside the main meditation hall are two facing Buddha statues that are over two storeys tall. Merchants who contributed funds to make the caves for monks, get a relief wall too -- their names inscribed in stone. Goddess Tara blesses the lot from one corner. Inside the hall, chants reverberate and echo back if you care to try. This is a timeless Mumbai, greener and quieter than you expect. The sea is a distant memory here. The glitzy malls and galleries, restaurants and cafes, pale by comparison – offering nothing against the scale, antiquity and calmness of these caves.

At Kanheri Caves.

For those who feel adventurous enough, the path leads to smaller caves higher up the hill. Never mind the young people taking photos for Insta, the crowd will thin past Cave 41. From that point on, it can feel like you’re leaving the hustle behind - even if momentarily - to focus on the timeless, the historic and the lasting, as against the new and the ever-reinventing.

(Image: Moneycontrol)