Retrieved via the Wayback Machine. Originally posted by Akshay Mahajan
I walked through the portals into a different realm, into a world old, forgotten, endangered but not lost. David Sassoon Library is one such building that emulates this feelings of time warp I seem to love. Wood panelled chambers littered with ancient, framed etchings of Bombay old and in the background played the cacophonous sound of Mumbai new. At first glance you get a sense you are walking into a old boys club where you will see middle-aged men smoking cuban cigars and drinking single malt whisky in kangaroo leather armchairs. This sense quickly wears out to one of academic enrichment as the wood panelled walls give aways to rows of aged rosewood bookshelves. Crumply, crisp, chlorine free brown pages bound together in leather jackets embellished with worn out titles. I took the passport The Kala Ghoda Festival gave me to feel free and explore. Yippie !!
[David Sassoon in alabaster and light]
Exit to the back and you are in garden green, inhabitated by shady pastures, cats and mosquitoes.
Looking on to the Kala Ghoda, on Rampart Row, this Romanesque structure, completed in 1870, is built from the same yellow Malad stone as the rest of the buildings in the row- Elphinstone College, the Army and Navy Building and Watson’s Hotel.
Source: Kaumudi Marathe in Times of India
[1st Floor of the Library. Rows of books and silient book worms to go]
[Balcony looking onto Kala Ghoda.]
Up a spiralling staircase and you are greeted with more large pannelling windows staring down at you.
Now, to the crowning glory of this grand building - the clock chamber.
That ends our photo-tour of “David Sassoon Library and Reading Room“
