The boatman of Sleater Road
Last week I received a mail sparking a Eureka moment. Four years after these pages printed news of a local ferry rescuing monsoon-marooned Grant Road residents, the oarsman revealed his identity. “Your article on Sleater Road mentioned a boat was run from the station to various buildings. That service was by my company, established in 1945. Into construction today, then we also made boats in the Girton School compound,” wrote Fram Dhondy. The firm, Levka, paired its founder partners’ names. Levi, an Italian, supervised the boat building and a Mr Kanga, the construction activities. Hence, LEVi KAnga.

Feminist and democratic
At Rosh Hashanah in September, I discovered an interesting micro section of a minority. The country’s sole progressive Jewish congregation —the Jewish Religious Union in Bombay—introduced 97 years ago by gynaecologist Jerusha Jhirad, offers two major reforms. English translations accompany Hebrew prayers. As importantly, women lead prayers, sing in synagogues and are elected rabbis, too.