A treasury of literary heritage

[1]

Mother of Cities to me,
For I was born in her gate,
Between the palms and the sea,
Where the world-end steamers wait.

So wrote Rudyard Kipling of the city he was born in, Bombay then, Mumbai now. The Jungle Book writer barely lived in Bombay for five years, but the city, and the life he had here, seemed to have made an indelible impression on him.
Kipling was born in a small bungalow on the campus of the J.J. School of Arts, of which his father was dean. The cottage on the grounds bears a plaque stating that Kipling was born there, but historians have said that the original bungalow was long since torn down, with the current bungalow constructed in its place. Many prefer to simply call it the Dean’s Bungalow (instead of Kipling House).
What is uncontested is that life within its environs was something the writer never quite forgot.