Monsoons is the season where a cyclist would love to jump out for a brisk ride and sip piping hot tea !
7th August just on a usual Saturday we south zone , I.e Ward A/B/C/D/E Collabed a ride with K/West ward to Mazgaon Fort to admire the beauty of the remains of the fort and remember history of Old Bombay .
K/west had started a chain of visiting the forts all over bombay , how could u miss this opportunity?
Starting off my ride at 6.50am , met my mates by 7am at Opera house , as the bicycle marshal of C3B I had to be before time at the venue where I was gonna meet my cycling buddies. Soon all had gathered , few were new and rest were the ones you’d see daily looping around marine drive ! Cycled straight to bhindi bazaar picked up a few more riders and proceeded towards mazgoan Fort .
After reaching at the start of the slope righ before starting to climb to mazgoan gardens , we waited for our bicycle mayor to arrive along with the other ward riders .
A small jist of history about mazgoan fort :
The Mazagaon Fort was a British fort in Mazagaon, Bombay (present-day Mumbai), in the Indian state of Maharashtra, built around 1680. The fort was razed by the Muslim Koli general, Yakut Khan in June 1690.
Even though the fort was built by the Siddi General, during the Portuguese invasion and the British invasion, the fort was taken over by a variety of rulers. Since Mumbai was considered as the hub for trading and was the dockyard for the East India Company trading goods to Surat, Britishers wanted to conquer the whole of Mumbai.
During the time East India Company came to Mumbai, the Mughals rulers and generals along with the Siddis had created an alliance with each other in case of invasion. Even though the Mazagon Fort was being built during the time, a war took place between the Mughals and the Britishers and most parts of the fort were taken over by the East India Company.
Back to the ride :
Parking of out cycles is a pretty much of an issue here . SInce we have to leave our cycles down and climb uphill to see the remains , I’d strongly suggest you to carry a lock and then proceed , somebody had to take the initiative to guard the cycles ,ravi bhai and shashank bhai both our responsible councillors took the initiative to do so.
MAZGOAN fort is pretty much of a climb , clicking pictures and making a few reels we reached the fort and were in awe by the scenic view we had just encountered .
Another special thing about mazgaon Garden is that they have recently constructed miniatures of the seven wonders of the world
Admiring them just felt as if im back from a world tour ???? . This place is a must visit I say , we continued with our photography sessions to make this ride a memorable one. We introduced new people to the old ones and exchanged contact , we also had a few people join our ward group who were joggers and people who exercise almost daily around these wonders , unfortunately we couldn’t visit the waterfall due to timing issues but never the less we had a fantastic ride
Oh how could we end the ride without sipping hot tea !?!? Our ward riders anand bhai suggested a tea house near the fort “Nagori Tea center” trust me the tea was amazing with a whether soooo beautiful.
We dispesserd as soon as we were done with memorable pictures , laughter and a fun ride collabed with the other wards ????
MUSTAFA MUKADAM
BICYCLE MARSHAL
A WARD
