As Mumbai’s Parsi ‘wishing well’ turns 300, the story of the merchant who sunk it

You’ve passed it many a time, emerging from Churchgate station on your way to Fountain. You’ve driven – or biked – past it, a leafy oasis in daytime, a softly glowing jewel at night. Always serenely, surreally aloof from its geostationary position on Mumbai’s map. You may have been intrigued, but moved on without giving it a second thought. Or you may have heard uncles and grandmothers speak of its miraculous powers – or non-Parsis call it a ‘wishing well’. No, it may seem aloof, but it has witnessed Mumbai’s awesomely changing map over three centuries. Yes, it is a miracle, in its very creation, and its continuance for 300 years. The “Bhikha Behram no kuvo” enshrines the name of the man who sank it in 1725.

He was a Bombay merchant, whose poverty-stricken grandfather had left his native Bharuch to seek a better life in bigger Bombay – and been waylaid and even briefly imprisoned by Maratha warriors who had mistaken for a Moghul spy.

One night the now-successful grandson had an unnerving dream in which he was ordered to build a well at a specified spot. He told his wife who rightly scoffed because no potable water could emerge from a location...

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