THE GATEWAY OF INDIA – MUMBAI

There are many theories as to why Apollo Bunder, the area around the Gateway of India, is so named and none of them have anything to do with the Greek god. The world Apollo could be derived from the Konkani “polle” which used to mean area.
Records from the 1700s show that it was called Pallo and even realer instances show it to be named Polo. The original form of these words could either be Pavla (a large war vessel), Padav (smaller boats that connected bigger ships to the shore) or Pallav (a cluster of sprouts) or Padao (a small trading ship used by Malabar Pirates). There’s even a suggestion that Apollo comes from the facts that “polis” or flour cakes were baked there for the Holi festival.
The area was reclaimed in 1908 to welcome King George and Queen Mary when they visited in 1911 and the Gateway of India was built for this purpose (though it was completed only in 1928). S. V Rajdhakshya, the chief civil engineer for public works at the time, built the foundation on which the Gateway now stands. The area’s other great landmark is the Taj Mahal Hotel, built by Sir Jamsetji Tata who was refused entry into the nearby Watson’s Hotel because he was Indian and vowed to construct a hotel to rival Watson in style and hospitality.
Watson’s Hotel is long defunct. The Taj Palace still stands, proud as ever. The Tatas even built an adjoining hotel, the Tower, on the site of another old hotel, Green’s, in 1973.