09/05/2026
On the 9th of May, 1874, two horses pulled Bombay's first tram out of Colaba and into history. The fare was three annas. The pace was five miles per hour.
Our May 9th letter is written from Colaba Causeway, where that first route began. Ella walks the original journey northward through Crawford Market, a building donated to the city in 1869 by the Parsi merchant Cowasji Jehangir, designed by William Emerson, and decorated with friezes by Lockwood Kipling. Ella follows the tram network through ninety years of city life, from horse power to electric cars to double-deckers, to the evening in 1964 when a crowd gathered at Bori Bunder simply to say goodbye.
Printed on both sides of a single A4 sheet and sent to you by post, this letter makes a quietly extraordinary gift for anyone born, married, or otherwise anchored to the 9th of May. A personalised piece of history, tucked into an envelope.
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