“We had restaurants, we had bookshops, we had places where you could go and play chess—but here was a place where all three came together,” writes Gerson da Cunha in Awakening: 60 Years of an Eternal Journey, a commemorative volume published in 2006 to mark the sixtieth anniversary of Chetana, Mumbai’s eminent institution located at Rampart Row (now K. Dubash Marg) in Kala Ghoda. The veteran theatre actor and adman was introduced to Chetana by his friends—actor Bomi Kapadia and artist Mehlli Gobhai—in the 1950s.
Established in September 1946 by Sudhakar Dikshit, former assistant editor of the Patna-based daily Indian Nation, along with writer Raja Rao, the space was a single, open-plan area of 2,500 square feet comprising a bookshop, a cultural centre, the Chetana Art Gallery, and a spot to enjoy tea and snacks—a congregation point for artists, musicians and poets.
“Chetana was the crucible for the Bombay Progressive Artists’ Group, fuelling the currents of art before the Jehangir Art Gallery came up across the road in 1952. Artists like Prafulla Dahanukar, Lalitha Lajmi and Laxman Pai had their works displayed at Chetana before they went on to fame. Down the street, there was Thackers’ Bookshop, a store called The Drawing Room specialising in vintage French furniture, and Artists’ Centre, an exhibition venue from 1950 that recently had to vacate their premises,” recalls Dikshit’s daughter Chhaya Arya, now in her eighties.