Bomanjee’s bounty

"Presented by: Bomanjee Jeejeebhoy to Bandora Municipality 1879” says one stone, while the other reads "Bomanjee’s Steps for Public Use 1879,” noted Aakif Habib, secretary of the Mount Mary Area Locality Management (ALM), who has resurrected the two stone plaques near the Mount Mary steps in Bandra. Habib, who resides on Mount Mary Road, told the mid-day of April 6, 2018 that "several residents spoke about spotting two milestones near the Mount Mary steps. These markers had been partially buried underground because of road work. Even though the engraving on them was not visible, I realized that these are of historic importance.” The concerned citizen then "decided that (he) would put in time and money, employ labor, dig these out and place them at a spot where locals could see them.

"The stones are now out of the ground and on a pedestal. I got a worker from Rajasthan for the labor as they are familiar with working with stone. The character is intact, no alterations have been made,” Habib told the newspaper. Now that the markers are visible, he hopes "to find somebody from the Bomanjee Jeejeebhoy family... I have been asking locals working in the heritage and arts space if they know anybody, so that we can even have a bit of history to go with the plaques,” he was quoted in the report.
According to city heritage buffs, it is widely believed that Jeejeebhoy wanted a daughter and prayed at the Mount Mary Church. When his wish was fulfilled, he built the steps to the church (then known as "Degrados de Bomanjee”) on his daughter’s eighth birthday in thanksgiving and gifted the same to the Bandra Municipality, which was then a separate body from the Bombay Municipal Corporation.