A green bungalow on the J J School of Art campus in Fort area of Mumbai has been linked with The Jungle Book author Rudyard Kipling for more than a century. The association stems from the fact that the author’s father, John Lockwood Kipling, was principal of the art school and Rudyard Kipling was born on the nine-acre estate. (Built in a vernacular style, the bungalow actually came up only in 1882—more than a decade after Kipling was shipped off to England to live with a couple who boarded children of British nationals serving in India). Used as the twin residences of the deans of applied arts and fine arts until it fell into disrepair, the neglected bungalow was overrun with creepers until 2014.

Eventually, the tenuous Kipling connection came to its rescue. Its dilapidated condition caught the attention of Maharashtra’s former chief secretary, who joined hands with the ministry of culture to save the property. ‘It was decided that the bungalow would be adopted by the Archaeological Survey of Maharashtra and restored under the culture fund’, says Rajiv Mishra, director of art, Maharashtra government, and principal of JJ College of Architecture. The main cottage is likely to house works of JJ alumni, including MF Husain and VS Gaitonde, while the adjoining kitchen and caretaker’s house will exhibit RK Laxman’s Common Man cartoons. The Rs 3 crore project is expected to be completed by March 2017.

TOI