Jehangir Art Gallery

Step off the traffic of Mahatma Gandhi Road into the Kala Ghoda art precinct and you arrive at the doorway that generations of Indian artists have measured their careers against.

• Jehangir Art Gallery opened in 1952, built with funds given by Sir Cowasji Jehangir, and it has been free to enter ever since.
• The building itself is plain by South Mumbai standards — a low, functional block wedged between the stately stone of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya and the Victorian-Gothic frontages of Fort — but what happens inside has shaped modern Indian art for seven decades.
• The gallery runs on a rolling cycle, and its halls are booked far in advance, which means the shows change constantly and no two visits look alike.
• You might find a retrospective by a veteran painter in one room, a first solo by a student from a nearby art school in the next, and photography, printmaking or sculpture across the corridor.
• There is no permanent collection to work through and no audio guide to follow — you simply walk in, see what is up that week, and leave when you have had your fill.
• Half an hour is often plenty; an unexpectedly good show can hold you for two. Outside is half the experience.
• The pavement along the gallery's frontage doubles as an informal open-air market where artists prop canvases, portraits and city sketches against the railings, and browsing costs nothing at all.
• The wider Kala Ghoda quarter rewards a slow loop on foot — the shaded garden of the David Sassoon Library, the facade of Elphinstone College, the crescent of restored stone buildings, and in February the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival, when the streets close to traffic and fill with installations.
• Sundays are quietest for walking; weekday evenings are busiest inside the halls.
• For food, this is one of the easier corners of Mumbai to eat vegetarian — provided you check rather than assume.
• Udupi-style cafés scattered through Fort and around Flora Fountain turn out idli, medu vada, dosa and filter coffee from morning to late evening, and most of them run vegetarian kitchens; but Mumbai is a major seafood city and plenty of neighbouring places are not, so read the board or ask at the counter before you sit down.
• Walk twenty minutes north into the Kalbadevi and Bhuleshwar lanes and you reach the city's Gujarati and Rajasthani unlimited-thali dining rooms, the classic pure-veg lunch of South Mumbai; many will prepare a no-onion, no-garlic Jain version if you ask in advance.
• Closer at hand, street counters near Kala Ghoda and Colaba Causeway do vada pav, sabudana vada and toasted sandwiches, though some also handle eggs, so confirm before ordering.