The whole surrounding was replete with places of British colonial references. The legendary Mount Stuart Elphinstone had his residency next doors where the District Judge now resides. Vasudev Balvant was tried for sedition and rebellion just across the street. The College of Engineering was coming into existence nearly a hundred years before Mumbiram became a student there. The famous Sir Mokshagundam Vishveshvaraya was in the first batch of graduates out of the college. Hold on. Mumbiram’s own great grandfather Vishnu Vartak graduated on the top of that very first batch. He went on to become the Chief Engineer of the Bombay Presidency. Around 1910 or 12, encouraged by Lokmanya Tilak, he started the first Indian sugar-mill at Phursungi near Pune. His household was intimately related to the Peshva legacy of Pune. One of his four illustrious sons, Ganesh, was the Principal of the Engineering College in the 1950’s. Mumbiram’s maternal grandmother, wife of Artist S.H.Godbole, was Varanasi Vartak, the eldest daughter of Vishnu Vartak.