MUMBAI, Oct. 21 -- For over five decades, Amarsons was where Breach Candy residents went looking for things they believed couldn't be found elsewhere. Selling everything from crockery and cutlery to clothes, linen and curios, the 52-year-old departmental store had built a reputation for itself and was the go-to store for generations of South Mumbai residents. On Monday, the neighbourhood and the city watched in disbelief as a fire reduced it to ashes. Sources from the Mumbai Fire Brigade said the fire was suspected to have started following a short circuit near the door of the store at around 7 am. By 8 am, calls about smoke billowing out of the establishment began coming in. "When we opened the shutter, the place was filled with smoke," said an Amarsons worker. "We did not go inside and immediately called the fire brigade and informed the owner." At 8.20 am, the fire was declared a Level I fire. By the time it was fully extinguished at 2 pm, it had gutted the shop's wares besides electrical installations, office records, lighting fixtures and air-conditioning units. It was confined to approximately 5,000 sq ft of the shop's 5,500-sq-ft area on the ground floor of the ground-plus-two-storey building. The structure itself remained safe. Throughout the day, locals and passersby stopped outside the charred establishment, recording on their phones what remained of a store that was part of the neighbourhood's identity. "I'm overwhelmed with sadness," said 58-year-old Nigum Lakhani. "This was a store that attracted people not just from Mumbai but across the world. Whenever people visited our homes, they made it a point to visit Amarsons. Its USP was exclusivity. What you found here could not be found anywhere else." For 63-year-old Sonal Jhaveri, a Ghatkopar resident, shopping in Mumbai meant Amarsons. "I have been coming here for the last three decades," she said. "Back in the day, shops like Amarsons simply did not exist. There were no malls, and Amarsons offered everything under one roof. It was the exclusivity, the convenience and, above all, the staff which made you feel comfortable. Shopping here was a joy." Nipa Modi, a Napean Sea Road resident, remembers the store with similar nostalgia. "My mother used to visit Amarsons regularly and I too have fond memories of the place," she said. "Its accessibility and the way it blended into the neighbourhood made it a go-to place." Outside the store around two dozen Amarsons workers, with their signature white uniforms which made them immediately recognisable in the neighbourhood, stood grieving the loss of their workplace and the uncertainty of their future. "The entire shop coming down is distressing," said an employee who worked there for 18 years. "The owners must be equally devastated. Diwali and the festive season are around the corner, which all traders look forward to. We were supposed to keep the store open even on Sundays but now everything has been reduced to rubble." For the Vohra family, which established Amarsons in 1975, the damage was huge. Vipin Vohra, whose father Shamji Vohra started the store, said the structure was safe but everything that made Amarsons 'Amarsons' had disappeared. "Almost everything has been rendered unusable. The losses are almost cent per cent," he said, without specifically quoting the extent of the losses. Recalling the store's experience during the 2005 Mumbai floods, Vohra said it had also suffered damage then, but the present incident was different. "It started with a spark," he said. "But it is all written. What can we do beyond what God has decided? We will rebuild it."...