Bom Bahai Dairies-1

“Now that you have time and little responsibilities, you should go and see the world.” This was one of the most common friendly advice by friends and colleagues as I relinquished my regular office duties after thirty-six years. I often replied that I am yet to see this land of ours so my aim would be to see India in all its beauty and splendour. Others nodded in agreement. But then there was Vicky who had other plans for me.

Meet Vicky, my dear friend of long, initially as a part of my office team and then became an integral part of my family. Vicky came to this city from the North Eastern part of the country in the last decade of twentieth century. He studied in a boarding school at Panchgani and then did his college from St. Xavier’s College in the city. Since then he has been around the old part of the town and has traversed all nooks and corners of this city. He was one person waiting for me to hang up my boots and promptly called, “Sir, let’s do it now.” I remembered him planning to visit the heritage Mumbai- its old eating places, colonial structures, cinema halls and anything interesting around the old part of the town. From travelling to different parts of the world, I had narrowed down my expeditions to exploring the country and now here I was with Vicky waiting to experience my city first. We decided to find one day every month to go and explore the old town and eat at some wonderful places, ones we had heard of but never got the chance to sit and enjoy. So with Vicky on the camera, D with her eye for details and me, the vagabond, will do our monthly rounds and share the stories.

On our first walking tour, we were to meet Vicky outside Regal Cinema at Colaba but since we had reached the place quite early, we decided to take a look at the CSVS. When we had visited the museum around twenty years ago, the number of exhibits were less and sad looking and we did not spend much time inside. But now, the place has been completely overhauled and art from all across the globe is being exhibited here be it the Egyptian mummy or the Roman statues or the Harappan bricks. This museum was originally named Prince of Wales Museum of Western India to commemorate the visit of the future King George V in 1904. In 1998, it was renamed as Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya, (CSMVS). The building is built in the Indo-Saracenic style of architecture, incorporating elements of other styles of architecture like the Mughal, Maratha and Jain. CSVS has approximately 50,000 exhibits of ancient Indian history as well as objects from foreign lands, categorised primarily into three sections: Art, Archaeology and Natural History. The museum houses Indus Valley civilization artefacts, and other relics from ancient India from the time of the Guptas, Mauryas, Chalukyas and Rashtrakuta. The museum was formally opened in 1922 and recently completed its centenary and while the Prince of Wales still stands basking in the sun and rains outside in the garden, Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj’s portrait adorns the entrance walls…. that’s quite like made in India!

We then walked across the street to Regal Cinema located at Colaba causeway and looked around. Did you know that this cinema theatre was built by Framji Sidhwa and the first film to be aired at the Regal in 1933 was Laurel and Hardy. Regal was designed by Charles Stevens and its interiors, with extensive mirror-work, were designed by the Czech artist Karl Schara. Its interiors were designed to create an impression of airiness, coolness and size in harmony with the modern simplicity of the exteriors. Record books state that Regal was the first air conditioned theatre of India. In a world where huge multiplexes rule, Regal is holding its head high and is still quite a landmark and a preferred place for a good movie time.

Vicky, finally, arrived and we were all very hungry so made our way to New Martin’s Hotel for some delicious Goan food. Here we met Anand Pereira, 44, who has worked at Martin’s Hotel for 25 years and remembers all the regular customers and their usual orders, regardless of how often they frequent the restaurant. Anand knew Vicky for reasons other than his choice of food… it seems Vicky in all his visits to the hotel as a student had never ever given any tip to Anand or to his deputy, Lopez. The hotel which started over seventy years ago is owned by a Goan, Baptiste D’Souza, who lives in Malad and has not been coming for many years due to his advanced years. Anand manages the place on his behalf. For the menu, you will have to look at a board on which everything that is available is written in chalk and you can order straight away. Mind it, if you arrive late in the afternoon, the most preferred items might be completely sold out and you may have to order from the left behinds. We had Goan style vindaloo with pav and super tasty steaks. There were these other fine things like the famous Sorpotel and custard jelly on the wall menu but decided to defer them for another visit. We left the hotel with our tummies full, our hearts happy and for once Vicky left a handsome tip for Anand and his deputy.

We went for a short walk to the sea front to give ourselves some much needed exercise after such a heavy and sumptuous meal. This was one end of Apollo Bunder where the kolis or fisher folk had their tiny wooden fishing boats tied and, in the horizon, we could see the magnificent bay full of smart yachts of Indian oligarchs with their sails unfurled in the gentle winter winds. Vicky suggested we go to see the Afghan Church in Navy Nagar. We were wondering why was a Christian Church so named…. Could it be that the Christians of Afghanistan had built it or the Kabulis had built it for the Christians of Mumbai?. On reaching the place, we came to know that the Afghan Church was built by the British between 1847 to 1858 to commemorate the dead soldiers of Bombay Army from the disastrous First Afghan War of 1842.

In the chancel a marble inscription reads: "This church was built in memory of the officers whose names are written on the walls of the chancel and of the non-commissioned officers and private soldiers, too many to be so recorded who fell, mindful of their duty, by sickness or by sword in the campaigns of Sind and Afghanistan, A.D. 1838-1843."

This Gothic church, made by the renowned architect William Butterfield and designed by Henry Conybeare, took nearly 10 years to erect. The steeple, whose spire served as a landmark for incoming ships, and portico were added over a period of time. The Church was made with local stones but most woodwork is done in Burma teak and rosewood. You can find a lot of stained glasses in the church. These stained glasses were known as the poor man's Bible back then because most people could not read the Bible. Each stained glass has Biblical narratives from the Bible and the life of Christ. Currently, the Afghan Church is undergoing a complete renovation and we are dying to go inside this majestic and historic monument once done. We did go to the other historic church further down the Navy Nagar, the RC Church, but the same was not open for us to admire fully but the poster on the wall of the naval hospital Ashwini did catch our attention…Tacking to Blue Waters!

We felt quite tired already, so we took a cab to take us to our next and final stop… of course a food joint near Metro Cinema… but we stopped midway at an old, dilapidated building with iron claddings all around undergoing another round of major renovation. This was the Imperial Mansion which belonged to the Indian Railways. This place has great memories for D who lived in this sea- facing house as a school girl between 1973-1977 when her father, who was a senior official in the railways, opted to stay in this historic building rather than in the modern flats of Budhwar Park. At that time, it was a majestic stone building located at the junction of Cuffe Parade and Wodehouse Road. Later, this building was converted into a transit accommodation for probationary officers.

Imperial Mansion is a historical building located at the Y-junction, as seen in the old photos of Colaba Railway Station (1873 - 1931). The old railway yard, where Budhwar Park came up later, was located to South East of this building. D remembered every single detail of her house … the huge arched mahogany doors, her play room, the long, covered verandah which had glass windows opening out to the sea, an attic inside the house with a small wooden staircase leading up to it and the massive hall with intricate mosaic work on the floor. The stone exterior is plastered today, the huge wooden staircase is replaced by granite steps and the verandahs have merged with the interiors. The sea-view from the house, which was pristine and unobstructed in those days, is now replaced with that of a huge fishermen’s colony which came up in the last five decades. This was the landing point of the terrorists who caused mayhem in 2008. In searching for the history of the city, we found some history of our own embedded in its walls and roads.

On the left is the old railway yard and the Imperial Mansion is at the Y crossing.
Picture courtesy: Internet

We now headed for the old Parsi eating place Kyani & Co. But before we crossed the street to have another belly full of goodies, something unique caught our attention. It was the The People’s Free Reading Room and Library, earlier known as the Bombay Native General Library established in 1845, and now run in collaboration with the N M Wadia Trust. We walked in to see that this is a place with good seating arrangements where students come to do their studies paying a nominal fee. It is very peaceful inside and so different from the humdrum of the city outside. That some souls could think of this concept, almost two centuries ago, when the native students could find a place with desks and chairs and, possibly, some peace and quiet, all of which were not available in their homes, is so wonderful and thoughtful.

Enough of thoughtfulness for it was once again food time. Not that any one of us was hungry but we wanted to relish some yummy evening snacks and so we ordered the usual Irani Chai, bun maska and the legendary mawa cakes…. The buns are so fresh and soft and the cakes so yum that we ate it slowly, enjoying every bite of it. Vicky told us that we needed to still eat the famous sali boti, akuri and keema pav with the Raspberry soda to top it all but the two oldies for once said…bus aaj ab aur nahin…The interiors are quite basic with worn-out wooden chairs and tables, wooden counters, huge glass jars with cookies and beautiful vintage pictures of old British Bombay hung on the walls. Mumbai still has some of these Parsi food joints and Kyani’s, that was founded in 1904, was our first such stop…After eating here, the trio became even more determined to eat at each and every one of them in their coming walking tours.

Now it was time to start for home but Vicky avoided the straight road to Marine Lines Station and made us walk into the small by-lanes of Dhobi Talao which literally translates to Washermen’s Tank. This used to be the place during the colonial times where the dhobis used to wash the clothes of British soldiers. Now the place has no signs of washermen’s activities. A majority of the residents in this area are Christians, many of whom were local kolis who had been converted to Christianity by the Portuguese in the sixteenth century. If you are wondering what the Portuguese were doing in Bombay, then here’s a quick reminder. From the time Vasco da Gama landed on Indian soil at Calicut in 1498, they spread northwards to Goa and then further north up the coast. From 1535, Bombay was part of Portuguese India till, in 1661, it was gifted to the British when Catherine de Breganza was married to Charles II of England. Incidentally, the name Bombay was derived from the what the Portuguese would call the place then…Bom Bahai or safe harbour.

If you wish to see the real art of community washing at a dhobi talao, then you need to go to Mahalakshmi, where the dhobis or washermen are fully operational, and you can also get to see their activities from a platform created for tourists who wish to see the ‘real India…the poor India’. The Mahalakshmi Dhobi Talao was built 125 years ago and it holds the Guinness Book of World records for the entry ‘most people hand washing clothes in a single location.’ On an average one hundred thousand clothes are washed each day with over seven thousand dhobis at work anywhere between 18 to 20 hours a day.

As we were exiting Dhobi Talao of South Mumbai, Vicky showed us an old mansion called Nhava House. He said he used to live here during his college days. The owners were Nawabs of Mumbai and owned huge tracts of land and in the olden days even had elephants in their gardens. Vicky went to meet one of the guards who recognised our man well. Vicky has many a tale to tell, for instance, the place was haunted. The guards said that they had to remain awake the whole night for if they caught a wink, someone unseen would slap them. This was also the place where Vicky’s lady friends from college would find refuge at nights after party time, of course, by paying token money to the wide-awake guards at the entrance.

I tried to search for the names of the Nawab of Mumbai but came up with only one possible name…Mohamed Yusuf. Born in 1876, Yusuf was an early 20^th century businessman, owner of Bombay Steam Navigation Company and philanthropist. Mohamed Yusuf obtained the lease of Nhava island and many other estates in Jogeshwari for 999 years. It is said that the Yusuf family at one time was one of the largest private landowners in Bombay. Yusuf was knighted in 1914 and he also played a part in the Swadeshi Movement, was a patron of Gandharva Mahavidyalaya, established a nautical college (Training Ship Rahaman), opened many schools for children and orphans of seafarers and Yusuf Ismail College. As a marine insurance man all my life, I now realised the land where the biggest port in India is located, Nhava Sheva, was once owned by Sir Yusuf’s family and donated to the nation.

We finally boarded our trains home from the historic Churchgate Station that we planned to visit soon and many other heritage sites this Bom Bahai has so safely preserved in its harbour.

SS