The Scent of Yesterday: A nostalgic look at Mahim of the '50s and '60s

St Michaels Church positioned at the intersection of Lady Jamshetji Road and Mahim Causeway is one of the oldest Portuguese buildings in MumbaiWhile the famous picture of Virgin Mary remains one of its key attractions it is etched in the popular consciousness for its nine consecutive Wednesday Novenas for which adherents of all faiths throng the church in the hope of wish fulfillmentThis Catholic Church dating back to 16th century is a recurring character in the recentlyreleased memoir Scent of Yesterday by USbased writer Jaya KamlaniSt Michaels Church is more about faith and belief in MahimAlong with the church several other Mahim landmarks come to life in the 260 paged memoir The Canossa Convent High School Victoria High School Paradise Bakery Shalimar Restaurant and Mahim StationThe memoir set in the 1950s and 1960s reawakens niche experiences that todays technologicallyadvanced Mumbai is no longer privy toMahim Dargah lit up for EidBuying ice slabs on the doorstep is not an experience for the refrigeratorowning Mumbaikar A summer vacation without a television could be termed a farcical thought The Scent of Yesterday accommodates many such treasures that characterised the citys humble working class pastMahim Station a window to the world of erstwhile Bombay PicSayed Sameer AbediVanilla ChildhoodKamlanis childhood years were replete with joys that are inaccessible and inconceivable in contemporary Mumbai The third floor balcony of her Ram Mahal building facing Mahim Railway Station was the window to the outside world from the time she was fiveyearold Baby of the Mirchandani household Her father was usually away on overseas assignments and her mother ran a family of eight on modest meansJaya Kamlani is an IndianAmerican author with two books to her credit She migrated to the US in 1969 The first To India With Tough Love calls for social change and an end to human rights abuse She currently serves on the Board of Directors for Atlanta City of Peace Inc ACP in Georgia She is an English Literature graduate from St Xaviers College MumbaiBaby recalls endless hours spent in the balcony gazing at commuters emerging from the rail station The variety of Mumbaikars she surveyed was amazing On an average day she could see gypsy groups doing their balancing acts fire eaters jumping through hoops and children playing cricket on Tulsi Pipe Road Her concentration was often broken by the snake charmers who played the flute to mesmerise cobras in their wicker basketScent of Yesterday book jacketHer elder brother Mangha often bicycled later motor cycled on the road His motorcycle race to Ruia College is a defining moment indicative of the quality of road life in Mahim It stands in sharp contrast with todays Mahim where mobility is severely restricted due to the traffic bottlenecks on most roads and arterial streetsTo SchoolThe Scent of Yesterday has various accounts of Babys everyday walk to school This is an experience that few children enjoy in todays trafficridden securityconscious Mumbai Baby could walk her way to the school first few years in Victoria School and later at CanossaThat walk was also another way of exploring the neighbourhood It was a collective activity which encouraged interaction with the neighbourhoodA Frugal WorldLife in 12 Ram Mahal was relaxed but not equipped with modern amenities Labour was affordable which explained the liveincook and other service givers like barbers gola vendors and the razaipillow carders whose carding instrument dhunki had a distinctive twangThis twang was a common daytime sound in Mumbai apartments which sought seasonal renewal of cottonstuffed pillows Rose water and sliced watermelon were summer delights ice cream an occasional treat aerated drinks unheard of Water was filtered through a muslin cloth and stored in earthen pots The family had no telephone the pay phone in the building lobby was reserved for urgent communicationNo oven no food processor graced the kitchen most grinding tasks were manually managed Grocery and milk were available on a government ration card Food was cooked thrice a day and milk purchased twice as there was no refrigerator Making whipped butter from milk was a chore assigned to BabyEach family member contributed in some way towards running a functional kitchen The cook of course took on the major share ranging from jobs like taking wheat to the mill or carrying cooked meals to nearby shanty dwellersWaxing EtiquetteThe waxing session is one of the most interesting episodes Once Baby reached the 10th grade she was told by her elder brother Kiku to clean the hair off her arms and legs She wrote a letter to Femina asking for advice on waxing Kiku helped her draft the letterThe magazine recommended using hot wax from Bellezaa Once the wax arrived by mail a collective reading of the user instructions followed On a chosen Sunday the wax was heated to the recommended temperature Mummy cut old cloth into makeshift stripsWith Baby seated on the edge of the bed Kiku spread the warm wax with an applicator on her legs He pulled the strip swooooosh after 20 minutes When Baby expressed displeasure Kiku said pain was the price for looking goodReal EstateBaby grew up in preconsumerist Mumbai where spas parlours and rejuvenating beauty treatments were not within reach Real estate prices were within the reach of an immigrant family which chose Mahim as their new home They had abandoned their old mansion in Sindh Pakistan on a fatal riottorn day after PartitionMahim meant a lot to the family because of the torturous 13 months that they faced before getting to Ram Mahal The Mirchandanis escaped Sindh in the wake of looting and mass murder of HindusAfter spending a few months in Jodhpur they shifted to Baroda which was also chaotic after Mahatma Gandhis assassination They moved to Deolali an army camp town and finally landed in Bombay in October 1948 After spending a year in a fishing village Koliwada they accepted Mahim as their rightful residenceNew BeginningsLife in Mahim had its share of problems There were mosquitoes waterborne infections monsoon flooding was a perennial feature But for every problem the city offered a solution As other industrious middleclass families Babys family found ways to copeAs a displaced family the Mirchandanis knew how to improvise and make do with the available resources They lived Spartan lives after fathers untimely retirementThey had to borrow money to fend for education But the city protected their lives at different crisis moments Even when Pakistani warplanes flew over the city in 1965 Mumbai seemed a safe place The then Bombay was on high military alert curfew imposed from dusk to dawnAs news of Pakistani troops entering Kashmir hit airwaves paranoia spread Kamal and Baby masked the windows with dark opaque paper as per blackout orders Dinner was served in fading daylight extra food was stockedA single kerosene lamp guided Ram Mahal through the night Before bedtime the family gathered in Manghas room for wartime news on the radio The night ritual lasted seven weeks until the war ended and Bombay was back to normalMetro MusicThe Scent of Yesterday has abundant cultural references to Western music that Bombay was exposed to in the 1960s The writers inclination for vintage tunes therefore has an interesting genesis Her musical ear was shaped by her brother Manghas Radio Ceylon preferenceThey devoted Sunday mornings to Binaca Hit Parade which meant two hours of Top40 Western hits Family members also spent considerable time listening to gramophone records When the mechanical arm of the gramophone created a cranking noise an unintended music gave rise to much humour for the MirchandanisInitially Baby was not allowed to go to discos or weekend jam sessions But as she entered college Baby was awarded the freedom her brothers enjoyed They danced to music by the Beatles and Rolling Stones Once during a youth social event Baby did the chacha dance to the Baby Elephant WalkShe rocked all night and won a dance prize which was two cans of condensed milk The incident speaks of the social mores of the times Music Western and Indian stayed with the author even after she left Mumbai to study advertising in New YorkIt helped her sail through tough circumstances as a mother and a professional in an alien land Very often somber Bollywood numbers would unknowingly come to her lips particularly when she missed IndiaAt a crucial point in her career when she had to care for her children and manage a demanding job she listened to Asoo bhari hai yeh jeevan ki rahenhellip Brushing aside nostalgia she internalised the irony of the momentMumbais embraceThe Scent of Yesterday underlines Mumbais secular spirit The author is clearly in awe of the multihued humanity that inhabited the legendary cityThe book deals with Babys exchanges with Canossa Convent nuns servants from different backgrounds friends who belonged to different castes and religionsBaby also attended Wednesday Novenas and was ready to celebrate Diwali in the same spirit She spoke three languages and could understand many moreIt is obvious from the account that no other Indian city could have prepared Baby better for her later life in America The teeming colliding diversity in Mumbais life shaped Babys coping mechanism in the USWorth PreservingUnfortunately Kamlanis book lacks judicious copy editing Her sentence structure is convoluted Her chatty informal style often lacks finesse due to which the account is marred by syntactical imprecisionWhile chapters are neatly divided use of inept idioms confuses the reader The chapters on Kamlanis stay in the US are better sculpted than the ones which focus on her Mahim daysHowever the quality of the lived experience reaches the reader despite the flaws The lack of slickness in presentation does not rob the narrative of its intrinsic worthLucid prose and an inspiring production design of course could have done better service to a bygone era which undoubtedly deserves a recountCities WithinMumbai has so far inspired multihued narratives which paint and project the city in different lights The city has coaxed writers to explore its underbelly and offers an insiders view of its criminal netherworldBollywood Mumbais exotic nightlife and dance bars have thrown open another wide canvasMumbais slums have played muse to many while its street food flavours have given rise to many fables Westerners passing through the city have been motivated to put down their transformative sojournsThe city has been a grand chaotic backdrop for many love stories its chawl dwellings have immortalised resonant literary characters In this context of past literary works stemming from the Mumbai experience Jaya Kamlanis Scent of Yesterday is an honest portrayal of middleclass MumbaiIt is the story of a refugee family which sought solace in the opportunities provided by a pluralistic fabled metropolis which absorbed people irrespective of caste class religion and genderMost importantly it is homage to the religiocultural diversity of Mahim which houses St Michaels Church Mahim Dargah and Sitaladevi Temple within a radius of a few kilometresThe writer is a Mumbaibased cultural chronicler