Meher Marfatia: Whose lane is it anyway?

When a blue and white sign says Pasta Lane yoursquore forgiven for dreaming of la bella Italiarsquos delectable staple dish Google too predictably throws up lsquoWorld War II Italian prisoners of war after release settled here setting up bakeries making pasta savouries and cakesrsquoIn actual fact this quartet of lanes off Colaba Causeway has zip to do with anything remotely Italian Pasta Lanes 1 2 3 and 4 are a decidedly desi throwback to a Bhatia family lauded for philanthropy in their native Kutch and business centre Bombay lsquoThe name of Sheth Goculdas Liladhur Pasta stands high on the list of those who upheld the fair fame of the City of Bombayrsquo reads the opening line on the stalwart profiled in Representative Men of the Bombay Presidency I turn pages of this rare volume with Goculdas Pastarsquos great grandson at a midtown cafeacute Itrsquos strange hearing the benign 65yearold break into Gujarati when Irsquove pictured Pasta as someone entirely EuropeanChandu Halwai at Sheila Mahal at the start of Lane 1 is one of the earliest establishments here PicsBipin KokateGoculdasrsquo ancestor Sheth Mohanjee arrived in the city around 1855 to trade as a cotton merchant mdash lsquoHe won the title of ldquopastardquo or ldquoprincerdquo on account of his generosity and this cognomen is borne by his descendantsrsquo Honouring the trust the British invested in them Goculdas and his son Madhavdas inherited that charitable bent to sponsor civic services temples dharamshalas wells tanks and plantationsThe ground floor flat windows of Kismet building retain their original art deco grill design and awnings from almost a century agoAnother pair of lanes behind Chitra Cinema in Dadar is named after the Pastas But I decide to start exploring these eponymous fourEsther Malaney with daughter Pia on the mosaic and vitreous tileencrusted terrace of Kismet in 4th Pasta Lane 1971 The 1920s building was erected brick by brick under the supervision of Goolbai Dr Sohrabji Camarsquos wife This Chippendalefurnished apartment was designed by Vina Mody of the firm Mody amp Colgan Vina Colgan married architect and Swatantra Party founder Piloo ModyColourful crowded complex itrsquos hard imagining the gullies as once dramatically different Colaba Island had just 50 inhabitants isolated by swelling tides till the 1838 Causeway connection A New Account of East India and Persia by J Fryer notes Colaba being lsquoof no profit but to keep the Companyrsquos antelopes and other beasts of delightrsquoA far cry from the rush and crush of the Causeway today Though centrally situated lane residents revel in their seclusion from main street mayhem ldquoBarring the Ganpati feast when these lanes go mad competing for the biggest pandalrdquo groans a friendCapped at six storeys most buildings came up between 1930 and 1950 Exceptions from the 1920s include Bradyrsquos No 10 of Lane 1 Shree Krishna of Lane 2 Porbunder Castle of Lane 3 and Kismet of Lane 4 Low roofs bring their own rewards mdash ldquoWe wake to an orchestra in our bird paradiserdquo an oldtimer exults ldquoCrows caw from four in the morning joined by koels at six parakeets next And sparrows still chirrup hererdquo Gazing up at Ashoka boughs that cast cool shadows at my feet I even spot a circling kiteLane 1 hangs right after Sorab Bharucha Marg occasionally known as 0 Pasta Lane where nine elegant Bradyrsquos Blocks cluster It is heralded by cornerhugging Chandu Halwai the mithai chain around longer than most informs Ganesh Kamath who manages this branch Beside is Kailash Parbat begun by the Mulchandani brothers who fled Karachi with basic pots and pans to mix ragda sold from a humble handcart before serving Bombay their success storyA familiar adjacent fixture completes this tangy ethnic food triangle Ashok Mirchandanirsquos appetising planksonwheels array of kitchenfresh papads pickles and wadis Typical treats are basar ka achaar ndash tiny whole onions marinated in mustard seeds and oil eaten with sai bhaji kheecha mdashdried rice crisps and bhee ka kachri mdash deep fried lotus stem His father Daulatram set this up in 1970 and Ashok rides the miles daily from Ulhasnagar to follow in his footstepsDr Prakash Shetty of Lane 1 explains each gully has a residentsrsquo association President of the first he says ldquoWe got rid of garages fought eateries encroaching with kitchens which were a fire hazard yet our lanes arenrsquot clean as earlierrdquo His home stretch boasts a burst of a tender green garden facing Baba Issardas Darbar prayer hallLane 2 pulls you into a kitschy quilt of parlours godowns tenements and stray housing societies Blossom in the dust a Sai Baba temple has risen on a plot which was a stinky dump Diagonally across I approach a onetime ldquohouse of ill reputerdquo as food critic Antoine Lewis delicately describes Growing up a lane beyond he finds the essential character of the place intact ldquoThe lanes enjoy great cosmopolitanism but changing community profiles The Jains for instance have always lived with Bohris Sindhis Parsis Catholics Jews and Punjabis Starting from kirana and hardware shops theyrsquove diversified into jewellery and mobile phone outletsrdquoLanes 3 and 4 linked by Cawasji Jehangir Road prove interesting Neither residencerowed like Lane 1 nor commercial like Lane 2 their locals clearly know insider history Everyone from passing delivery men to longtime tenants sidle up with snippets ldquoThat locked yellow kothi door stores wood but used to be Comfort Library with thousands of titles for us 1970s kidsrdquo ldquoThe gas company was Irani restaurant Roshanrdquo ldquoThis was Pranlal Bhogilalrsquos vintage car warehouserdquoMaratha Stores continues going strong since 1945 Close to a century old Porbunder Castle looks deceptively modern after sliding windows replaced its beautiful balconies that sadly simply fell off with age Happy Cycle Shop in Lane 3 is Colabarsquos sole such after two in the bazaar shut Dsouzarsquos garage now hawks chai and Chinese The swank Star supermarket has clients but people prefer phoning their bania for deliveries Cafe Shanghai fronted Pasta Lane 4 before being rented by Canara and UCO Bank Imbiss in Pipewala Building went through serial avatars mdash Hina dance bar Hawaiian Shack and BootleggersLaburnumlined but bereft of well remembered wider pavements Cawasji Jehangir Road ends in Namdar Manzil Its flats exclusively for defence forces the property formerly belonged to Benazir Bhuttorsquos family Referring to his as Lane 3 frac12 a parallel strip not to be confused with C J Road Zahir Fatehi declares he loves the Art Deco architecture around Lalchand Mansion where he greets ldquo80 per cent of original neighboursrdquo No compound walls enclose these buildings so parking is a contentious issueTales of two Lane 4 trees are told The family of 1946established Akbar Motors speaks of a ldquobunder se bhara badam ka jhaadrdquo Thievingforgold monkeys caused havoc in Sunrise building opposite this almond tree Sunrise incidentally was home to novelist Firdaus Kangarsquos tuition teacher Moti Dalal She was popularly called Baby Auntie by Campion School boys and Fort Convent girls and dubbed The Duchess by Kanga in Trying to GrowA second story comes from Esther Silliman and her Sindhborn husband Hira Malaney occupants of Kismetrsquos fourth floor from 1962 to 1998 Hawks nested in the peepul tree brushing their mosaictiled terrace which treated them to unobstructed views all the way to Governorrsquos House A barber shaving customers in its shade spied a root that resembled an elephantrsquos foot Cashing in on the discovery he created a Ganesh idol over the natural growth The selfstyled tantrikrsquos ruse got easy prey ldquoworshippersrdquo to leave money offeringsThe Malaneysrsquo was among the first flats furnished by Chippendale in Bombay ldquoKismet was a haven I missrdquo Esther says sitting in the sprawling NCPA Apartments home they moved to ldquoWe had warm times in that small house with a roundpebbled outdoor stone rockeryrdquo She recalls pushing her babiesrsquo pram on Cuffe Paradersquos pedestrian promenade before the fishing colony sprang upldquoWe still order sodas for parties from Joseph amp Co in our old lanerdquo Hira says forwarding me to Moses Joseph At 58 the proprietor of this 43yearold provisions hub is proud he introduced the shop as a teenager studying for SSC exams at its counterldquoI was young but wanted to be enterprisingrdquo he says mdash quietly asserting the spirit of a city as it was as it isAuthorpublisher Meher Marfatia writes fortnightly on everything that makes her love Mumbai and adore Bombay You can reach her at mehermarfatiagmailcom