Meher Marfatia: In August company

It happened over two days 74 monsoons ago Cries of ldquoQuit Indiardquo ripped the air thick with freedom fervour on August 8 and 9 1942 History was in the making on the gulmohurlaced Gowalia Tank green soon to be christened August Kranti Maidan Aruna Asaf Ali hoisted the Congress flag political heroes marched to their arrest and teargas released for the first time in the countryShells fell in dark drifts around Malati Jhaveri The collegian defiantly lobbed a piece back at a British soldier Draped in a red khadi sari she was whisked off to jail where her patriotic songs won police sympathy too Before she died in 2014 Malatiben related the incident to me kohllined eyes flashing She thought she had risked the wrath of her silk merchant father who was Sheriff of Bombay and had been knighted three months earlier in May 1942 ldquoHe was Sir Shantidas Askuran yet so nationalistic telling me lsquoIrsquom your pita but you must follow your Rashtrapita GandhijirsquordquoSalahuddin Kallan at Royal Hair Dressers set up in 1925 by his father Kifayatullah Kallan seen in the charcoal portrait PicSuresh KKBare metres from the maidan milling with impassioned pleas for independence a young wife watched from the second storey of Khaluckdina Terrace within a whisper of Gowalia Tank its name has a bucolic allusion ldquogowrdquo meaning ldquocowrdquo Gowalia referred to shepherds bathing cattle in the boatfilled tank Now over a hundred Villie Unwalla gazes out from that same window since her marriage in 1936 The statue of philanthropist NM Petit clad in traditional dagli coat stands below Looking past it at the maidan reliving those hours she says ldquoHearing shouts of lsquoDo or Diersquo we felt such a sense of priderdquoA view of Gowalia Tank Road in the foreground of this 1771 painting by J Storer Once a wilderness rice and pomelo plantations came to be cultivated on this stretch before it began to be built over In the late 1800s a tiger was sighted prowling down from Malabar Hill to drink from the waters of this tank PICCOURTESY ldquoBombay to Mumbai Changing Perspectivesrdquo Marg Publications 1997Two years later in April 1944 the Unwallas were stunned by another deafening echo World War IIrsquos explosion on the steamship Fort Stikine flung debris way beyond the docks A gold brick flew a thousand yards landing in their flat ldquoWe felt the impact because it was all quiet for milesrdquo she says It was more silent still at the turn of the century when her inlaws would spot only one car every hour ldquoPeople mostly pedalled cycles they polished with pomade And our corner was the terminus where trams changed wiresrdquoThe statue of philanthropist N M Petit stands outside Khaluckdina Terrace at Gowalia Tank PicBipin KokateRumi Taraporevala her neighbour in the Soonaiji Agiary lane opposite rode a pair of routes Boarding tram Number 13 or 16 he jumped off at Charni Road junction for another to Dhobi Talaorsquos St Xavierrsquos School ldquoConductors clanged that bell underfoot and I indulged in some thuggeryrdquo he confesses ldquoKids up to 9 years travelled for half an anna 2 paise Being smallbuilt I got away till finishing school at 16 Speaking of which my father gave his matriculation exam around 1918 sitting under a mandap in this maidanrdquoTrundling to Bori Bunder and the Museum via Pila Play House in Grant Roadrsquos theatre district Number 16 passengers would wave at familiar faces Their phoolwalla stringing rose petals for fragrant door torans Their fruitwalla pleased to have a patron in JRD Tatarsquos wife Thelma coming in a Chrysler from Altamount Road to pick juicy piles Their widest smiles must have been for the andawalla or egg man numero uno surely with the Parsi communityrsquos penchant for ldquoeedardquo over everything edibleGrowing up in the serene culdesac ending at Soonaiji Agiary solicitor Kaiwan Kalyaniwalla notices Bohris and Jains swell the demographic pool A small miracle shines at the agiary celebrating its 204th anniversary this week natural veins ingrained in marble walls form the face of Zoroaster from the paghri on the prophetrsquos head to his flowing beard The agiary has one of seven interconnected wells Others include those in Jer Mansion Khaluckdina Terrace and Tejpal Theatre There are stories of spirits in these wells mdash the one at Khaluckdina a servant reported assumed the benign shape of a white kiteFlanked by buildings with beautiful balconies and balustrades the gully is also home to chocolate queen Meher Pinto the Iranis of Wibs Bread and generations of cherubic children playing ChorPolice between tightly parked cars Back then horse tongas circled the compoundrsquos only private vehicle the 1927 Ford Model T of Behramsa father of Taj hotel architect Rusi PatelTaraporevala would wake from nightmares as a child in Cozy Building calmed by the reassuring clop of bullock carts ldquoThere was a 24hour service for taxis toordquo he recalls ldquoThey gleamed under gas lamps lit by slim wiry men like longdistance runners in khaki shortsrdquo His elegant wife Freny glances around their terrace spilling with bougainvillea and money plants glossy from recent rain ldquoThis is my favourite spotrdquo she says simply The couplersquos photographerfilmmaker daughter Sooni adds ldquoYou could walk our lane on fixed nights to hear Adi and Silla Marzbanrsquos voices booming from a radio in every flat I had one eye on the clock willing it to go slower but inevitably the half hour of their play would be uprdquoSooni has joined us to record her dadrsquos reminiscences Hersquos returned from a trim at Royal Hair Dressers Visiting this 1925established salon of Salahuddin Kallan next afternoon I find it superbly frozen in time Ten men slumped in ancient barber chairs struggle to straighten as I enter ldquoMadam yeh gents ka hairdquo murmurs one before realising itrsquos a chat not a cut Irsquom afterA step from Royal is Ideal Restaurant where Nizam Dhukka feeds customers mutton masala fry kheema and omelette pav for close to fifty years Oldtimers miss the Oriental Restaurant and Stores mdash part Irani cafeacute part pharmacy it is Grand Centre today Dick Joice sold medicines and liquor from different entrances Nipra was the chemist delivering home Star Bakeryrsquos chocolatetopped cream cakes went for an anna each Manhar offered toast and batasa biscuits sealed hot in steel tins and widemouthed jars glass covers with electric bulbs ensured these savouries stayed crispThe shop front hiding a tragedy is My Own Studio at Sheridan HouseIts proprietor Rajesh Mistry explains how their wing of the building collapsed in 1965 With five floors crashing his father could not escape being wedged between his counter and the dentistrsquos chair of Dr Pesi Nanavati that tumbled from upstairs The good doctorrsquos neighbour journalist Amy Fernandes knew something was wrong the moment her father unusually showed up at Villa Theresa Convent to escort her home Hutoxi Hodiwalarsquos grandmother went down four floors in her bed She survived as did the flame of the little oil lamp she had lit That it continued to burn on the prayer table till evening was viewed as an act of faith The familyrsquos pet parrot dropped with his cage shaken Sensing disaster the African Grey had squawked a prescient plaintive kehkehkeh refrain through that fateful morningHappier sounds I try reimagining over the hellish honk of present traffic are cries of street hawkers Gowalia Tank veterans describe Jari purana wallas and knife sharpeners roamed with basket vendors peddling topli paneer Not forgetting kaleji bheja sellers whose liver and brain delicacies thrilled meat eatersOn reaching Hardinge House I see it rudely razed A redeveloperrsquos board cockily girdles the property This was home to Firoz Bardi now in Pune who admits to ldquopangs of pain on passing itrdquo Tehmina daughter of their neighbour Shirin Daruwalla became maestro Zubin Mehtarsquos mother Bardi saw a shy Zubin often come to meet his grandparents in the 1940sIn the flat above were the Contractors related to dashing Farrokh Engineer who to Bardirsquos delight obliged with a cricket game in one of the rooms Bardi has a horrifying schoolboy memory of Gowalia Tankrsquos brush with the underworld mdash a bloodied goonda knifed in the stomach had once lurched towards him on this roadA short hop away an eatery marks the maidanrsquos east edge Seeming to take quite seriously the watery antecedents of the area its piquant tagline advertises ldquoLagoon a lake of tasty foodrdquoAuthorpublisher Meher Marfatia writes fortnightly on everything that makes her love Mumbai and adore Bombay You can reach her at mehermarfatiagmailcom