Fading royals, film stars and top cops

Try Royal Which of us hasnt heard these words when weary of the corner chemist unable to dispense what our doc prescribes weve hotfooted it to Royal Chemists on Queens Road from wherever we are in the cityBut Bakul Shah will tell you it isnt business as usual Not the way it was when customers poured into Royal Chemists from the 1940s to recent years Not after a string of pharmacies mushroomed in the Marine Lines lane behind making hospitals in the vicinity insist on medications bought from their inhouse druggistPhotographer Fram Ghaswala as a toddler enjoying a Horsie ride on the deerlike figure once among the statuary outside Edena The Raval Tiles amp Marble showroom fronted the building where the Roop Milan sari shop stands today Pic courtesy Fram GhaswalaIf Marine Lines salutes the 19thcentury Marine Battalion barracks situated close Queens Road acknowledges aapri Rani Victoria as some Anglophile Parsi settlers happily hailed the monarch Desi blue blood duly coursed through Rulers of principalities peppering KutchSaurashtra clustered at homes here especially further south on the streetKeen to ferret out the stories of six Art Deco buildings oddnumbered 89 to 99 north to south I count off Queens Chambers Pearl Mansion Shri Jorawar Bhuvan Kala Niketan Building formerly Victory Court and then Pravin Court Edena and La Citadelle Officers of General and Colonel rank initially occupied bungalows on this stretch When military homes shifted to Colaba round about 1925 Queens Road plots went on saleOne of La Citadelles distinguished tenants was JD Nagarvala IP the Deputy Commissioner of Police Special Branch Bombay 194749 He was in direct charge of investigating Gandhijis assassination case Pic courtesyMumbai Police by Deepak RaoWhere a pair of railway tracks lay opposite are six today It is believed that heavy trains rumbling past Bacha Nursing Home in La Citadelle surgeons paused midprocedure till total steadiness was perceived This restraint particularly marked cataract operations Oldtimers remember a Victoria stand across the road And Queens Chemists forerunner of Royal Chemists uniquely sold Germskutter ointment soothing itches eczema and ringwormI start with Queens Chambers where architect Kersi Kapadia has lived above Royal Chemists for 82 years Im possibly the oldest still around from the half dozen buildings youre interested in he says offering me Sunday evening tea with mawa cakes and flaky puffs from Sassanian Bakery A graduate of the last batch from JJ School of Architecture then the only architecture institute in the entire East affiliated to Royal Institute of British Architects in the UK Kapadia landed a job in 1956 with Art Deco ace GB Mhatres firm Could he be prescient about the future of these 1930s buildings The life of RCC structures is 8085 years Well be fortunate getting over 10 more Its tough gauging the strength of foundations and pilingBakul Shah of Royal Chemists oversees the shop his fathers pharmacist cousin Mukundlal Gandhi passed on to his family The original proprietor in 1944 was Popatbhai Bhikabhai Shah recalls stars like Waheeda Rehman come personally to the shop where Mehmood too reeled off his comic film dialogues and entertained customers with hourlong mimicry PicSneha KharabeA gate away Pearl Mansions balconies zigzag accordionlike At India Emporium in this building Kanu Ramwani is the exceptional Sindhi on the strip dominated by cousins of the Motla clan carrying on the sari trade of their Dwarka ancestors Ladies from Borivli travelled to us for embroidered or printed chiffons and georgettes The suburbs now pose stiff competition says Kanu whose father Kishin Ramwani set up shop Sobo loyalists like Asha Bhonsle come personally picking their nineyard passionsThe chowkidar of 40 years in a neighbouring store admits sales are slumping mdash Pehle achcha tha We dont open doors to people often Busier days have seen the starstruck security man usher in Dharmendra solo and Vinod Khanna with wifeDeepak Rao at Sassanian Bakery off Queens Road with his seminal book Mumbai Police A longtime resident of La Citadelle he shares that it was mainly European officers who once occupied the building PicAshish RajeAligned with the Ramwanis MG Cafe got named inverting the initials of Pearl Mansion landlord Gokalchand Mathradas who held foreign liquor Licence No 1 at Vine Vault near the Town Hall For 45 years MG served the most scrumptious mutton samosas sandwiches and fish curry It had couple rooms inexplicably entered via an aquarium The cafe added a popular Kwality Ice Cream stall after that brand was introduced in 1957Up the stairs were the Mistrys A scientist confrere at Homi Bhabhas workbench acoustics and design expert Burjor Mistry drew inventive sets for Hasa Has Adi Marzbans topical 1960 musical on MaharashtraGujarat statehood and plans for the NCPA His wife Pola hosted All India Radio programmes with elan in an era when comperes chattered less and aired more Legions of fans of her request show Saturday Date came of age in the 70s My fellow columnist friend Rahul da Cunha shares I carried my huge radio everywhere I went so I could listen at 1011 pm to Yellow River Jambalaya Abba and Demis Roussos Pola had the sexiest most wonderful radio voiceArchitect Kersi Kapadia who has lived in Queens Chambers for 82 years above Royal Chemists believes these 1930s RCC buildings may have a little over another 10 years in their present avatars PicSneha KharabeRowed up next is erstwhile royalty Shri Jorawar Bhuvan honours 1896born Maharana Shri Jorawarsinhji Pratapsinhji Parmar the Raja of Santrampur near Godhra in Panchmahal district Jorawarsinhji was my greatgrandfather says Kumud Barot Kedia Her topfloor apartment is arrayed with Art Deco rarities and glass furniture The Indian States store here referred to eclectic sari selections representing the countrys princely territories Beside it Stella Loewy showcased Europeancut cocktail dresses and slinky gownsThe building with Kala Niketan emblazoned on its facade was originally Victory Court a nod to the Allies in World War II Changing hands it was rechristened Pravin Court The sari superstore giving it the current name Kala Niketan Building has hosted several Hindi film shoots It was a basic counter in the 1940s Hardworking Jayantibhai Parikh who went on to become proud proprietor is supposed to have slept nights on a small step leading into the shop With saris wrapped in tight bundles he visited Parsi patrons whose tastes he understood Shireen Vakil recollects hearing from her family who lived in the building since the early 1940s They were witness too to nankhatai street bands striking brassy tunes on March 21st which celebrated Jamshedi Navroze the spring equinox heralding the Irani New YearKala Niketan Building had another Burjor Mistry This one sewed the paghri gents wear to Parsi weddings Between headgear by Mistry blooms from Pearl Mansion florist Baimai Mehta and silk saris everywhere down Queens Road planning nuptials was a breeze That might have happened in the comfort of Good Hope Stores and Restaurant mdash perhaps signalling postwar positivity again mdash which fronted Victory Court as did a Racold Water Heater showroom years afterVikram Rao from Kala Niketan Building mentions how palms dotting the unbuilt landscape bent low with the force of southwesterly winds On the more inhabited road they were supplanted by gulmohur peepul and rain trees Bhicoo Manekshaw maps the area evocatively in her cookbook Parsi Food and Customs My grandmothers house had a lovely garden with mango pomelo and chickoo trees One side was a well and pomegranate treehellip Fisherwomen would come with baskets of fish practically alive from the days catch across the railway lines no reclaimed Marine Drive at that time and return with large handas of fresh wellwaterJust beyond the fast fading elegance of Edena frustrates residents What was paradise on earth in these beautiful buildings is pure hell says porcelain artist TehmiGhadialy who learnt the craft from her antique restorer father Dady My grandfather Framroze already owned Court View opposite Oval Maidan Wanting a westfacing property he bought EdenaChildren of all the buildings played in Jorawar Bhuvans compound outside the John Roberts display of furnishings and saris The baby among them Fram Ghaswala from Edena was allowed extra turns at cricket and fielded sweets packets Shireen Vakils grandmother indulgently tossed from her Kala Niketan window Older kids lowered him into a gutter to keep properly out of sight at Hide and Seek mdash We never realised those were gutters they were that clean Fram saysDilip Kumar and Meena Kumari came to the Edena home of Dr VN Sinha producer of the 1960 caper Kohinoor Depressed by Devdastype routines Dilip Kumar was advised essaying lighter leads as in this swashbuckler saga To authenticate its Naushad melody Madhuban mein Radhika naache re he learnt the sitar and played a solo on the instrument Even his tragedyinclined heroine must have smiled at their movies hit statusFrams ophthalmic surgeon father Kekobad Ghaswala chose Edena over La Citadelle because its rent cost R10 less monthly R60 to Citadelles R70 La Citadelle was constructed with material from Simplex Tiles and Art Floorings whose showroom fronted it It was built by my grandfather Dr Ardeshir Bacha says Parizad Feerick Dr Bachas Memorial Belle Vue Nursing Home was on the fourth and fifth floors of the building which had impressive entrance pillars and interiors decorated with Burma teak My brother Dr Aoshnar Bacha carried on till the nursing homes closure in 2012Climbing by stepangled windows up La Citadelle I reach Sarosh Nagarvalas flat two storeys higher than city pundit Deepak Raos ground floor home which was earlier the residence of Bombay Superintendent of Police O A Loveday Alongside stood Beatrice a Baghdadi Jew establishment tailoring womens and childrens clothes Saroshs father JD Jamshed Darabshaw Nagarvala IP Deputy Commissioner of Police Special Branch Bombay 194749 was assigned direct charge of investigating the Gandhi assassination In the days I grew up what you did on a sports field was more important than what you did in a classroom says Sarosh a boxer and athlete renowned for his prowess at hockey and Bombay Gymkhana rugby perfecting the art of the trailing leg and late tackleIm proffered a viewpoint involving three generations of local newspaper walas Bhupendra Upadhyay explains to his son Rakesh and me Every Queens Road household subscribed to an Angrezi akhbaar by the 1930s when my father Ram Kishore started delivering papers Mumbai Samachar and JameJamshed circulated widely Afterwards came a good daily It was called middayAuthorpublisher Meher Marfatia writes fortnightly on everything that makes her love Mumbai and adore Bombay You can reach her at mehermarfatiagmailcomwwwmehermarfatiacomCatch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news 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