First bridge, last rites and midtown memories

To think a joke like What did one banana say to another Marry me Im akela got Amitabh Bachchan guffawing He and Anwar Ali comedian Mehmoods brother cracked such nonstop corn in Allah Beli the Kemps Corner cafe now the Gangar Opticians showroom Struggler buddies paid a few hundred bucks for eyeblink roles as boys singing and drinking in MerchantIvorys 1970 film Bombay Talkie they celebrated there with kheema pav and paani kam chaiThough familiar haunts like that Irani eatery have vanished this palmfringed street retains immense charm St Stephens Church till the Parsi Doongerwadi faced by India House of the Air India hoarding till shopcrusted Chinoy Mansion Prescription chemists in a roofed store Kemp amp Co christened Kemps CornerThe citys first flyover transformed the areas east end from 1964 Unused to a cement giant nuzzling their windows residents resented the invasion of privacy and worried that pissing passersby had new walls to relieve themselves To inaugurate this civil engineering marvel the motorcade of Pope Paul VI the first Pontiff to visit the country got an excitedly gathered public genuflectingOxen pull a Silver Ghost chassis in its shipping crate arriving at the Rolls Royce car showroom at Kwality House in 1921Manize Salon cosily cocooned under the flyover relocated close to the spot Manize Kharas introduced it in 1959 in a yellowwashed bungalow Manize was truly enterprising her nephew Cyrus Driver says She stocked Bombay Dyeing fabrics had a cubicle with two chairs for hair and beauty treatments a small ice cream counter and mezzanine tailoring space In 1974 this became Indias first exclusive jeans store Jean JunctionBeside Kemp in what is Om Chambers today confectioner L Pierotti presided over Palmers Bakery whose bestsellers were flaky palmier pastries and savoury patties The smell of their ovenfresh bread wafted wonderfully over the road to us says Senior Counsel Darius Khambata I often dream of Adenwalla Lodge and Aminia from my childhood Of the homes he cherishes Aminia remains The late 19thcentury Adenwalla Lodge had wide steps reaching its portico Khambata literally straddled that residence of his grandparents and the familys rented apartment in Aminia a wooden plank leading to Aminia off the verandahThe Kemps Corner flyover between Malabar Hill and Cumballa Hill was the citys first in 1964 At the left is India House probably the first modern flats on this block still strewn with centuryold residences in vintage architectural styles PicShadab KhanFour generations of Cassums have occupied terrazzotiled Aminia bought by Joosub Cassum in 1933 His grandson Ameen recalls rooms luxuriously sprawled 25 by 25 feet with ceilings 17 feet high The Cassums enjoyed hearing Khambatas father Jangoos Western classical music records Darius says Dad told me Shankar of ShankarJaikishan fame from neighbouring India House stood fascinated under our window listeningSonatas and symphonies streamed from most Kemps Corner homes Young Khambata and his friends were regaled by surgeon Tehemton Udwadia tinkling London Bridge is falling down sitting comfortably in his sadra vest at Nazir House Before the building converted to the glassfronted branch of Standard Chartered Bank Dr Udwadias wife Khorshed sister of Dr Adi Nazir whose family property this was ran Pushpa Milan from it Collaborating with Interflora that florist delivered beautiful blooms between continentsJunaid Shaikh right at 1940established Precious Hairdressers with one of its oldest employees Ikram Hussain The Ambanis and movie stars to half the cricket world including Sachin Tendulkar and Sanjay Manjrekar have sat in our chairs Junaid says PicSayyed Sameer AbediFrom Kwality House hugged by Chinese Room for half a century Baji Chinoy watched Bombay drive by He and my music lover father exchanged LPs especially proud of the Polydor vinyl Neville Chinoy Tribute to a Prodigy showcasing the virtuosity of the concert pianist son whose sudden air crash death left the family griefstrickenAcross India House became the strips modern landmark in 1958 Why India House I ask Rashid Oomer His father Suleman Haji Ahmed Oomer owned properties at nearby Westfield Estate where Salman Rushdie grew up and Oomer Park before this one We resort to conjecture The Anglophile senior Oomer exhausting the pucca Britness of Windsor Villa Devonshire House Balmoral and Belvedere was probably compelled to name subsequent structures Kohinoor BaugeSara and India HouseOrthodontist Dr Keki Mistry at his India House rooms His children from left clinic coordinator Kainaz Mistry and dentists Dr Rushitum Mistry and Dr Saiesha Mistry now practise here PicShadab KhanBeginning work at India House in 1961 I could afford only Sulemanjis storeroom for a clinic orthodontist Keki Mistry says Im grateful he ensured water and electricity essential for dentistry and even gifted me a Shanks pedestal basin A founder of The Indian Orthodontic Society the octogenarian adds Dust thrown up during the flyovers erection was maddening but this bridge eased life for a lot of folksTwo major India House favourites are felled Kwality Restaurant of the Ghais and Band Box launderers with the saluting cardboard bellboy mascot stood by Bharat Furnishings India Cane House Khilji Upholsterers and M Miller Drycleaners Raechelle Hairdressers named for actor Keith Stevensons mother and run by both parents has welcomed clients since opening on a 1958 summer morning Its interior decor by AngloHyderabadi architect Eric Marret the salon then catered to royalty diplomats and film stars Hillway Drug Centre not confused with Hillway Library in the same building was established by Mr DSouza former manager of Kemp amp Co He dispensed JRD Tata a very effective cough and cold concoction whose formula DSouza alone knewKulsum Sayani with her sons Ameen left and Hamid who went on to rule radio broadcasting outside Pervez Mansion in the 1940s She published Rahber Leader in Devnagri Urdu and Gujarati from this home a newspaper which advocated simple Hindustani as a unifying languageOpposite India House five centuries ago city Zoroastrians were bequeathed the pictureperfect Doongerwadi to dispose their dead in the first opentosky dakhma or Tower of Silence in 1672 These are the vast tracts of Dadyseth Hill the considerable wealth of textile merchant and philanthropist Dadibhoy Dadyseth Trading with Europe and China he brought India the cotton screw compressing cotton into balesA stunning mansion on these acres 125 Kemps Corner in the Renaissance Revivaliststyle belongs to Contractor Charities With semicircular arches carved spandrels and balustrades backgrounded by airy balconies this is a building conservation architect Vikas Dilawari pronounces ready for adaptive reuse Stone columns with ornate capitals complement the ground floors Minton tiling Upstairs Motibai Contractors portrait hangs in each of her childrens cobwebbed rooms with teakwood louvered doors Her husband Nowroji gazes enigmatically in Masonic Lodge regalia from another frameGardens spilled seasonal flowers up to the where the road divider is an old gardeners grandson tells me No 125 kids like Goolu Adenwalla from its tenanted first floor sneaked berries from bushes of No 127 where Dr Homi Mehta resided within shouting distance of his workplace the BD Petit Parsee General Hospital He was Police Surgeon of Bombay We stole sour cherries dodging cops who patrolled his compound she chucklesRowed alongside the Advani brothers Shalimar Hotel opened in 1962 The original names of a pair of its FampB outlets endure the bar Maikada Persian for watering hole and Gulmurg offering the most succulent kababs and chicken makhanwala Those decades rocked with live music says joint managing director DS Advani We had performers weeklong Entertainment tax killed it all Honoured guest Satyajit Ray mentioned detective hero Feluda check into Shalimar in an Adventures of Feluda book His son Sandip revisited the hotel to shoot the series Bengali movie version Bombaiyer Bombete Bandits from BombayMuch interesting Indian theatre emanated from jaalibalconied Vitthal Court beside Empire Estate explains thespian Gerson da Cunha Living on a high floor Ebrahim Alkazi staged Theatre Unit plays on the terrace a sixthfloor walkup I climbed times out of number for his production of Becketts Waiting for Godot cast as the beastly Pozzo It set a trend Plot was no more as important as Playing Two hundred audience members sat on stands to watch dozens of sold out shows Traffic and parking werent deadly at Kemps Corner in 1961Kemps Corner resembles an ongoing St Marys School reunion Too many interviewees prove old boys Aware I married one they share buoyant to boisterous stories Millionaire couturiers was Atta Tailors where we played handcricket waiting for the bus to God how we stole Bulls Eye sweets and Phantom cigarettes from Variety StoresBeyond the Petit Sanatorium lie more luminously embellished facades At Banoo Mansions Roshan and Dara Sinor tell me the 1909 building is topped by a magnificent crown because it rose just ahead of King George V and Queen Mary sailing into Bombay in 1911The poet Adil Jussawalla recreates life at Sunama House around 1940 In a section of the family flat patients healed at The Natural Therapy Clinic of his father Jehangir From terraces bordering one wing you saw Malabar Hill until Grand Paradi broke the view Adil says And the thin barber of Francois Maison salon here bore an uncanny resemblance to Italian star Vittorio Gassman At Sunama House too was Bapsy Pavry who became Marchioness of Winchester When the aristocrat husband strayed to his exgirlfriend Eve James Bond creator Ian Flemings mother Pavry flew for a flaming confrontation to her home in the BahamasLording city salons from 1940 is this roads Precious Hairdressers I chat with Junaid Shaikh whose grandfather Habib was a tailor till he set up this excellent service at affordable price Junaid cuts for customers once his grandfathers and father Jamils Loyal clients land from America London or Belgium and head straight here he saysRemembering that veteran radio broadcaster Ameen Sayani once lived at Pervez Mansion in Cumballa Hill Lane I talk to the 87yearold legend In Cumballa Chambers opposite the Sayanis New Era School teacher Amy Moos hid nationalists Aruna Asaf Ali and Achyut Patwardhan They came to us for meals We knew never to reveal they were underground I associate Kemps Corner with patriotism and passion for the larger goodAuthorpublisher Meher Marfatia writes fortnightly on everything that makes her love Mumbai and adore Bombay You can reach her at mehermarfatiagmailcom wwwmehermarfatiacomCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates