How green were my gullies

When we grew up playing Robbers and Cops we really did have robbers and cops with usrdquo chuckles a wizened resident Hard imagining such boisterous goingson in the trio of quiet gullies brushing Babulnath Temple Exactly what happened on Dadiseth Road and its pair of secluded cross lanes An oasis of calm despite the proximity to Girgaum Chowpatty this Gamdevi precinct developed by the Bombay Improvement Trust pleasantly rows buildings embellished with original 1920s design elements on facades and balconies Each threestorey structure is ringed by a modest fivemetre compoundView of Dadiseth 1st LaneNearby Zoroastrians were given an opentosky dakhma Tower of Silence to dispose their deceased in 1672 Across sylvan Doongerwadi sonorous last rite incantations ring through roofed prayer halls known as bunglis Banker Dadi Nasarwanjirsquos forebears built the first Hibiscus and wild bushes cling to its scantest ruins todayAmassing vast tracts in trust Dadi Seth maintained the Dadiseth Atash Behram at Kalbadevi and Dadiseth Agiary at Fountain Around 1783 he purchased the Chowpatty Band Stand acreage from Barretto a Portuguese merchantTwinarched Babulnath Temple rose in 1780 shaped as a Babul tree the Arabian Sea lapping its walls Fishermen from the Koliwada settlement cornering 2nd Lane brought in fresh catch by the boatload With reclamation sprouted construction the spot filling with florists and incense sellers patronised by worshipper throngs Mahashivratri remains the one day every year transforming these lanes to a pedestrian zone Typical centuryold vernacular architecture of a surviving chawl in the neighbourhood PicsAshish RajeA century later some migrants to these lanes soared to become magnates A Khoja clan of repute graced the city with baronets and municipal luminaries Arriving from Bhuj at the end of the 1800s Meherally Chinoy acquired the agency for Shell by 1904 On obtaining the Chevrolet contract in 1916 his sons successfully added several General Motors models to their kitty besides a bunch of petrol pumpsldquoDuring his Mayorship Meherallyrsquos son Rahimtoola Chinoy gave Lord Irwin his first welcome speech in 1926rdquo says Sir Rahimtoolarsquos grandson Zahir That was the same year Meher Buildingmdashchosen as the joint family home by another of Meherallyrsquos sons Sir Sultan Chinoymdashreadied to introduce the automobile giant Bombay Garage Sprawled across 45000 square feet the showroom debuted sleek Pontiacs Lanchesters Vauxhalls and Armstrong Siddeleys An interesting 1939 sepia image from the collection of the Museum of Innovation and Science in Schenectady USA showing Zahirrsquos stiffsuited bespectacled grandfather is captioned ldquoSir Rahimtoola Chinoy of Bombay India intercepting ray of sun for relaying signal for opening of San Franciscorsquos World Fairrdquo Bombay Garage in Meher Building from the late 1920s fronted by the Band Stand named after Meherally ChinoyFacing the Band Stand a beautiful banyan acted as a roundabout for traffic between Babulnath and Marine Drive It lies savagely hacked apparently for clearer visibility of a hoarding like much foliage fringing the forest beyond including glorious gulmohars laburnums parijat and chanoti A brimming moat slaked the thirst of horses tired from pulling Victorias along the salty aired promenadeExcited Chinoy cousins raced up adjacent Siri Road winding up at Naaz restaurant Their Bombay Garage was sold in 1967 The next decade saw Haji Mastan superpower of the illegal gold boom move into an apartment a floor above Literally waving away an inconvenient Customs officer whose transfer he arranged the smuggler gave the ldquooffendingrdquo man a personal sendoff at the airport even climbing the flight ladder for firmest farewell Meherally ChinoyldquoIrsquod greet Mastan and his men They were polite peoplerdquo says Ranjit Madhavji This is Dadiseth Wadirsquos grand old man and portraitist extraordinaire who took over Sir Victor Sassoonrsquos legendary Hamilton Studios at Ballard Estate in 1957 ldquoto escape the clutches of the family textile traderdquo Exuding infectious energy in his home Ranjit Villamdashearlier called Tower House the sole building here crowned by a towermdashthe nonagenarian recaps his prolific body of work shot with a 16mm Paillard Bolex and shares engaging gully gup ldquoRear gates to buildings bring the jungle to our steps Irsquove thrashed 13 knifewielding thieves with my bare hands My tactics distracted them in the dark Slipping the chors would fall from their hiding place as I raised loud alarms like lsquoShantibhai sambhaaljorsquordquoMadhavji trained at Tehmurasp Sarkarirsquos Sleater Road gym grooming reedthin collegians to ripplemuscled confidence Sarkari refereed international freestyle wrestling bouts involving Tiger Holden and King Kong the 200kg Aussie was memorably hoisted by our 130kg star pehlwan Dara Singh The gent Madhavji kept out of harmrsquos way was Shantilal Sonawala former president of the Bombay Bullion Association Shantilalrsquos son Kamlesh the Hinditron group chairman is an electronic engineer by profession and poet by passion ldquoDeer skipped gently past Sonawala Mansion in these isolated lanesrdquo he recollects ldquoI miss the ice factory and market lost landmarksrdquoHis illustrious sonsmdashSultan Rahimtoola Nurmohamed standing and Fazulbhoymdashmade the automobile enterprise famousThat vegetable mutton and fish bazar was popular with residents of Khareghat Colony abutting the vicinity when it wasnrsquot a vegetarianonly preserve ldquoOurs is a grasshopper zone impossible to find chicken noodles or chicken soup packets in kanya dukaans anymorerdquo rues a young Parsi Skirting the ice factory and market was the Indian National Theatre centre now Aditya Birla Sangeet Kala KendraWith Ajita Madhavjirsquos daughter I walk past properties whose stainedglass trims wink chameleoncoloured in glints of dusk Police doctor Sheriar Irani in Khurshed Villa beside was their good friend His sister Gulcheher married Jehangir Chiniwala previous occupant of the Madhavjisrsquo flat A brilliant but eccentric lawyer Chiniwala wrote editorials for Parsi Avaaz pheto on head pen in one hand whisky glass the other Before he drove an Austin and then a Rover he reacted with unfair rage to a natural occurrence The horse drawing the ghodagaadi that dropped him to the Small Causes Court and back would relieve itself at journeyrsquos end Thrusting a pail at the poor tangawala Chiniwala yelled him instructions to mop every dropDe Sas Hospital opened in the 1930s by Dr Herculano De Sa father of Dr Juliet De Sa Souza both gynaecologists PhotosSuresh Karkera amp Dr LJ de SouzaWe halt at completely crumbled Bar Gymkhana the hub that once saw legal lights like Jinnah and Justice Chagla ace tennis strokes Admiring the builttolast lines of Raghavji Niwas Radha Niwas and Banoo Manor we wish more owners restored properties likewise At well kempt Banoo Manor Dr Erach Udwadia and his wife Perin reared four famous sonsmdashphysician Farokh surgeon Tehemton lawyer Darius and economist and seismologist Firdaus Neighbours remember mandolin and violin strains waft from the Udwadia window as Farokh practised on the strings If depleting tree cover means cobras and pythons lurk closer snakes of the human variety bare fiercer fangs The builder mafiosi threaten hapless householders routinely But birdsong still serenades residents ldquoLocated under Malabar Hill we sight not just crows and pigeons but barbets parrots vultures mynas owls wagtails and peacocks toordquo says Nikunj Parekh in Preyas a plot touching 1st and 2nd Dadiseth Road His wife Jyoti and he were founder members of the Indo Japanese Associationrsquos Bonsai Study Group in 1979Dr Juliet De Sa SouzaAt Kalewar Mansion the Divans chime in with charming details Tearaway kids shouted a nonsense rhyme to their favourite vendor of boiled peanuts and ganderi peeled sugarcane pieces ldquoAnderi ganderi tipri tenEisen meisen jolly good manrdquo Dosas and chaat safely sold on those roads hosed clean from water tankers pulled by bullock cartsTalk turns to watching ceremonial cavalcades on Marine Drive from the vantage point of their junction Bapsy Divan cheered the Shah of Iran with Queen Soraya while her neighbour Shailaja Pandit describes crowds gathered for Russian premiers Khruschev and Bulganin Her father Vishnu Dattatray Pandit was physics professor at Wilson College where a rousing reception awaited Tenzing Norgay visiting Bombay after his 1953 conquest of EverestFrom New Zealand Lynette Saldanha mails a history of De Sarsquos Hospital Buying the building opposite Bombay Garage her gynaecologist grandfather Dr Herculano De Sa opened this institution as a 1930s maternity facility He was joined by his daughter her mother Dr Juliet De Sa Souzamdashamong the first Indian women to be Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons Edinburgh Saldanharsquos uncle Dr Joe De Sa started the ENT section Joersquos daughter Sandra is an ENT surgeon like her son Dillon and her daughter Natasha an accomplished audiologist and speech therapistldquoI meet hundreds of women round the world telling me lsquoDr Julietrsquo delivered their babies or that they were themselves born thererdquo writes Saldanha ldquoThe community service tradition continued for more than 50 years My mother shut the obstetrics section before her death in 1986rdquo Saldanharsquos brother cancer surgeon Dr LJ Luzito de Souza runs a polyclinic and consulting rooms at De Sarsquos Hospital His son Ashwin is a cancer surgeon at Tata MemorialThe Mehtas are also multigeneration medicos operating on 2nd Road led by Dr Chamanlal Mehta a founder of the Bombay Obstetric and Gynaecological Society with stalwarts like Dr NA Purandare Though Chamanlalrsquos ancestors were accounting clerks in Godhra he established a maternity hospital in 1920s Khetwadi Shifting to Babulnath in 1932 the baton has been relayed from Chamanlal to his son Ajit Ajit to his son Ajay and Ajay to his daughter Nishita Dr Ajay Mehta says ldquoPeaceful yet central we couldnrsquot be better connected With the beach in front hill at the back plus police and navy orchestras at the Band Stand till recently our little lanes offer much to enjoyrdquoAuthorpublisher Meher Marfatia writes fortnightly on everything that makes her love Mumbai and adore Bombay Reach her at mehermarfatiamiddaycomwwwmehermarfatiacom