Of journalism, jades and The Jets

Woh kahaanrdquo is the invariable response to any mention of Battery Street This short Colaba lane baffles delivery men and cabbies till they reach ldquoRegal ke peechhey wali gullyrdquoIrsquod be as perplexed were it not for a wonderful 21st birthday gift from my journalism mentor Ammu Joseph membership to the Centre for Education and Documentation CED Better known as Doc Centre the library is situated on Battery Streetrsquos Suleman Chambers a building that rose about 10 years after the cinema did in 1933CED soldiers on since shifting here on August 15 1978 after three initial years on Waudby Roadmdashits contents bundled on a pair of handcarts More later on this postEmergency centre point for civil liberties and press activists The Jets at Ambassador Hotel 1965 From left Michael Kirby Malcolm Mazumdar Napoleon Braganza Suresh BhojwaniConnecting Apollo Bunder Road with Lansdowne Road Battery Street is tucked left of and behind Regal theatre It alludes to the defunct saluting battery on this stretchmdasha role undertaken today by the Navyrsquos Middle Ground Island Battery set up on a basalt rock reef just seaward of the Gateway A black stone slab at the entrance to Suleman Chambers drilled with large holes indicates where some guns were possibly bolted in positionUntil the mid1960s AngloIndians Europeans Parsis and Goans dominated Colaba Of the small clutch of buildings lining this lanemdashSuleman Chambers Gordon House Lansdowne House Readymoney Building and Apollo Hotel BuildingmdashSuleman Chambers was the streetrsquos heart and soul Valerie Junior and Darryl Kirby who emigrated to New Zealand are a couple offering vibrant recollections of their childhood home ldquoAt the top of the Battery Street intersection with Apollo Bunder Road on your right where the Shell Service Station is was a lovely garden for Suleman Chambers residentsrdquo Darryl mails from Auckland where he is settled ldquoToo valuable to waste as a green oasis the land sold by 195051 Ours was a soughtafter address As residents left this Art Deco building ceased to get attention it richly deservedrdquoOil on board painting of the Battery Street neighbourhood by Darryl KirbyHis wife Valerie elaborates ldquoWe were a sociable bunch going back to 1945 when my grandmarsquos family moved into two apartments in the then new building With neighbours like saxophonist Hal Green and drummer Eddie Jones plus my three aunts playing the piano it didnrsquot take much for a Friday evening party to get swinging at grandmarsquos house The next generation was us the Ateam as it were We roller skated rode bikes hula hooped around our stamping ground We won cricket matches versus the Dhanraj Mahal teamrdquo The mid1960s dawned ripe for a second wave of young musicians on the block Enter The Jets Their name inspired by one half of West Side Storyrsquos feuding gangs three Campionites and a St Marian burst on Bombayrsquos beat scene On lead rhythm and bass guitar respectively Michael Kirby Darrylrsquos brother Malcolm Mazumdar Suresh Bhojwani performed with drummer Napoleon Braganza at Ambassador Hotel Taj and SunnSand Their bowlerhatted frillyshirted manager Ashok Daryanani still maintains a foothold in Suleman Chambers ldquoWe hung out practising at the Kirbysrsquo Flat No 31rdquo remembers Daryanani ldquoPlaying in the city with an enormous appetite for western music was simply fantasticrdquoAnother Colaba boy yet to taste famemdashJabalpurborn Dublinbred Nashvillestar country singer Roly Danielsmdashjoined the jam sessions Though rockandruling briefly 1964 to rsquo66 The Jetsrsquo sensational farewell show preview read ldquoEvery teenager worth his Beatle wig makes a beeline to lsquoWalk Donrsquot Runrsquo at Bhulabhai Desai HallrdquoJohn DrsquoSouza at the Centre for Education and Documentation PicSameer MarkandeSuncity Apollo Hotel was Pyrkes Apollo Hotel and Restaurant in the 1950s in Brightlands the building to which Jia Oriental Kitchen has relocated Rowed with Pyrkes Restaurant was its cake and chocolate shop ldquoJust down from that mouthwatering array well separated from it thank heaven was a dingy dark surgery with permanently closed doors Through frosted glass windowpanes wersquod see a solitary dim light bulb A white sign with black lettering announced lsquoDr SoandSo Sexual Diseases Specialistrsquordquo laughs DarrylRustom and Shernaz Vakil hospitably arrange for me to meet Daryanani at their apartment Relatively recent residents from the 1990s Shernaz is admirably vigilant concerning the arearsquos civic issues The Vakils introduce older neighbours One being 80yearold Banoo Kalantry Her father Khodamurad Meherwan Afkham fled to his city of dreams as a 15yearold peasant lad from Yazd Sweeping the floor of New Majestic Restaurant below Capitol Cinema for R5 rupees daily he ended up a partner at the cafeAcross the road Readymoney Building now Kalapesi Trust Building is clad in an arresting hybrid of Renaissancedesign elements with a vernacular wooden screened facade It houses trusted arbiters of style Heeramaneck amp Son and D Popli Classily lowkey effortlessly elegant the 1882 enterprise of Muncherji Heeramaneck clearly trumped purveyors of its ilk Muncherjirsquos son Ardeshirrsquos keen eye for quality Mughal objets drsquoart and English hallmarked silver invited a discreet circle of connoisseursDwarkadas Popli outside his family shop at Readymoney Building in the late 1960sArdeshirrsquos wife Perin and son Mehernosh extended the legacy to craft bespoke jewellery commissioned by Parsi aristocracy to Twinkle Khanna for her wedding bijoux The Heeramanecks enjoy regular patronage at the main premises in Readymoney Building and facing jewellery store in Suleman Chambers Back at Readymoney Building D Popli was established as KC Popli amp Sons in the 1920s Karam Chand Popli of Rawalpindi Punjab sourced Kangra paintings and stone artefacts for customers Karam Chandrsquos son Dwarkadas D of the company name expanded operations Dwarkadasrsquo son Shashi and grandson Akshay continue attending to an exclusive clientele Glowing quietly alongside rare gems and illustrated manuscripts are the Popli fan files A Diwanrsquos polite communication printed on the royal letterhead assures his Maharajarsquos position to pay pending arrears A note from the office of the Royal Italian Consul General commends the ldquouseful emporium with items interesting valuable moderate in pricesrdquo A letter from Krishna Nehru Hutheesing shopping for her brother Jawaharlal complains the store does not open early enough every morningCapturing the old guard to au courant stashed album pages contain photos of Calvin Klein Donna Karan supermodel Naomi Campbell fashion maven Fern Mallis Chris Martin of Cold Play and David Furnish Elton Johnrsquos husband ldquoGeorge Harrison also came when he was in Bombayrdquo adds Shashi PopliI recall a London Financial Times report on D Popli recommend Look for the door with a D on it no confusion with the Bathijasrsquo outlet bearing the same name next door and donrsquot miss the espresso Sipping a cupful which kickstarts flagging energy on that hot afternoon I pore over a vintage image With a Dodge taxi Pontiac sedan and Ford van in the foreground the Readymoney Building photo impressively represents the east street corner mid20th century Behind these vehicles the Naval amp Military Stores amp Restaurant sprawled rightangled where The Table stands currently Its Battery Street wall wore tall billboards of films at the Metro and Eros In line is the original KC Popli amp Sons signboard Hotel Suba Palace practically envelopes Readymoney Building Mansur Mehta says ldquoRealising the 1970s Arab influx could make medical tourism big in Bombay my grandfather Mohammed Mehta and father Abubaker started a guest house on the first floor With demand increasing so did the floors above It turned Suba Palace from 1994 Wersquove kept it completely clean unlike the hankypanky associated with many Colaba hotelsrdquoAn early example of such dubious boarding housesvergingonbordellos stood at Gordon House Splendidly named The Lady May Guest House it earned popularity with sailors notoriety with indignant residents One of the latter might have been Mrs MA Price a pillar of Wodehouse Church on several of its committees Ironic how her flat likely became the spot for Polly Esther the disco at Sanjay Narangrsquos Gordon House Hotel ldquoIrsquove seen Hindi screen actors enter Lady May with their escortsrdquo Mohamedi Sham smiles knowingly at the Essajees flagship store in picturepretty Lansdowne House Loyalists swear by his ancestral atelierrsquos antiques furniture and art The clanrsquos repute winds back to the 1890s with Abdul Kadir Essajee accessing fine tapestries from Iran expertly sourced jewels and priceless collectibles for rulers like the Nizam of Hyderabad His son Saifuddin Sham Mohamedirsquos father studied Indian bronzes and miniatures ldquoWe sell with authenticity and have the guts to buy backrdquo says Mohamedi whose experience has scaled up trading internationally A fulfilling project Essajees undertook was restoring parts of the 2611damaged Taj lobby and chandelierWe wish a broader restoration will save this street DrsquoSouza of CED rues its changing scape ldquoLike a charming Paris passage covered arcades let pedestrians walk and talk with vendors Archways are lost eateries gobble footpaths claiming jobs and activities of ordinary people between the interstices of these buildingsrdquo CEDrsquos longtime custodian and cofounder with Pradeep Guha Aspi Mistry and Ayesha Kagal among others followed by screenwriter Anjum Rajabali he explains ldquoWhen we began the newspaper headed communications The social media theme should remain conscious consumption and production Itrsquos vital to annotate store and pass on for the future Our centre encourages this in a digitally safe atmosphere with media lab sessions video work and shared postsrdquoPower on little library Thanks for the introduction to Battery Street Authorpublisher Meher Marfatia writes fortnightly on everything that makes her love Mumbai and adore Bombay You can reach her at mehermarfatiamiddaycomwwwmeher marfatiacom