Where were you when the Eagle landed?

An astronaut taught me to read Half a century ago when Neil Armstrong stepped on lunar soil fiveyearolds werent expected to decipher even a boldlettered headline like MEN LAND ON MOON as younger geniuses do today But what a chatter rose the moment everyone at home pounced on the morning paper marvelling at space history created Curious I too trained eyes hard on those frontpage alphabets trying to link the print with what I heard had happenedToday is exactly five decades since the 38yearold Yankee radioed back terra firma to exult Houston Tranquility Base here The Eagle has landed Three months from that stupendous feat Armstrong Edwin Aldrin and Michael Collins arrived in Bombay their 19th stop on a whirligig tour covering 25 countries in 35 days This golden anniversary begs the Where were you whenquestion and a chance to review the citys not quite celestial moon avatars Our family celebrated my fathers birthday on the night of July 20 1969 tuning in to a live All India Radio commentary of the momentous moon landing The sound was garbled crackling with a lot of static nevertheless we were so excited recalls jeweller Alim Currim To commemorate that wonderful occasion in 1981 we visited Johnson Space Center in Texas and Kennedy Space Center in Florida the respective Mission Control and Launch Pad spotsParallel to his cousin Alims Marine Drive residence actor Farid Currims family has lived in Moonlight building since GB Mhatre designed this Deco jewel in 1938 at the Madame Cama RoadMaharshi Karve Queens Road junction opposite Oval Maidan Mhatre had already worked on Sunshine next door Both were commissioned by Phirozshaw Mistry whose granddaughter Katie Engineer meets Farid and me in her topfloor flat over coffeeForced by the familys flagging fortunes to leave school Mistry studying by streetlight impressed the textile tycoon Morarji Gokuldas Apprenticing with Morarji my grandfather ended up a partner with his own brotherinlaw Nanabhoy Motabhoy Their company Phiroz N Motabhoy manufactured Sun and Moon brand bobbins with Japanese technology He named these buildings Moonlight and Sunshine laying them with the best Italian marbleKnowing Commander Samuel was their groundfloor neighbour in a Navy requisitioned apartment Moonlight residents slept better than usual We felt safe with helmeted policemen patrolling our block right from Mantralaya Katie explains Provost Marshal of the Western Naval Command Samuel was the authority Kawas Nanavati confessed his crime passionnel to straight from firing three shots that shook the nation at wife Sylvias lover Prem AhujaDev Anand singing Khoya khoya chand khula aasmaan in Kala Bazar 1960 Legendary lyricist Shailendra was inspired to write this SD Burmanscored hit on a full moon night in Bombay locales under interesting circumstances Across the Samuels an eminent once Bycullabased family made Moonlight home for its proximity to their Colaba store Three generations gather in the centuryold Phillips Antiques shop Haseena Issa her children Farooq and Muneera groomed in the business as early as college years by their father Habib and Farooqs son Faisal One day we had a special guest in our shop and house Haseena Issa says Impromptu Habib announced Im bringing the Aga Khan home Seeing six rows of Chinese teapots my fatherinlaw collected he exclaimed This is gorgeous and invited Habib to his Malabar Hill residence for billiardsMoonlights relatively recent entrants from the 1990s are the Antulays Politicos calling on the veteran Congressmen and former Maharashtra Chief Minister AR Antulay have streamed in hereBombay buzzes with moon speak The silvery orb glows to haunt every artistic imagination immortalised in hundreds of celluloid odes Soft and wistful the lilt of film songs will eternally resonate with romantic nods to chand chanda chandni mostly shot in studio moonlight some under a beautiful natural moon Verses scripted by Rajinder Krishan and Chitragupt repeatedly mention the moon suggesting an appreciation of beauty or the pangs of separation My mother enjoyed humming the tender Raj KapoorNargis tune Aa ja sanam madhur chaandni mein hum tum mile flowing from Hasrat Jaipuris pen for Chori ChoriThe moon exudes strong cultural heft its glitter a powerful force How Hindi cinemas soulful balladeer Shailendra came to compose the soaring Khoya khoya chand is an engaging story Picturised on Dev Anand and Waheeda Rehman in Ooty for Kala Bazar released in 1960 the number has firm Bombay rootsIt was the first time SD Burman was collaborating with a lyricist new to the Navketan banner He was ready with a last composition not Shailendra with matching words The senior Burman instructed his son Pancham RD Burman not to return from Shailendras home without the song Shailendra drove to Borivli National Park where instead of inspiration the only thing striking were his matches Puff upon puff of cigarettes no sign of a line It was dark when he thought a change of scene might do the trickIt did On Juhu Beach that 1959 night with a full moon hugging the horizon Strolling on deserted sands Shailendra asked Pancham for another matchbox He started scrawling on a crumpled cigarette pack foil piece crooning the mukhda Khoya khoya chand khula aasmaanAankhon mein saari raat jaayegiTum ko bhi kaise neend aayegiA decade after people gazed up at the khula aasmaan wherever in the world they were NASA flashed victory broadcasts and images of the cratered moon never more alluring than at that One small step for man one giant leap for mankind momentThe astronauts reached Bombay on October 26 a sultry Sunday at Santa Cruz airports single terminal Washington reportedly chose us over Delhi perceiving the capital to have neither the ambience nor glamour of Bombay Their southbound opencar cavalcade routed via Mahim Prabhadevi Worli Haji Ali Kemps Corner Chowpatty and Marine Drive drove to warm receptions at Azad Maidan and the Taj Among fans braving the afternoon heat was Raja Ramanna father of Indias nuclear programme The highlight of the moon mens sojourn was sharing 100gram samples of lunar rock and dust with MGK Menon then Director of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research Armstrong gifted an autographed photograph of the landing to Vikram Sarabhai Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission and received an ornamental elephant in returnMoon evocations take interesting forms Architect Nari Gandhi converted a drab concrete structureat Versovainto the organic Moon Dust bungalow with wooden trusses a terracotta tiled roof and flowerpots amid sculptures in a motherofpearl canopied gardenAcross town are a fair sprinkling of less ethereal allusions to moon fever Channelling more Michael Jackson than Michael Collins theres Moonwalker Dance Academy in Vashi Sun and Moon Korean Restaurant in Worli is one among countless Moonlight cafes and hotels And its cheers to Moonshine Meadery Indias first Cofounder Rohan Rehani says Besides our flagship Apple Coffee and Traditional meads we innovate Bombay is more open to experimental meads than other cities In areawise differences Bandra loves Christmas Apple Pie mead whereas South Bombay shows a demand for Guava Chilli meadOn to a more foreboding tale spun by the beam of a big Bombay moon Raja Murthy in The Statesman describes the coming true of a political prophecy by moonlight on Marine Drive or Subhash Chandra Bose RoadmdashNetajis biographer Sugata Bose records an incident in his greatuncles tumultuous life One night in 1939 Subhash walking along Marine Drive with his friend Nathalal Parikh looked up at the moonlit sky and expressed a wish about how he wanted to die fly high as the stars and suddenly come crashing down to earth He was declared dead in an air crash six years laterhellipIt reads further My favourite walk past the Air India building near the Mumbai office of The Statesman is going by the Oberoi seeing the waters of the bay shimmer The dying daylight strikes glassfronted skyscrapers turning them into pillars of gold Lights of the night twinkle across Marine Drive and the moon rises in another circle of lifeGulzar shares two poems on the moonNeil ArmstrongKitni baar akele chhat pe jaake chaand ko dekhta thaAur mazaak kiya karta thaBaya pair zameen par hain aur daya pair wahi rakha hain yaarHaath badhaaohellipJhuk ke haath pakad lo yaar ndash aur ooper kheench loEk pair pe khade khade main thakne lagaa hoonPehla paav jisne chaand pe rakha thaDoosra paav aaj zameen se utha liya aurChaand se aage nikal gaya hainHow often I have gone alone to the roof to watch the moonAnd I would jokeLeft leg on the ground my right is there on the moonBend to hold my hand friendPull me uphellipI am tired standing on one footToday the first man to step on the moonHas lifted his second foot from earthAnd drifted way beyond the moonNeil Armstrong died August 25 2012Chaand ke aks peThali mein sindoor laga karMa ne dono haath jod kar aankhen mundiPrarthna kiMan hi man muskaya ndashMa ke bholepan parAbhi abhi toh TV par dekha thaChandrama par log utre hainMa ki budbud halki si kaano mein aayiApni raksha karna Chandrama tumDharti se kuch log gaye hainSeeing the reflection of the moonWith sindoor on her thaliMother joined hands shut her eyes and prayedI smiled to myself at herinnocencehellipTelevision had just shownPeople descended onthe moonThen I heard Mother whisperProtect yourself MoonSome people from earthHave come to youTranslated by Suchita SohoniAuthorpublisher Meher Marfatia writes fortnightly on everything that makes her love Mumbai and adore Bombay You can reach her at mehermarfatiagmailcomwwwmehermarfatiacom Catch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates