Mumbai: New book relays terrifying account of property disputes in Bandra

The Queen of the suburbs is not without her suitors Bandra one of the most coveted addresses in Mumbai is famed for its quaint bungalows throwback charm and waterfronts But Bandra is also a battlefield Even as celebrities creatives and upwardly mobile youngsters aspire for the 400050 tag to their addresses this is where property owners have to defend themselves from land sharks Everyone wants a piece of Bandra and such is the story documented in a new book The House at 43 Hill RoadAuthored by longtime Bandraresident Brenda Rodrigues this work of nonfiction takes you to a plot of land once numbered 36 and later changed to 43 on Hill Road Search for it today by carefully reading shop addresses and you shall locate it with some difficulty On it stands a ragged fourstorey structure leaky and mossy As with everything on Hill Road the only prospect here is shopping But this is where Brenda and her husband Joe fought tooth and nail to save their building some decades agoThe villa on what used to plot no 36 now 43 built by Braz Rodrigues in the mid1800s This photo was shot in 1972 when Brenda the author and Joe her husband and Brazrsquos greatgrandson got marriedA gentle beginningBrenda recalls the dispute in her authors note and writes It was the start of an ugly ordeal that lasted six years We had heard of cases of people being forced out of their property but never imagined we would one day become victims ourselves In fact it did not take long for us to realise that we were locked in a no holds barred fight not only for our property but for our very lives and the lives of our two young daughtersNone of that worry is seen today on Brenda and Joes faces when we meet them at their Khar studio apartment The couple aged 74 and 77 respectively have retired to the tranquil of rustic Goa making occasional visits to Mumbai Brenda is an author and Joe has been conducting training programmes for leading companies for more than three decades We fought 71 cases for six years from 1989 to 1994 Around 1992 when I started writing about what we were going through I would break down at times Putting the events on paper served as a catharsis for me Today I can pass 43 Hill Road without a twinge of pain says BrendaThe villa was redeveloped in the 1970s into a ground plus three floors building with shops on the ground floor The Rodrigues family was given three flats including this one PicsBrenda RodriguesHer writing was picked up by new indie label Bombaykala Books which waited till the matter wasnt sub judice to publish it The book will be launched today at 4 pm at Holy Family Hospital BandraBroadly in two parts the book starts with how the house came to be built on Hill Road leading up to the present when the dispute and the violence started Brenda traces the Rodrigues family tree to Braz Rodrigues Joes greatgrandfather Braz was born in 1811 in Parwar a village near Pali Hill that the British burnt down after the plague infestation Braz became a rich man through the course of marriages and his an aerated water factory that he ownedSome time around the mid1800s Braz purchased a plot numbered 36 on Hill Road and built a singlestorey structure with high ceilings flooring of Italian tiles and a large attic The spacious villa earned the nickname of burra ghar big house But the picture Brenda paints of that time be it of Bandra or the Rodrigues family is far from idyllic Over the years problems within the family and with tenants surmounted but none so much as what she and Joe had to face firsthandBraz Rodrigues grave inside St Andrews Church Hill Road PicAtul KambleThreats to lifeThe house Braz built one of the first to be erected on Hill Road was one of the last to be torn down in 1977 writes Brenda In the 1970s Bandra was abuzz with talks of redevelopment and builders would approach Lydia Rodrigues Joes late mother and a noted dressmaker with several proposals Eventually an agreement was drawn up with one of them and in 1980 a ground plus three storey structure replaced the bungalow Three flats were given to the Rodrigues The ground floor had five shops one of which became Lydias bridal boutique The remaining four shops and three other flats were sold by the builder A cooperative housing society was formed with all the occupants as membersLydia Joes late mother and a noted dressmaker who owned the propertyThis is when the problem started for the Rodrigues Some shop owners who happened to be property developers started making amendments to the building without the necessary permissions from the housing society The resulting tussle between the flat owners and the shopkeepers took a new turn when the builder who developed the property and had a flat in the building fell in with the shopkeepers plans Another flat owner a reputed doctorcouple also switched sidesThe worst blow Brenda writes was that most BMC officials police and lawyers were seemingly bought off by the builders and shop owners leaving them little room for redressal Policemen would stall them for hours before they could file complaints lawyers would pretend to be away important letters regarding hearings were not delivered and mobs collected around the house late into the night on a couple of occasions Their daughters were sent away to Dalhousie following a danger of being kidnapped The most horrific among these accounts include a coup to trap Joe in an attempt to stab him Joe recalls I didnt know much about the Maharashtra Cooperative Societies Act but in the course of the dispute I had to arm myself with that knowledge Several people told us that we had best give up and get outThat made me more determined Where most people would have given up on disputes like these we didnt Of course there came a turning point Brendas narrative can either terrify you or inspire you You may feel glad that you dont have property in a prime area to protect or help you draw courage from this couple to fight for your house Here you will find all the intrigue manipulation and suspense of television drama but Brenda chooses to be documentarian recounting every step of the case in great detail It may leave you wondering if the dispute was going around in circles but that is precisely how longdrawn and exhausting it was Also since the account is personal it does not fully capture other sides of the storyMoreover at the heart of the tale is the sad truth about the disappearing East Indian community known as the original inhabitants of this city who are continually selling off their property and moving away from their ancestral homes and even MumbaiSo some 10 lawyers later and a dispute that cost them lakhs of rupees the Rodrigues finally decided to sell their property in 1994 How they came to that decision is a large part of Brendas story Joe says Today when we pass through Hill Road I have no regrets that we chose to leave This is not the Hill Road we grew up in it was much quieter So for me it was not an emotional wrench to finally leave the House at 43 Hill Road So I told them take this house and goCatch 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