This is the first of my archival India Blogs (the rest to follow) posted as a forwarded message # 4824 from me on the a/o forum on 5 December 2004 under the title "Revisiting Mumbai":
Abdulrazak`s exchanges with Dhiren, Bhadra et al about Churchgate and its various mouthwatering eating establishments have evoked memories of my own which I think are worth sharing (this for another reason also, which I will mention shortly). These go back to our very first trip to India in Dec 68 - Jan 69. That was our `grand tour` of `desh` - the mother country. We were in our late 20s, care-free professionals with no children and were spending a huge amount of money on an extended tour which lasted 7 weeks in all - five of them in India. We spent quite a few days in Bombay and instantly fell in love with the victorian grandeur of Churchgate. We stayed at the Airlines Hotel initially, then moved to the Nutraj on the Marine Drive, and eventually ended up further along the Drive to a much modest hotel, which was I think called `Green` or ` Sea Green` or something like that.
The evenings were exactly as described by Abdulrazak - one could stroll up and down the Marine Drive - all the way up to Chowpatty Beach even - there would be families and respectable folk taking their `constitutionals` or just milling around. We did a lot of exploring of the surrounding areas on foot (being younger and fitter then), as well as of course hailing those ubiquitous yellow topped taxis for longer journeys, for shopping etc. There was simply no sense of danger or discomfort. I remember once we had gone to see a play at some theatre in the evening, and when we came out - this must have been around 10 pm - found ourselves stranded, all the taxis were hastily being taken up, and we were left without any transport. So we just walked back to the hotel - along the suburban railway line, in the dark, a distance of probably some 2 miles or so. I don`t remember being frightened. There was nobody around to hassle us then. The various places that Abdulrazak mentions - we did go there - the Gaylords Restaurant, the Top of the Town (which was on a corner, I think at or beside the Ambassador Hotel), the Purohit (for our `Gujarati thali` lunch or dinner).
Why did we fall for Bombay, and the Churchgate area in particular? I think partly because it reminded us of London and England - the architecture, the buildings, the hustle and bustle and the freedom and anonymity afforded by the crowds. By that time, we had been back in Kenya (after studies etc in England) for some 5/6 years (and that at that age is half an eternity) and were feeling a bit constricted by the narrowness of our lives there. So there was an element of both familiarity and curiosity about Bombay. We were also of course influenced by literature, both in early Gujarati and later English. By that time we had also done our touring bit - the ancestral parts, Rajasthan, the Golden Triangle, the South etc, though we had to cut out a great deal (Nepal, Calcutta, Ceylon etc) even though we were flying everywhere, because India we found was too huge to cover in a single trip - and so were ready just to soak up the atmosphere and dynamism of Mumbai. We used to go to the Jehangir Art Gallery almost every day for coffee and there would talk to some of the elitist young things who used to gather there. We even tried bus travel (BEST, I think was what the Bombay bus system was called) by the London type red double-deckers (another point of favour for something that was familiar). There was a cinema more or less opposite Churchgate Station, where I remember seeing `Rachel, Rachel`, the (in those days) controversial film about lesbian love, starring Julie Andrews I think, suitably edited for Indian audiences of course. On the other side was the cricket stadium. And oh, there was a restaurant that has not been mentioned by either Abdulrazak or anyone else, that also we used to go to: it was called `the Volga`, near the Flora Fountain, I seem to remember. It was the exotic name that had attracted me; the food was ok too. We also used to walk along or through the Maidan (can`t remember its name), near the Municipal buildings. Sunday in Bombay reminded us of `Sunday in New York`, not the city (we had not been there yet) but the film of that name, a romantic comedy.
From today`s perspective, of course, the Bombay of those days had a gentle and cultured charm. So much so that I feel I must recount a couple of experiences that I have I am sure mentioned in the past. While we were staying at the `Sea Green`, we managed to see a motorcade carrying the Shah of Persia (as it was then called) pass along the Marine Drive with the Chief Minister of the State who was, I think, Morarji Desai then, sitting beside him in an open-topped car. Now, we were standing on our first (or second) floor room`s balcony, just overlooking the street and the sea. There was no security of any sort (oh, those innocent days) and could have taken a pot shot at the VIPs if we were assassins! But then, never mind provinical Mumbai, why on the same trip, earlier when we were in Delhi, we even managed to get into Rashtrapati Bhavan just like that! What happened was that we told the taxi driver we wanted to go there - he poor soul thought we were some important people (English-speaking lady and gent dressed appropriately!!) who had invitation to go there and so deposited us at the invited guests` entrance, where we were admitted without much ado and we then found ourselves in the Mughal Gardens at the back. We were walking abut there and admiring the place when suddenly somebody noticed and called out to us ... and so we were politely escorted out of the place! Funnily enough, two years later, in 1971, when I was a delegate at the Commonwealth Law Conference, I was among those who were officially presented to the President of India in the same garden and so saw the Gardens a second time.
So whenever I think of Mumbai, it is by reference to the Churchgate, the Gate of India, Colaba, the Maidan and the Marine Drive etc. That focus was enhanced by a fortuitous stop over for a night and a whole day at the airline`s expense in Jan `71, en route back from Delhi. That time too I stayed at the Airlines Hotel. Then 25 or 26 years later, when we were going on our second major trip (revisiting India after 28 years), in Dec 1996, again we were fortunate to have a night`s stopover at British Airways expense because our plane could not land in Delhi and was diverted to Mumbai - and again managed to see the familiar parts of Churchgate, albeit from the taxi on the way to the Taj Hotel where we had afternoon tea. I was also reminded of the beauty of the city earlier this year when I attended the SOAS appearance of Vikram Chandra, whose `Love and Longing in Bombay` I had read a few years ago and who read from his new unpublished novel, also set in Mumbai.
And now, we are going to be visiting it again. We go off on our big India trip in exactly a fortnight. I specifically asked our tour organizers to select a hotel in the Churchgate area and they have booked us into the Marine Plaza Hotel. It will be for only a 4 day stay out of the total of 4 weeks, at the tail-end of our trip, but the prospect is nevertheless exciting. One has to be realistic and not expect too much; because not only will the place will have changed, but so have we of course. Abdulrazak makes the same point, but we still hanker for the glory days of our youth.
RAMNIK SHAH
Surrey England
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