Expecting the unexpected

I wishrdquo Words packing a world of wistfulness Thinking these monosyllables inwardly each morning a fresh precinct pulls me towards it Irsquom well rewarded Invariably there wait delicious secrets to discover at every turnI wish to meet an interesting local I long to stumble upon the unexpected I hope for ldquoAha didnrsquot know thisrdquo surprises The answer lies mostly in the affirmative if sometimes slow to come With happy anticipation I ask myself who will I meet todayContrary to popular perception I land in vicinities with only a smidgeon of knowledge about them The adventure lies in finding out Kannada fiction writer Yashwant Chittal puts it succinctly ldquoI donrsquot write what I know I write to knowrdquoAaditya Acharya and his father Deepak in their sweets and farsan shop D Damodar Mithaiwala at Khodadad Circle Dadar File picThe pleasure and power of oral history is palpable Finally it is ldquomaking the little stories of Mumbai matterrdquo the subtitle of my book inspired by this column Once Upon A City that leaves readers and writers equally content There is joy in tramping around to map a Bombay more sinned against than sung of Seek the unexpected surrender to it and you reap richOn the street completely off the cuff I prefer those impromptu unscheduled ldquointerviewsrdquo which often work better than prepped exercises Their spontaneous anecdotal quality is infectious and irreplaceable While this is true across town here are nuggets from suburban wanderings before heading southside soon The time I crisscrossed bucolic Borivli gaothans unearthed fine family histories Left with a last hour to wrap up the weekrsquos research before sitting to write I very much wanted to hear from early inhabitants of Eksar village in the suburbrsquos west After the handwringing that afflicts ferreting authors in pursuit of an idea a voila moment struck In the clearing close to Shahabuddin Shah Dargah I suddenly came upon not one but six Eksar oldtimers casually smoking on bucket chairs arranged in a semicircleFiguring that Irsquod just met Rakesh Shah proprietor of Bhavnagri Farsan House Ebrahim Mullah and Bashir Sendole spoke of his father Mukundrairsquos largesse to Konkani Muslim tangawalas From the day he opened shutters in 1953 Mukundrai fed hordes of hungry horsemen hanging around Borivli Station for customers Quietly kind he thought nothing of slipping in twice the quantity of snacks they afforded for a couple of rupeesArchitect Atul Chemburkar choosing fish at the Chembur market named after his father the Harishchandra Chemburkar Mandal File picWizened wise at 87 Husain Chacha from Wardha related in an unhurried drawl how an Omani Baba proved healing powers in these swampy wilds overrun by snakes two centuries ago He confirmed the suburb gets its name from plantations of bora fruit berries falling to the ground in thick carpetsldquoAngrez log insisted on spelling it lsquoBerewleersquordquo laughed Munawar Chogle who clocked in multiple duties at now shuttered Jaya Talkies Joining as an 18yearold he went on to be general factotummdashldquoI managed the canteen sold tickets and ice cream for Balcony seats and handled the projectorrdquoAnother chance encounter cropped up in a sleepy Chembur gaothan threatened by extinction with monster towers already dwarfing the charming core Treading its tiny trails to nowhere in particular I bumped into 70yearold Chandrabhaga Varoshe about to retire for an afternoon nap She stubbornly held on to her rootsmdashldquoAmche Chiplun gaava saarkhe ugda aahey Itrsquos airy like our Chiplun villagerdquoGenerations of Chemburkars have witnessed critical changes in this brash booming eastern city belt one of 15 villages of Trombay Island linked to the mainland in 1910 Varoshe was glad I had heard that the word Chembur stems from the Marathi ldquochimboreerdquo big crab as Kurla does from ldquokurlyardquo small crab Balancing on what was roughly a 1 x 5 foot wooden plank young Kolis would go ldquomud skiingrdquo on wet earth Loading their catch in straw or bamboo baskets on the plank they deftly propelled the contraption They rode it with one hand and leg using the remaining pair of limbs to pedal the plank forwardBrimming with local lore a friendly waiter at Jeevan possibly Vile Parlersquos oldest restaurant proved a real find While his colleagues served as usual flitting from table to table he popped up and stayed at my side bearing tales to enjoy through a spicy thali lunch First he quizzed me about how I thought the suburb came to be called Vile Parle Without allowing for a crack at an answer he launched forthVali Mohamed of Patel Newspaper Stall knows the history of Clare Road Byculla well File picldquoIdlai Padlai sounds like a snack on our menu Thatrsquos what Vile Parle once was mdashPadle village near Santa Cruz and Irle near Andheri Together they named the railway station Vidlai Idlai to those dropping the V Padlairdquo Others hold that this alludes to the Shiva temples of Virleshwar and Parleshwar Pronounced Virle Parle in Marathi the colonial pronunciation slurred to Vile ParleMy khabru led the way through humming kitchens to the office of Vasudev Joglekar and his son Vidyesh When their eatery was introduced in 1951 it wooed patrons with a thrifty sixanna lunch with dessert in pure ghee As parting shot he directed me to Vishnu Stores Stocking traditional nibbles like poha chivda upvaas wada papad and puranpoli Tejas Gokhalersquos success story started in 1949 when his grandfather Purshottam founded a pickle business with wife Lalitarsquos tangy mirchi and amba loncheCloser to home acres the authentic route to East Indian life in Bandra passes via its parishes ringed by crannies and crevices of tiny bunched hamlets With his heart and hearth rooted here the late Fr Larry Pereira bequeathed a bloodline from the Pereiras and the Fonsecas was my gracious guide along Ranwar village pathsPipepuffing potbellied uncles relaxing on ancestral cottage verandahs recalled kids chasing pigs and hens fattened for Christmas Easter and the September Fair Women of the house purposefully added starch in the animalsrsquo diets to flesh them out for succulence They were a quaintly familiar sight walking narrow alleys with pails of rice soup balanced on their headsStrains of ldquoIrsquod like to teach the world to singrdquo wafted from a window Startled I jumped on realising the serendipity of the moment Exactly where we were standing outside the oratory erected by Reverend H Pereira to mark his Sacerdotal Silver Jubilee in December 1905 I bumped into Teresa Marquis She was the music teacher students remember as much for her voice as for her tight curls My mind leapt to that New Seekers hit she taught us over 40 years back As I glanced up to where this 1970s tune played both of us grinned at the memoryIn neighbouring Mahim Irsquove been humbled by the character and colour strength and tenacity that thrive on Mori Road ldquoMorirdquo is the Kolisrsquo word for shark This has always been Grit Street Past rows of dusty kirana stores and itinerant hawkers near the post office Shibanibai lined up a pavement array of laddoos chana and chikki She sold these to supplement her painter husbandrsquos pay to bring up three children ldquoYou should speak with a Koli Donrsquot search too hard They are right thererdquo she advisedI could barely believe my luck when opposite her scrunched squatting space in Maqhdoomi Restaurant I found Chandrakant Meher finishing lunch This was where his Koli family used to troop to for occasional treats of double maskapao and khari biscuits ldquoThe kingfisherfilled mangroves are gone and Mahim creek smells foulrdquo he remarked ldquoBut now I think we have less communal clashes in our area and look forward to peacerdquoAn even sunnier attitude greeted me at Dadarrsquos Khodadad Circle A florist settling with his blooms and starting to thread torans on the footpath fronting Dayaram Damodar Mithaiwala was surrounded by irate housewives Trying to beat back his tiredness though frazzled by the crowded commute on a peakhour train running late he smiled placating them They grew mollified by his mild manner He pointed to the sweaty Tshirt on which his young daughter had scrawled a mememdashHaar ke aagey jeet hai Dadar ke aagey seat haiA stray encounter midtown confirmed again how seemingly unlikely sources can lend amazing learning I recollect a conversation on Clare Road Byculla Its north endmdashnamed after John Fitzgibbon 2nd Earl of Clare Governor of Bombay from 1831 to 1835mdashis bookended by the Khada Parsi statueSpotting Vali Mohamed flick a duster over publications at Patel Newspaper Stall open since 1971 I got chatting He excitedly summoned the nextdoor shopkeeper selling rexine who whipped out his cell phone to share stunning archival images of this junctionVali Mohamed pointed to the monument beside us saying ldquoWersquove shown you nice photos Now you must tell us something Who is this lsquoKhada ParsirsquordquoSeth Cursetjee Manockjee I explained The monument was erected by his son Manockjee Cursetjee Championing womenrsquos education Manockjee offered 13 girls the first English school in 1859 from his home Villa Byculla near this Yflyover junction That was the beginning of The Alexandra Girlsrsquo English Institution as we know it at Fort ldquoA great man to educate ladiesrdquo Vali Mohamedrsquos friend said Fleeting but fulfilling minutes with two street vendors swapping snippets of history about a city meaningful to us allAuthorpublisher Meher Marfatia writes fortnightly on everything that makes her love Mumbai and adore Bombay You can reach her at mehermarfatiamiddaycomwwwmeher marfatiacom