Film and falooda, chapter and verse

Rashid Irani 74 the late film critic and Brabourne Restaurant partner Virat Chandok 54 bookseller poetry lover and protege of IraniTwo common friends threw two new ones together Rashid Irani dubbed ldquothe Gertrude Stein of Brabournerdquo met bibliophile Girish Damania with journalist Rafique Baghdadi at an Alliance Francaise screening Coincidentally Rafique first took book curator Virat Chandok to Girishrsquos home where Rashid and Virat would then meetIntroductions done a bond rooted in respect and learning formed and firmed The threeway mutual admiration society chipped when Girish passed away 10 years back in his eighties ldquoGirish was our impetus and inspiration Afterwards my young friend took over Now whatever Virat recommends is the Gospel truth for merdquo Rashid warmly said in an interview shortly before his demiseldquoGirish was one of the very few people Irsquove envied in life He owned the most incredible collection of titles on poetry art and critical thinking stacked in steel boxes in Temple Bells his Chowpatty home which Virat and I visited Girish put independent wealth to great purpose He introduced us to a world of superb poetry and publications Irsquod never heard of Virat and I determinedly tracked old issues of magazines like Parnassus Poetry in Review a twiceyearly tomerdquo The friends at one of their regular pavement book haunts in Flora FountainVirat says ldquoWorking in my dadrsquos auto spare parts business in the 1990s I responded to a newspaper ad printed lsquoIf yoursquore a booklover call for the job of your dreamsrsquordquo The family tradersquos loss proved the cityrsquos enduring gain That announcement by Lotus Book House changed the script for him Tying up with US distributors Baker amp Taylor allowed limitless access to esoteric editions Virat soon transformed Lotus into an absolute Alladinrsquos trove of antiquarian volumes for connoisseurs of the classics who avidly also browsed through contemporary Latin American and French fiction Rashid relished cinema and poetry Virat fiction and poetry ldquoVerse remains our common factor Viratrsquos zeal and enthusiasm his feel for modern American fiction and international poetry is like no one elsersquosrdquo raved Rashid ldquoUnusually personalised mindful of individual preferences he acquired and stocked with passion and discernment what no other shop didmdashrunning a huge risk with certain books For people like us that paid off handsomely though Frequenting pavement bookwalas is taking a chance Lotus had exactly all we wanted What Virat brought Lotus he carried over spectacularly to Crossword and Wayword amp WiserdquoAcknowledging his mentorrsquos deep impact on him Virat recalls watching Rashid at Brabourne Restaurant with awe ldquoHe read copiously sitting at the cafe galla even if for short snatches of five to seven uninterrupted minutes Rashid juggled tough jobs with seemingly effortless multitasking I wondered how he managed the whole circusmdashfixed a hawkrsquos eye on kitchen staff and waiters while talking intently to you He was that rare soul no one ever had a bad thing to say about He just made everyone feel goodrdquoRashid being 1947born was much older to Virat ldquoYet even in my early twenties he and Girish accepted me readily Our love for books transcended any age barrier Rashid understood my restlessness We discussed how publishing routes here are narrow and parochial lacking experimentation What stands out is the sheer diversity of literature from coast to coast of America East west south the smallest presses are vibrantrdquoWith his favourites spanning continents Viratrsquos fascination for the feminist confessional poetry of Adrienne Rich Anne Sexton May Sarton Maxine Cumin Mary Oliver and Sylvia Plath rubbed onto Rashid ldquoDespite our disparities in years I noticed oblique similaritiesrdquo Rashid said ldquoVirat started off with his father in a modest profession He has become a oneman institution practically the last word in American and European fiction and poetry in the city My uneducated dad worked his entire life in Brabourne yet he ensured that my brothers and I were educatedrdquoChucking his training as an accountant to work with a shipping company for 17 years Rashid saw little choice but to follow ancestral footsteps into Brabourne He presented a familiar sight at its cash counter handwriting candidly authoritative foreign film reviews To the end of his days the restaurateur neither cooked nor possessed a fridge or stove having his tea too at tiny local chai addas fringing his Dhobi Talao homeldquoThere was a remarkably sweet quality to his reclusiveness Irsquod define him as worldweary rather than cynicalrdquo Virat says When Rashid almost gave up on fiction Virat rekindled a taste for the genre nudging him gently towards novelist William Glass short story writer Alice Munro and the poets Mark Doty and Lucille CliftonldquoThat Irsquom up to date with American and European fiction along with a wealth of brilliant women poets is a tremendous achievement I must wholly thank Virat forrdquo Rashid said A regular at Edward Cinema morning shows he was haunted by the Hollywood masters Howard Hawks John Ford and Alfred Hitchcock and international geniuses Ingmar Bergman and Yasujiro Ozu ldquowho told the same simple story with stunning variantsrdquoA decade after Brabourne went off the menu of the cityrsquos beloved Irani eateries in 2008 three generations of Bombayites mourned another icon that had fed their reading appetite for 70 years Losing the legendary TN Shanbhag and later Strand altogether completely broke our heartsRashid still insisted ldquoThe reading habit is not passe in these consumerist times The written word as well as longstanding oral tradition will continue transferring and flourish Where film is concerned the art of storytelling is slipping Current computergenerated jiggery pokery doesnrsquot qualify as cinemardquo Scathing as he was mapping the movies besides assessing how standards of film and fiction slid Rashid said with much generosity and fondness ldquoVirat keeps me curious always open to fresh ideas and avenues The appeal of our friendship lies in this enriching influencerdquoTremulousvoiced his young friend rues ldquoRashidrsquos death is a huge loss for me I canrsquot forget our animated conversations over masoorpao in Brabourne kebabs at Caravan in Fort and more recently Symphony Restaurant at Grant Road I speak for the city when I say that such a genuinely clean mildmannered and ultimately kind person we may not know againrdquoAuthorpublisher Meher Marfatia writes monthly on city friendships You can reach her at mehermarfatiamiddaycomwwwmeher marfatiacom