Hope hunting in Minimum City

You are from Navsari Wah that is nicerdquo pronounces Masood Shaikh He is the brother of the late Mohmmad Anis Shaikh Their atmospheric 1930established shop Dada Nanji Kamarsi Surmawalamdashits wallmounted capital alphabet eye charts sharing space with wellthumbed Thames amp Hudson tomesmdashfeatured two years ago in the Dongri column on these pagesLast year the city lost one of its oldest surma sellers and liveliest raconteurs Like his surviving sibling Mohmmad Bhai had been enthused to figure we had antecedents in a common Gujarat town A predictably patriarchal line of questioningmdashldquoMarfatia is an Ahmedabaditype surname Where is your fatherrsquos family from in Gujaratrdquomdashrevealed my ancestors were priests his poetsVinod Jadhav waits to sell sandwiches again outside St Xaviers College Pic courtesyDaniel MarshGulam Nabi Taufiq of Navsari who instructed his son to concoct cooling surma from germridding antimony from Jordan also composed scintillating verse in Gujarati An accomplishment winning him admirers like the owners of Mercantile Bank and Mumbai Samachar when he arrived here in 1920 ldquoOur father taught us to appreciate all things artistic and make a living with respect for traditionrdquo says Masood ldquoCOVID thins customers for our soothing surma made from ayurvedic extracts Distancing has brought changes Instead of service we just sell health productsrdquo I nod recalling how his brother rimmed tired eyelids with deft swathes of cool surmaWith a single simple sales skill they have ever practised most hawkersrsquo earnings depend entirely on passersby Felled by the debilitating uncertain demand for their wares today they are the invisibles of Bombay A city fighting for life itself shunts its little people off the streetsThe late Mohmmad Anis in his Dongri ancestral shop Dada Nanji Kamarsi Surmawala File picldquoWe try being patient lying to ourselves that this situation cannot last long I suppose thousands have it worse than merdquo Vinod Jadhav attempts reasoning The worried sandwich seller pools in paltry sums to boost a joint family income in his Chira Bazaar house He shut Jai Ganesh stall outside Gate 2 of St Xavierrsquos College from March 2020 to this January closing again from April 4 ldquoIn spite of no business I turn up occasionally to ensure others wonrsquot pounce on the spot We donrsquot dare fall sick Imagine medical bills adding to loansrdquo he frets his usual cheery tone replaced by ragged shallowshort puffs of anxietyOperating in the shadow of an icon mdash FW Stevensrsquo stunning Venetian GothicmeetsIndo Saracenic BMC edificemdashJadhav has been a hit with legions of campus fans and civic officials Toasting easily over two dozen sandwich varieties he incredibly remembers the personal preference of hundreds of regulars The instant he sighted my son approach from the college quadrangle Jadhav would wave and swiftly slice potatoes for his special order grilled aloocheese topped with a yellow sheet of sev melted by hot butter beneath ldquoMy family vaccinated at Cama Hospital We do everything correct but are finishedrdquo he despairs I wince at the irony of ldquoUrbs Prima in Indisrdquo inscribed with the protective winged angel of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation headquarters overlooking his stovePeaking from the machinations of partisan politics the pandemic axes countless roadside trades daily Stuck with paperback stacks on the footpath in front of Beauty Art laundry at Stadium House on Veer Nariman Road Janardan Pandey angrily says ldquoFollowing government guidelines leave us aam janta in the lurchrdquo Churchgate Station commuters and generations of collegians have stopped to browse or buy his titles since 1976 ldquoKaisi kharaab hawa chal rahi hain kya haalat bana di sabki Gasping for oxygen breathless people die literally like fish out of water I feel afraid to travel from Goregaon risking virus infection in crowded trains Money needs to be sent to jobless brothers and uncles in Varanasi No public no officegoers na koi Marine Drive ghoomne wale nikalte so I come on alternate daysrdquo Byculla florist Dilip Salunke wants to soon oblige Parsi customers with torans on significant days File picOn an afternoon when this bare patch of pavement misses him a stark empty street allows a clearer view of the building behind named for the countryrsquos first permanent sports field Negotiations for Brabourne Stadium opened in December 1937 involved Lord Brabourne and Anthony Stanislaus de Mello a BCCI founder De Mello apparently queried ldquoYour Excellency what would you prefer to accept from sportsmenmdashmoney for your government or immortality for yourselfrdquo The Governor choosing the latter the Cricket Club of India was assigned 90000 reclaimed square yards Architects Gregson Batley and King designed the project while Shapoorji Pallonji amp Co was contracted to erect the massive ground Pandeyrsquos plight prompts me to check on Mahavir Singh usually found outside the medieval Italianstyled Central Telegraph Office at Fountain which was the General Post Office from 1870 to 1913 He answers the phone in Darbhanga where he is nursing a sick wife ldquoCorona nahi Bhagwan ki krupa serdquo he says voice thick with relief quickly falling flat ldquoWhat to do in Bombay even if this emergency didnrsquot bring me homemdashwahaan toh buri tarah se fas jaate Bahut dhikkat hoti sweating in a tiny chawl room My income is drying and khetibaadi will destroy in untimely rain Life mein aisa tension kabhi dekha nahi I only pray migrant friends returning to Bihar suffer less than they did last yearrdquoStocking vintage 1945 to 1965 newspaper issues and rare magazine editions Singh has seen better days including Lonely Planet mention of his esoteric collection Earlier located behind the University in the 1990s he enjoyed interacting with writers like Ramchandra Guha and Pritish NandyJanardan Pandey amid his books on the Stadium House pavement holding up Michelle Obamarsquos autobiographyOther streettostore stories present happier updates Hawking samosa pattis for seven decades Burhanuddin Bhai at Diamond Samosawala reports no more than a couple of relocations I interviewed himmdashand his father Hakimuddin proud to have supplied their famed strips to the Taj toomdashwhen the Bhendi Bazaar cluster rehabilitation scheme was underway three years ago We met at their corner stall on Saifee Jubilee Street facing Noor Sweets which marks a century From there he was shifted to Pydhonie and currently occupies a larger setup at Nagpada near Rasul MasjidldquoDestiny ni dua thi dukaan chaalu chhehrdquo says Burhanuddin whose range extends to shami rolls chicken cutlets spiced kababs and kachoris Wherever he goes loyal customers still bring homemixed mince and onion stuffing which he folds within neat patti strips forming a plump samosa triangle that fries to crunchy perfectionBuffeted between what he declares a ldquokabhi khushi kabhi ghamrdquo situation phool wala Dilip Salunke admits he is fatigued but not defeated by ebbing workdays That Karan Joharpopularised catchphrase is all the Hindi he utters when we talk And not a word in his mother tongue Positioned opposite Bycullarsquos Rustom Baug and neighbouring Jer Baug the Marathi manoos spouts Gujarati with startling fluencyStringing fresh buds for toran garlands as his grandfather Govind did at Shri Sainath Flower Shop from 1930 Salunke says ldquoWe grew with Parsi patronage Though Chiplun is my native place I consider myself a staunch Mumbaikar After both lockdowns no one knows where they belong The situation should improve before a demand for my flowers starts with the Muktad daysrdquo he says referring to the fortnight of the Shahenshahi Zoroastrian calendar preceding New Year honouring the departed Khodai badhaa neh raakhnaar chhehmdashGod protects everyonerdquoIn a shattering dystopian scenario where governance is kaput prayers alone provide some succour The surreally static city forces auto and taxi drivers to await food rations from private donors Hopes dim debts pile desperation mounts with plans more scuppered than spared I think of Shibani Bai hawking chana chikki and laddoos in a dusty cranny of Mahimrsquos Mori Road to bring up three children Of Atmaram Dubey from Jaunpur UP who has sold paan and boiled sweets for 40 years under a peepul tree in Wadala Of the andapav and noodle wala at Five Gardens near whom Lakhan Golawala introduced 1960s Bombay to the tart kaala khatta flavour it instantly lovedWhere must she be the leather worker at Agripadarsquos Bait ki Chawl who hated a harassing factory boss but needed to afford her childrenrsquos fees for Madanpurarsquos new English school Or the vendor of handkerchiefs and ballpens below 1901opened Empire Hotel on DN Road taking home to Mulund the onceamonth McDonaldrsquos burger treat for his daughter Then there was Salf Bibi feistily in her 80s switching three buses from Juhu Koliwada to reach her gems shop off Mohammed Ali Road Born in Bandar Abbas in Iran she inherited the counter from her fatherinlaw Usman Zaveri ldquoWe match stones to astral fortunes when people suffer low dhandha paani phasesrdquo she said three Aprils ago brown eyes glinting to her noseringFlickers of warmth somewhat keep the faith Catching up with Yvonne DrsquoSouza in Borivli I learn her family continues to cook and distribute free nutritious meals for growing numbers of lonely elders Rising to the crisis she adds dabbas for those stranded quarantining Besides caring for a handful of senior citizens in the small flat I have visited There a toothy 95yearold had burst into peppy Portuguese songs and lisped blessings for my kids Body blows batter Bombay bad Can its soul keep straining to stay strongAuthorpublisher Meher Marfatia writes fortnightly on everything that makes her love Mumbai and adore Bombay Reach her at mehermarfatiamiddaycomwwwmehermarfatiacom