Mr Sargent and the Queen

The contrast is striking On a road renamed in utilitarian fashionmdashafter the frozen products giant JA Allanamdashstands Sargent House imbued with keen artistic fervour Once largely populated by AngloIndians and Europeans Allana Road off Colaba Causeway was earlier the Bombay Port Trusterected Barrow Road acknowledging HW Barrow Secretary of the Municipal CorporationOn a street whose architecture infuses enough French elements for buildings to remind tourists of New Orleans 1902constructed Sargent House twins Jenkins House on parallel Henry Road in appearance Named for a Bombay Municipal Councillor it is among six properties in the vicinity acquired by the Indian Institute of Science Jamsetjee Tata intended that the rent they fetched contribute to the institutersquos development Singing star Dinshah Daji with Piloo Wadia in Hasta Gher Vasta Pic courtesyMeher Marfatia Laughter in the House 20thCentury Parsi Theatre Engineer Ismail Kurwarsquos grandfather from Surat settled in Sargent House after trading spice in Singapore The family discovered entertaining neighbours such as Raj relic Harry Lyttler ldquoHarry narrated his experiences fighting in Mesopotamia during World War Irdquo says Kurwa who learnt to play the flute from Lyttler a Manchester Symphony Orchestra flautist Lesson done the tutor produced a Scotch bottle that he and his pupil quaffed on the verandahA purist pianist as well Lyttler rasped sharp instructions rectifying false notes from his bed even shortly before passing away Shera Lalljee his British passportholder wife hosted exclusive brunches for an expat society The ElizabethansAs a child physicist Shiraz Minwalla visited his grandmotherrsquos sister Masi Zuleikha who was Ismailrsquos mother in the third floor flat where the Kurwas live ldquoThe staircases were dark and scary We wondered if the liftman would be on duty rather than at lunch or chai break so that we could use the liftrdquo Now in the TIFR flat which has housed the likes of Raja Ramanna and Atul Gurtu Minwalla says ldquoOur garden is exceptionally pleasant with room to play cricket with my son the full variety with season ball gloves and pads We are lucky to directly access it through our balcony The buildingrsquos high ceilings and thick walls keep our ground floor flat coolrdquoDancer Hilde Holgerrsquos pupils practising in her 1940s studio Pic courtesyHilde Holger Archive c 2001 Primavera BomanBehram right Facade of Queens Mansion on Prescott Road in Fort PicBipin KokateChildren from the lane came to climb Sargent Housersquos sitafal tree avoiding its malodorous java olive A lime tree she planted in this garden shaded by a whispering gulmohar was actress Leela Naidursquos joy Her parents were nuclear scientist Ramaiah Naidu who worked with Nobel Prizewinner Madame Curie and Marthe Mange an Irish Indologist of SwissFrench origin Crowned Miss India 1954 Naidu was surrealist Salvador Dalirsquos muse filmmaker Jean Renoirrsquos protege actress Ingrid Bergmanrsquos shopping partner in Paris and wouldbe heroine of Dr Zhivago nearly bagging Geraldine Chaplinrsquos role had her Madrid flight for David Leanrsquos audition not been critically delayedThe woman Vogue voted one of the worldrsquos 10 most beautiful married hotelier Tikki Oberoi and then poet Dom Moraes She entertained Salman Rushdie and Bianca Jagger with flair at Sargent House Lonely later years left her in the company of trusted aide Selvam and Quartpatch the white cat with four black splotches Mixed blooded like Naidu another resident Jalabala Jili Vaidya went on to become the first Indian woman on Broadway The actress was born to EnglishItalian concert singer Marjorie FrankKeyes and freedom fighter journalist Suresh VaidyaRashna Press now in Dubai grew up in the apartment currently with her familyrsquos fourth generation ldquoIt has the typical charm of an old Bombay building with wooden beams and teak doors A front garden and high plinth afforded privacy The house had a constant flow of visitors It was rare when someone didnrsquot drop in to spend the evening Mrs Gidwani from Number 3 did at 4 sharp every afternoon for a coffee chat Our ground floor was convenient my mother was the goto People left their shopping with us their mail and keys to the electric meter cupboardrdquoWeaving hairpieces for actors cancer patients and fast balding ldquosuperstressed young peoplerdquo Rajan and Ashok Bhawnani of Monarch Wigs ensure clients leave their premises with springy confidence Twenty years after arriving from Karachi in 1949 the brothers decided to pamper thinning gentsrsquo pates Across the landing lived Alex Correa drummer for his swing king brother Mickeyrsquos popular band at the TajSargent House shone kaleidoscopic with a host of personalities boasting diverse interests National cricket was represented here by batsman Rusi Modi and Parsi theatre by comedian Dinshah Daji The singing star whose day job was that of a BEST grain shop officer was fond of ordering Chinese food from Frederickrsquos behind Regal CinemaThe Kumars came around 1957 having trod the Partition path Finance consultant Rohit Kumarrsquos father Bir Sen Kumar circuited from Lahore to Delhi to Bangalore to Bombay From their topfloor flat they saw the Taj which Sargent House predates by six months A decade before a brave immigrant roughed out the longer refugee route to this address Rohit Kumar remembers ldquoMs Primakoff travelled seven years from Russia to India half on foot half train She made a living by teaching naval officers her languagerdquo A more famous emigre reinvented life a kilometre north in Queens Mansion on Prescott Road Fort Hilde Holger fled Viennamdash25 members of her Jewish family including mother and sister were gassed to death in Auschwitzmdashat a dayrsquos notice Docking in Bombay the expressionist artiste choreographer and pioneer of integrated dance therapy for handicapped children ran the School of Art for Modern Movement from 1941 This was likely in the thirdstorey space where Jnanapravaha curates Indian culture coursesFrom London Holgerrsquos daughter Primavera BomanBehram shares her motherrsquos note ldquoMy start was not easy the only positive being my large studio near Flora Fountain in a building which had been a hotelhellip The lower flat office was occupied by a nice Parsee gentleman who loved Western music and always asked for a special tune to be repeated in my classesrdquoJuxtaposed with Holgerrsquos journey the British militaryrsquos Field Intelligence Unit operated from Queens Mansion through the war years Two stairwaysmdashone sprawling wide one Alice in Wonderlandnarrowmdashhave led up the premises since 190204 when this colonial stone building with solid steel columns semicircular arches and natural chowk ventilation was leased to Robert Laidlaw of Whiteway and Laidlaw emporiumA window arch streams sunshine pleasantly punctuating white surfaces intrinsic to exhibition spaces It forms the crux of conversation with architect Rajiv Saini who adapted heritage exteriors to contemporary requirements Kekoo and Khorshed Gandhyrsquos Gallery Chemould renamed Chemould Prescott Road shifted to Queens Mansion from Jehangir Art Gallery 15 years agoCommissioned by their daughter Shireen to design the interiors Saini says ldquoA rhythm of streetoverlooking windows presents the primary facade Wanting to respect the buildingrsquos bare bones yet showing only certain traces of its history I retained one wall with the old brickwork exposed Though familiar with traditional expectations of white in galleries I consciously kept coloured the offices storage and restroom areasrdquoAdvocate Erach Kotwal points out that his south wing office maintains the buildingrsquos sole original layout In a room ringed by 9inchthick walls lined with legal tomes he says ldquoWith a prime location just outside the Fort precinct of the British period Queens Mansion had 12 residences allotted a servantsrsquo quarter each on the terracerdquo That arrangement for a dozen Englishmenemployed chefs and chauffeurs is presently crammed with a warren of almost twice as many kholisFacing Kotwal Kamal Hadker set up Sterling Engineering Consultancy in 1978 Six years prior her grandfather NB Hadker had launched Hadker Prabhu and Associates at the spot where Lillian Bonallrsquos dance academy was Its wooden floor is still intactThe Meeting Room on the first floor has been active for Easter seasons all the way from 1938 when Brother Handley Bird spread the Gospel here ldquoOur group hails humanity saved by Jesusrsquo returnrdquo says KV Simon an elder of The Christian Brethren Assembly which invites Sunday public gatheringsIt is engaging to profile the preachers and healers dancers and painters designers and lawyers inhabiting Queens Mansion The birdman on its mosaic tiled terrace is especially fascinating Pradeep DrsquoSouza rescues injured birds and releases them healed Leading me to his door are the kind wizened ladies of Queens Mitra Mandal as they refer to themselves ldquoSit on her shoulder Mangordquo a little yellow parrot hears I squirm from the firstticklythenprickly beak nibbling my linen shirt Kiwi the green parrot messily feasts on milk bread and corn Their species is hardly alone Ducking under lowhung lines of washing dried in the hot April sun I see singleeyed brokenlegged egrets owls kites mynas bulbuls and seagulls They huddle hobble skip or swoop depending on individual vulnerability and recovery ratesDrsquoSouza picks up avian ldquopatientsrdquo pulleystyle from big baskets people place them in beside the building entrance In the blur of hundreds of feathered wings some quails hop into view They were found wounded along the Khareghat Colony thickets on Malabar HillHis sisterinlaw Joanita walks me down Queens Mansionrsquos dizzying spiral stairs clutching a midday meal packet for a pooch at Sleight of Hand the animalfriendly cafe opposite on the verge of closure ldquoWe will miss himrdquo she sighs ldquoBut this is that city which usually cares for all creaturesrdquoThis is that moment when much feels right with the worldAuthorpublisher Meher Marfatia writes fortnightly on everything that makes her love Mumbai and adore Bombay You can reach her at mehermarfatiamiddaycomwwwmeher marfatiacom