What lies behind

Knock and it shall be opened unto yourdquo isnrsquot merely scriptural Journalists working an outandabout beat gladly appropriate the line Thanks to the mandate of this column of chronicles I stand often before every type of doormdashwide and welcoming or guarded and forbiddingJoy when unexpected entrances and rusted gateways creak promisingly ajar on coldcall visits spilling a wealth of hidden stories The sketchiest directions to dodgy destinations ldquothird door from the bakeryrdquo ldquoChhajja beside the bidi shoprdquo can bring cool discoveriesRonald Jeffries outside Sunkist the 1939 cottage his grandfather built facing Willingdon Catholic Gymkhana Santa Cruz File picsIn the chaotic heart of Agripada I once reached the BIT Bombay Improvement Trust Chawl on Madhavrao Gangan Marg to figure whether it was indeed a British jail in an earlier avatar Catching the eye of Anasuya Dhone from Building No 3 I followed her into her room ldquoMy husband kept store for a boss who was Parsi like you Limji Seth of Bombay Cycle and Motor Agencyrdquo she smiledUnannounced intruder as I was a glass of chilled rose doodh promptly pressed in my hands shook the sweat off that searing hot day Anasuyabairsquos daughter Shubhangi said ldquoThe 1993 riots shattered our peace In curfew we survived on bread and milk that the kind Memon shopkeepers supplied usrdquo Popping in from next door Vithabai added ldquoWe remain one though things are changingrdquo Dorothy Rodriguez whose husband JJ Rodriguez opened this dance studio in 1951 on Allana Road seen with daughter CrystalTo knuckle taps on doors without a bell to ring attaches the question ldquoKoi hairdquo ldquoKoi chhehrdquo or ldquoKon aherdquo Multilingual to match the person likely waiting on the other side Seldom have I felt unsafe wandering Rarely has a door slammed on meI nurse fears of my own Decrepit structures sans lifts are an occupational hazard Plus towering flights of steps and gazing either too high or low also a mustdo challenge the vertigo prone One illtimed dizzy spell struck precisely as I tottered to the top floor of Ruby Mansion on Forjett Street to meet an illustrious clan of Hindustani classical maestros Rickety staircases under repair propped by precarious shaky bamboo scaffolding helped not End of climb a ldquoNobody homerdquo message hissed through the peephole Anasuya Dhone and her daughter Shubhangi outside their BIT Chawl rooms in AgripadaIn a later conversation Agra gharana guru Anwar Hussain Khanrsquos son Raja Miyan said ldquoOurs is a true mandir of musicrdquo His uncles Vilayat Hussain Khan Khadim Hussain Khan Azmat Hussain Khan and Latafat Hussain Khan tutored thousands of talents People joked that a stone tossed from Ruby Mansion would surely hit the house of one of their studentsSadly some doors stay bolted in uninformed minds Even longtime residents in Wadala among the eight villages of 1720s Bombay muttered ldquoWhatrsquos in Wadala just educational institutesrdquo Ah scratch the prosaic mosaic of bus terminus and crumbling barracks wind up Antop Hill and the landscape leavens mystically Physical and metaphorical doorways swing softly back to reveal charismatic spaces suffused with love and light The Ahmedji brothers washing the ancient sacred stone in the Wadala dargah of Shaykh MisriThe terrace tomb of trader turned preacher Shaykh Misri rests within a bricked enclosure He is supposed to have hailed from 15thcentury Egypt Misr in Arabic and Persian Another legend goes that for the poor to augment their income the messiah miraculously converted salt layering the ground to misri or khadisakhar sugar His shrine is maintained by Konkani locals the Ahmedjis appointed mujawwar caretakers whose ancestors served saints The courtyard shaded by tamarind soapnut and gulmohur trees has a huge weighing scale heaped with offerings from women conceiving babies with difficulty and the unemployed gaining jobs In 194142 legal proof of the dargahrsquos establishment was demanded Fortunately a divine apparition urged the Ahmedji brothersrsquo grandfather Ghulam Mohiuddin to scour for evidence ldquoBeneath bushes around the creek 100 metres from the dargah lies a stone to save yourdquo Inscribed with the words ldquoHazrat Shaykh Misrirdquo the serendipitous find apparently convinced the judgeWith typical Bambaiya curiosity collectively piquing at the sight of a searching stranger half a dozen faces peered from dingy doorways in a midtown building I entered On Clare Road I hunted for a signboard with Byculla girl Hutoxi Doodhwala Homemakers on this streetmdashBohri Parsi Anglo Indian Baghdadi Jew Protestant Christian and Cantonese Chinesemdashwere proud seamstresses Hutoxirsquos father Edulji traded in sewing machines from Roghay Building ldquoYahaan hogardquo ldquoWahaan hogardquo chorused voices with randomly pointing fingers We finally found ldquoE H Turel and Cordquo etched on a mossy wallBlithely open doors mislead Digging for details on the inception of Young Ladies High School in 1889constructed Trafford House on Murzban Road I kept being pushed away from the authorities Managing trustee Adi Desai eventually unearthed a priceless photograph of Indiarsquos first womenrsquos symphony orchestra performing on the premises with his headmistress aunt Soonabai Desai on bass violin Pianist Jehangir Khodaiji is the sole male seen at the centre conducting as the musicians play mandolin double bass and drums in embroidered gaara sarisOn Allana Road in Colaba I paused at a door Deja vu surged strong In younger years my parents frequented this Sethna House apartment for Cours De Dance classes conducted by JJ Rodriguez The legend pioneered authentic mambo and cha cha cha in the country contrary to standard ldquo12 cha cha chardquo notation the dance really begins on the second beat with the count 234 and 1 Featherfooted Joao Joaquim Rodriguez of Margao arrived in the city to introduce his art in 1951 and soon it was de rigueur for couples to master those smooth ballroom swirlsUnable to call ahead I was lucky my press of the bell was answered by JJrsquos soninlaw Damian That was preCOVID in January last year Imagine this happening in todayrsquos surreal scenariomdashdouble masked distanced distressed Inside the poised Dorothy Rodriguez told me she planned to carry forward her husbandrsquos legacyContinuity between generations was slower revealed in a mystifying encounter at Shivaji Park Along its periphery I fell fully in love with locked Sarah Lodge determined to find secrets it harboured I stared transfixed by the stubbornly sealed exterior a Star of David winking dully on the verandah Nothing known beyond the fact that this was where postal department officer Eliab Erulkar and his wife Sarah resided with their children Admiring stainedglass remnants as breathtaking as they were broken I wished an Erulkar would simply magically emergeThey swept in en massemdashafter the piece printed From seeming desolation Sarah Lodge suddenly jumped alive in a flood of attention from Erulkars crisscrossing the globe ldquoOur home may fall victim to a developerrsquos wrecking ballrdquo emailed Dr Arun Gadre a grandson in San Diego ldquoIf that house could speak it would of the mayflower tree of Irish stew stirred over a slow lsquobadamirsquo coal fire of heated bath water in a copper samovar In the monsoon my grandmother oiled hinges and rolled up the Persian rug to prevent water damagerdquoShouting names in the desperate hope that someone appears at a door isnrsquot the politest start to an interview Without a phone number I was trickily reduced to this seeking Spanish teacher Audrey Lopez in Mahim Irsquod only heard she lived in a red cottage in a gully off LJ Road and might provide great information about the neighbourhood Tired tumbling into wrong paths galore I grated to a hesitant halt outside a garden overgrown with fragrant petunias and peppercorns There it wasmdashbrickred Edelweissmdashcombining as learnt later her parentsrsquo names Edward and GladysldquoAudrey Audreyrdquo I called out conscious of absurdly rupturing the noon quiet of the culdesac She showed up at last with a vague wave ascertaining I was no dubious character Settling to chat surrounded by sniffing pooches she told me these Kote Wadi acres near Mahim Fort were a wedding gift to her maternal grandmother Adjoining Mori Road presents rowed chawls with thin wisps of curtain flap ldquodoorsrdquo Stopping at the kholi of Bismarck Fernandes whose sonrsquos name is Adolf yes I talked to the tailor previously employed in Zanzibar and Bahrain Scissors smartly fitting customers Bismarck now outsourced suit jackets but cut pants and shirts himself ldquoAnd he stitches my lovely frocksrdquo squealed his sprightly little granddaughter skipping up to meA suburban garden path led to a charming believeitornot account of civility in the city I was documenting the half dozen Catholic cottages left in Santa Cruz Despite stern ldquoBeware of dogrdquo warnings plastered over the hedges Ronald Jeffriesrsquo green bungalow with ldquoSunkistrdquo lettered in cement drew me in His West Indian grandfather Frank Thomas came from Ratlam silver medalled for services to the BBampCI Railway at King George VIrsquos proclamation He built this home opposite Willingdon Catholic Gymkhana in 1939 when the club was a modest asbestosroofed shedDelightedly I observed gleaming brass fixtures Burma teak surfaces and windows from which Frank Thomas gazed at steam engines grandly puffing past The Deco design of the grills wove the initials ldquoftjrdquo within and ldquojefrdquo for ldquoJeffriesrdquo outside The main door of Sunkist stretches deep inward rather recessed from the road A lady across the lane in Kenville had a request Could Mr Thomas please position his porch to not obstruct her view of the club Belonging to the courteous Bombay that was he graciously didAuthorpublisher Meher Marfatia writes fortnightly on everything that makes her love Mumbai and adore Bombay You can reach her at mehermarfatiamiddaycomwwwmeher marfatiacom