It's busy lunch hour at Khyber, Kala Ghoda's Indian restaurant. The corner table we are sitting at is incidentally the spot where late artist MF Husain would idly doodle, taking his art to the eatery's walls. The intervening years have erased nearly all trace of his brush strokes. But, for Sudheer Bahl, the memories are still fresh. "In the early '80s, Parmeshwar Godrej was given the job of revamping the interiors after an accidental fire destroyed the hotel. She roped in Husain and Anjolie Ela Menon to create the murals," he says. The period marked a second innings for the family, who had set up the restaurant in 1958. They were forced to down shutters in 1985 due to the blaze. It reopened three years later. Due to a delay in payment, Bahl recalls that Husain sent a letter to his now-deceased father, Omprakash Bahl, where he drew his signature horses and wrote, 'My horses are thirsty'.

He has preserved the letter. "It will fetch me at least 20 lakh," he jokes.