Churchgate area: Veer Nariman Road

Veer Nariman Road connects Marine Drive to Churchgate.  Can you ever imagine driving from Flora Fountain to go to Marine Drive and having to wait at a level crossing, just outside Churchgate Station ? You could go through only after a steam engine driven Saurashtra Express, coming all the way from Viramgam, passes by.  You could see the train going along a side of the Oval Maidan, with  imposing Rajabai Tower on its left and waves of the Arabian Sea splashing the railway line on its right !

The  railway’s Colaba Terminus was later closed down , to make way for Wellington Muse, to house horses and horse carts. The track was taken out, to make way for  buildings along the Oval Maidan and the level crossing became history.

My memories of Churchgare date back to mid forties.  My father worked in an office there and we lived at Tardeo. My grandfather would visit us during summer vacations. He would hold my hand and take a train from Grant Road Station by evening, to go to Churchgate, where we would comfortably sit on a bench on the platform. Office goers would leisurely walk into trains to take them back home.  My father would meet us there and take us to Marine Drive for a stroll. It was just like “Kal Aaj Aur Kal” – Randhir Kapoor’s debut movie:  three generations walking together. Little did we know that when I grow up, my father in law would also be working as a very senior railway engineer in the railway station’s redeveloped building! On return, we would buy Alphonso mangoes – a dozen of them for just over a Rupee !   

Right opposite Churchgate station, there are two vantage locations.  Kamdar’s furniture show room has a history which makes all Indians proud. A bright Civil Engineer from the College of Engineering, Pune, he had  a plum government job. When Gandhiji gave a call, he quit his job. His wife asked him what he had in mind to earn their living. He said he could make wooden toys and make both ends meet! He then rose to open a luxury furniture show room at this vantage location.

 

The next place on the corner was Asiatic Iranian restaurant. On some Sundays mornings, I remember sitting on its first floor, where my father would take me to have a mouth watering omelet and an aerated orange drink. We could see the impressive gre stone structure of the single storey  Churchgate Railway Station trough a tiny window. The place has now been transformed into a well arranged Asiatic department store.

 

Next to it were a very big Gourdon bakery and also a very big Gourdon Restaurant, Both were exceptionally good. The bakery offered a large variety of breads, cakes, pastries etc. The restaurant had very few tables spread out, unlike the present claustrophobic restaurants. It offered typically British six course meals, with a day’s menu displayed on a neatly typed white card, and charged only a little more than four Rupees.

 

Further ahead is a restaurant, which even today, is one of the best in town: Gaylord. You can always count on it to serve the best of continental dishes. Its other items on the menu also are superb.  It was music director  Jaikishan’s favourite place. He would sit on one of its outside tables, get romantic inspirations from pretty girls passing by and hum tunes, which became memorable and evergreen songs later. The grapevine said that he was a part owner !

 Some distance ahead was a gigantic chemist’s shop: Sahib Singhs.  It once displayed a bottle of Parke Davis’ health preparation “Ferradol” on one of its showcases within the shop. Guru Dutt shot a scene with Wahida Rehman posing as a customer. This was a scene from his classic “Kagaz ke Phool”. My cousin, who was on a very senior position with Parke Davis, sent this photo to the Company’s head quarter in US, which gave it worldwide publicity.

Then there is a small ice cream parlour, which is perhaps one of the few establishments in the area, which have retained their old style and identity. Known as K Rustoms, it offers attractive varieties such as ice cream sandwich with wafer biscuits, sweet curd etc.

Right behind this footpath is the Brabourne Stadium, which used to host test matched and Ranji Trophy matches on its beautiful ground, till its step sister Wankhede Stadium snatched away its premier status.

Cricketing histories were made at Brabourne Stadium. I grew up listening to word of mouth stories that G S Ramchand had hit a sixer with such force that the ball landed on the roof of a train at Churchgate Station nad got carried to the train shed. It was found at night when the rack was being washed !  There were no less than half a dozen variations of the place where the ball fell, all of them farfetched and outright absurd !

 Abbas Ali Baig, after being picked up for the Indian team in England in 1959 while still studying there,  scored a century on his maiden appearance. When he came to play at the Brabourne Stadium, the whole of Mumbai was excited to see him playing; boys for his batting strokes and girls for his enviably handsome looks. A girl at the Stadium broke through the security cordon and ran across the field, when he scored a century,  to kiss him in presence of 35,000 spectators . Vijay Merchant, who preferred to rattle facts and memories from history, rather than give a ball to ball commentary, instantly spoke out, during his commentary:  “Where were the girls when we made centuries ?”

 

It is not that Brabourne Stadium hosted only cricket matches. There were cultural programmes too. A Shankar Jaikishan night, after an Indo Pak war got over, was an event to remember. Lata Mangeshkar singing “Aji rooth kar kahan jaa rahe ho” from Arzoo and Mohamed Rafi singing “Suraj”’s “Baharon phool barsao, mera mehboob aya hai” live was indeed a treat. It was, however, a different matter that my wife felt somewhat dejected, because her new necklace was snatched by someone while entering in a rush. So what if it was costing only Rs 29/-, which I could afford, since I had just started my job !

 

While cricket matches and the music programmes got the Stadium’s seats jam packed, I saw Pandit Omkarnath Thakur’s overnight recital sitting on a mat on the Stadium’s lawns. Panditji’s “Mat jaa mat jaa jogi” still rants in my ears. That night  became all the more memorable because a cancer patient, who was our guest, had expressed a desire to listen to Panditji before his end came. He thoroughly enjoyed the performance and all of us had tears in our eyes. Six months later, he was no more.

 

The corner of this footpath had an upmarket but still affordable restaurant: Persian Dairy”. Later it got renamed as “Talk of the Town. Sitting in its outside chairs and sipping coffee was always an experience. I had a particularly difficult day once in my life time. I could not sleep at all due to an unfortunate event in our family  and I had my mathematics examination of my final year engineering the next afternoon. A friend of mine, who was a medical student, gave me a pill, saying I would not feel sleepy at all. Another friend of mine took me to Persian Dairy during the forenoon, a few hours before the exam and ordered a hot coffee for me. The ploy did work. I did not feel sleepy at all and the exam went off well. That medical student friend of mine later confided in me that what she had given me was just a simple aspirin, which worked as a placibo !  

 

Coming to the other side of the footpath is equally fascinating. The Ambassador Hotel added a revolving restaurant and Kamling continues to offer excellent Chinese food, including its famous Chimney Soup. Even if one does not take it, it is interesting to watch others on the next table taking it. I have never been able to take it because one needs to go in a large group.

 

Mathura Dairy Farm remained value for money place for khasta kachori and such other tasty delights. Berrys competed with Gaylord opposite, for its superb continental dishes.

Purohit Restaurant on this road served more as a viewing gallery, with its large windows, and less as a place for eating superb Gujarati thali and other preparations. It was well known for serving in “silver” thalis  and offered a very unique taste for its curry.

 Once we went there just before lunch time, when a test match was going on at Brabourne Stadium.  Usually spectators start coming out some time before a match’s lunch time.That day, however. not a soul was in Putohit. .  Forget TV, there were no transistor sets even. So when you were out, you could not get the faintest idea of what was going on in a match. Only when a loud roar was heard across the road and spectators, who had been so far glued to their seats, came out to flood restaurants, we came to know that Vinoo Manka had just completed his century. 

Often we saw a drama or an entertainment show at Birla Matushri Sabhagar at New Marine Lines on Sunday mornings and rushed to Purohit for our lunch.  We could then see Shashi Kapoor, who had been the  Chief Guest  in the programme at Birla, driving his brand new white Fiat’s new (1964) model and getting down to meet handsome Jaikishan , who also would have come self driving an identical car, to while away time at Gaylord. Once, we could also see, from Purohit’s windows, Shammi Kapoor, wearing a parrot green half shirt and getting his shoes polished right outside Gaylords.

 

Tea Centre at Resham Bhavan, which has just changed hands, is one of my favourites. Though I found its Darjeeling tea bitter (as it should be !), I always ordered it, thinking that it was my way of matching the English  people’s ’ tastes !

 

The place had a sales outlet for authentic varieties of tea. Some enemies of good tea spoiled their visit to Tea Centre by taking dahi wada with tea. I always respected the great taste of tea, by not contaminating its taste in my mouth, 20 minutes before and after tea ! (Just like the restriction for homeopathic medicines.

 

Tea Centre had a compact  theatre with plush push back chairs, where documentaries on tea gardens were shown. It provided an ideal niche for young collegian couples to spend some time undisturbed !

A signal service done by Tea Centre to the tea drinking community was to teach the more inquisitive among them how to make tea. I learned a lot there but also got branded as fussy. It has always been very difficult for me to let a cup of readymade tea to even touch my lips. I find it no less than a cold blooded murder of delicious tea leaves !

 

A corner building next door houses Indian Merchants’ Chamber and the Western India Automobile Association (WIAA). Time stood still in the WIAA office for decades, just as Ambassadors and Fiats symbolized India’s reluctance to move with the times. The WIAA  has been there for more than 60 years. Its metal insignia, to be fixed on metallic bumpers of cars, have disappeared. A colleague of mine took full advantage of its free legal advice and service, available then. I guess they stopped it only because of him!

I wonder who would have noticed the grain and provision store: Suryoday Store there. Practically unchanged for more than 60 years, it has defied the time machine !

The last, but not the least, is Satkar Restaurant. Going steady even after 60 years, it provides the ideal place for a large variety of affordable snacks.  It may happen that a young couple, in its courtship period, may try to enter, only to find the girl’s father having a cup of coffee before returning home from office !