A,B,C,D Roads and other surroundings around Churchgate

The most impressive building in Churchgate area is the Western Railway Head Quarters. The Britishers’ foresight in providing a grand architectural design was admirable. Had a river like the Yamuna been flowing next to it and a large open space with manicured lawns surrounded it, this building would certainly have been a major tourist attraction of national importance.

 As against this, our own government authorities showed  devil may care attitude of “Mumbaikars deserve nothing better than just a large matchbox like structure for the redeveloped Churchgate Station building. “The Times of India” heavily criticized it the day it was inaugurated.

Right behind the WR HQ is the Cross Maidan. One of the most remembered  exhibitions held there was the film industry’s exhibition in early sixties. The R K Films’ pavilion was, by far, the most impressive. It was a circular stall, with a tall replica of Eiffel Tower on top of it. It was to herald the impending release of “Sangam”. Inside the stall, an eye catching portrait of Raj Kapoor, dressed in  a  smart air force uniform, was the centre of attraction.

The Churchgate end of Cross Maidan had two places of diametrically opposite cultures. A  restaurant “Anna Purna”, run by a women’s cooperative offered local varieties at rock bottom rates.  A huge contrast to this was the up market “Blue Nile” restaurant. It came to life after 10’o clock, with belly dancing. Self proclaimed guardians of the city’s culture had not yet learnt to  make noises.

The other end of the Maidan has the famous Parsi well, which is a testimony to the contribution of Parsis to the city. The other well known nearby well, is adjoining the High Court’s compound wall. I knew some elite families who got their drinking water from there every day, by  sending their chauffeur driven cars.

The Eros Cinema building, built in Art Deco style, is a star attraction of the area. Its “catchment area” covers no less than seven collages.  Students, including couples, found it an ideal place to spend three hours in comfort and privacy. Proudly showing a self promotional clip “House of Hits” at the beginning of each show, it enjoys a vantage location. Apart from the cinema theatre, its Sundance Café, with opening on the Oval Maidan side, was a rage among  collegians.

The roads on the Marine Drive side of Churchgate Station building are named as A,B,C & D.  (Today’s generation is more familiar with KBC than ABC ! )

One of the most illustrious couples staying (on C Road) was the world famous cartoonist with “The  Times of India” Mr R K Laxman and his danseuse wife Kamala Laxman. His cartoons, ever since early 50s, were a prime attraction and staple food for our family’s breakfast !

Three major colleges are located on these roads. Government Law College has given eminent lawyers like Nani Palkhiwala and Ram Jethmalani. Supreme Court and High Court judges, including Sujata Manohar, have come from this Alma Matre.

Many past students of Sydenham College run business empires. K C College, though not on these roads but still nearby,  has given the first super star to the country: Rajesh Khanna. Incidentally we got married in the K C College hall but my wife still feels that it was only the second best thing to have happened there, the first being Rajesh Khanna coming out of that college !

Jai Hind College, which was  fairly new when I sought admission to a science college, was ruled out and I joined Elphinstone College.  A friend of mine, however, joined Jai Hind College and it gave me opportunities to keep visiting it, for meeting him. His hostel was on the adjacent road.

It  had a good auditorium, which hosted excellent dramas of Indian National Theatre (INT).  Pravin Joshi, nis wife Sarita  and brother Arvind have given “Mograna Saap” and many other memorable dramas there.

While visiting Jai Hind College, one would find many pretty girls sitting on its steps. A daughter of the pioneer of the cooperative societies’ movement for residential buildings in Mumbai was one of them. She was aiming to get an admission to medicine. When she found, however, that she had not done too well in her exams, she committed suicide.

The college’s foyer looked more like a ramp at a beauty contest. One of the girls, who was strikingly beautiful, attracted every boy’s attention. Every boy nursed a secret desire to marry her. If not her, at least her look alike – more or less.“More” was not possible, it had to be, therefore, less but still somewhat similar to her. 

Two years later, we saw her in posters of “Love in Simla”.. She was none other than Sadhana.

Three years later, my desire to see her again personally was fulfilled, that too in my college. When we came out after giving our last paper in our engineering college (VJTI), we saw the staircase of the college “converted” to that in a “medical” college! Boys and girls wearing white coats and stethoscopes around their necks were moving up and down.

Bimal Roy’s Prem Patra” was being shot. Its crucial scene, in which Shashi Kapoor and Sadhana cross each other on a staircase, was shot in our presence.

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 !

Chowpati- the Northern end of the Queen’s Necklace

Coming down from Sandhurst Bridge towards the sea, one reaches the vast expanse of the famous Chowpati beach. The Queen’s Necklace starts from Diwane Khas, i.e. Raj Bhavan. Coming down on the slope of Walkeshwar, the sea facing buildings  of Diwane Aam get a fabulous view of the sea.

A friend of mine, staying in one of these, was fortunate enough to have Lata Mangeshkar as his neighbour (before she moved to her present house on Peddar Road). The reference to “Queen” in the Queen’s Necklace should have meant this melody queen of India. My friend’s day started every day with her arguments with her “doodhwala” in her sonorous voice.

Where the Walkeshwar Road touched the level road, a customs chowki stood at Chowpati. I never saw any foreigner walking in with dutiable goods but the chowki still existed. Next to it is an eating joint for pigeons and a few benches. 

One of the benches provided a perfect setting for free rehearsal of some scenes of a low cost Gujarati drama “Master Phoolmani”, which made it big, by entering its eleventh year at Prithvi Theatres.  Its key characters are: Utkarsh Mazumdar and Chirag Shah.  Utkarsh plays  the role of a middle aged bachelor – a clerk in a small firm, fantasizing about a lady colleague. Chirag  plays the role of a man acting in old style dramas to enact a lady’s character, which inspires Utkarsh for his fantasies. The drama being on a shoe string budget, they rehearsed a few scenes on these benches, which made onlookers quite  curious !

Further ahead  is  the Wilson College – a beautiful heritage structure. Three generations of my family studied there – my father, cousin and my very young cousin sister.  

Out of these, only my cousin, staying in 7 a hostel next to the college, had a strange experience. Sleeping in a single occupancy room, he found someone climbing over him and trying to strangle him. He rushed out quickly, only to be told that it was a haunted room. A student had committed suicide there some years ago.

 

Just behind the Wilson College is Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, set up by the uncrowned king of Gujarati literature K M Munshi. It ran several monthly programmes of Gujarati songs, titled “Aa Maasna Geeto” (This month’s songs).

A Hindi mushaira held there ended at late night. Well known lyricist Bharat Vyas, whose couplets and songs were applauded there, found himself deserted there after the programme. None of his friends and admirers thought of offering him lift.  He had to start walking towards his house in a distant Western suburb.  Distressed, words came to his mind while walking:

“Kaviraja, dhandeki kuchh baat karo, kuchh paisa jodo”

V Shantaram made it famous by taking it as a song for “Navrang”.

A mid-market restaurant “Crystal” on Chowpati became the perfect hang out for students of Wilson and Bhavan’s colleges. A down market restaurant, just behind it,  offered excellent dahi-misal (One of the best concoctions of balanced food: protein, carebohydrate, vitamins, fats  and fibre, all together at an affordable cost and with mouth watering taste.)

Araam restaurant on the first floor was simply out of this world. It had a long balcony, overlooking the sea. It looked just like the deck of a ship. It offered probably the largest varieties within a thali. Food was so good that diners chose to ignore  waiters’ washed clothes being dried next to a wash basin where they all had to go after their meals !

Further ahead is  the imposing Phoolchand Niwas as the most vantage location. Its occupants can watch Ganapati immersions as well as Mumbai Police catching Kasab after his dastardly act.

That is followed by Cream Centre, which sort of introduced pizzas to vegetarians, besides chana bhatura to upmarket food lovers.

. On the forenoon of the day when World Cup final was to be played, it got an unexpected group of youngsters – all well behaved and each member of the group paying for him. Left to him, the restaurant’s manager at the counter would not have charged them anything but the leader of the group insisted on paying. He was Rahul Gandhi. His father Rajiv Gandhi was  born only 2-3 km away from this place.

Cream Centre’s sibling “New Yorker” opened much later. Its exquisite copper enameled wall paneling was done by Chandrakant Mhatre, who studied this art in Vatican and brought it  to India.

Walk a few steps further and you would find an unusual show room – that of life size statues of celebrities who gave their life for India.  It was Mumbai’s Madame Tussaud !

Its neighbouring building is Dr Purandare’s Maternity Home. Purandare brothers – eminent doctors and engineers  did signal service to the nation in pre and post independence times.

A veg Chinese restaurant in the next building initiated vegetarians to the taste of Chinese food. My favourite, however, was a small and affordable restaurant a little ahead. Aptly named as “Dariya Vihar”, its waiters would take orders for food as well as music. It had a radiogram in lieu of a juke box and a hand written menu of 78 rpm latest releases. Those were the days when new releases were mostly as good as or sometimes even better than oldies. I remember that when we heard about “Jis Deshmen Ganga Behti Hai”’s records had been added to the Dariya Vihar collection, we rushed there and ordered potato wada and tea, though we were not hungry. The temptation would always be to hang around while other customers paid for listening to music. That’s the only time we did not mind our tea getting cold !

 

Almost coming to the end of Chowpati, there was a cut fruit seller at the bottom of a foot over bridge on the railway line. To save time when customers came calling, he would cut fruits in advance and lay out in plates. Little did his customers realize, however, that bacteria always reached there earlier !

The bridge got extended to the Pransukhlal Mafatlal Swimming Pool footpath. A benevolent (!) private party offered to build it for mere Rs 29,000/- and the BMC, pretending to be poor, grabbed the offer. The Councillors, however, gave away the rights of collecting advertizing revenue from hoardings over the bridge to that party  for many decades, in return for the favour (!). Apart from huge hoardings, the bridge also carried rolling illuminated advertisement of Shanksr Jaikishan’s movie  titles.

The P M Bath had excellent catering by Ramanlal Thakker, who owned the Rugby Hotel at Matheran.  Feasts of jalebi ganthiya on Sunday mornings and idli chutney on other days were too tempting to resist. Their Gujarati thali could not be equalled even in Gujarati households.

The owner himself personally supervised the catering. In case of genuine complaints from customers regarding poor service, which was rare, he would reprimand his staff in such a way that shivers would pass down  the customers’ spines.

Reference to Chowpati is never complete without mention of the bhelpuri and paani puri stalls. We once ran unto  some of our relatives at one of the stalls. I was surprised to find them discussing scores. I soon realized that the figures of 42, 36 etc were not runs scored in a match  but the number of paani puris gulped by each of them ! It was an act which made three kinds of people happy: themselves and  the paani puriwalla, followed two days later by their family doctor !