Memories of Bombay

 

 

As the Harbour Line local thundered passed Govandi at 1 AM one day in 1986, I was literally hanging out of the doors and inhaling the strangely stimulating stench of Bombay. A young small town hick turned hack, I literally lapped and absorbed Bombay as if there was no tomorrow. The journey back home New Bombay then involved a hope that the last bus from Mankhurd had not departed. This was after an evening attending a press conference at the Princess Room ( I may have got the name wrong and I anyway had to show the invitation card to a gentleman who had questioned my presence inside the hallowed portals) at the Taj Hotel and then spending a few hours at Gokul. I was high, exuberant and exhilarated even though I knew I would sleep just for a couple of hours before rushing to catch the 7.44 bus to Mankhurd to be able to catch the 8.13 local to VT. And why not? I was the quintessential migrant, one of the millions who had started flocking to this once 'Koli' village, since the 14th century. A village turned Megapolis that tantalised newcomers with dreams, opportunities and heartbreak.

Religion, commerce, fantasy, greed and greatness have always come together in a divine and depraved fusion to make Bombay what it has always been a city that has bared its space and soul to all. More than 200 years before Shivaji launched his campaign against the armies of the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb, a merchant and a pious Muslim Haji Ali consecrated his legacy to faith and fusion bang on the Arabian Sea in 1431.

The monument still stands today and attracts millions of Hindus and Muslims every year. Oh by the way, Bombay was part of the Empire of Ashoka way back around 300 B.C, though I wonder if Ashoka ever gave a thought to a nondescript village on the Western coast of his farflung Empire. Bombay remained an insignificant village for centuries as Islam spread its wings across large swathes of northern and western India. That changed forever when the Portugese took control of Bom Bahia in 1534. By then, Goa was already a colony. Bombay and large parts of western India then became a battleground for the Imperial ambitions of Portugal and Britain. After many wars and skirmishes, history changed forever when Portugese Princess Catherine married Charles II of Britain in 1661 and brought Bom Bahia as dowry. Things started changing rapidly after that and British Imperialism really started in 1668 when the seven islands of Bombay were handed over to the East India Company. Shivaji had launched a valiant war against Aurangzeb and Bombay was still on nobody's radar inside India.

By then, it was clear that two sets of migrants would forever transform the character, destiny and future of Bombay. One set was the British who came to Bombay as traders and went on to rule the city for more than 250 years. You can call them 'invading' migrants. The other set were a group that had fled persecution from Persia when Islam transformed the ancient civilisation to Iran after the 8th Century AD. The first Fire Temple for the Parsis was built in 1672. Incidentally, it was three years later in 1675 that the Mumba Devi Temple was consecrated. And yes, it was another 126 years before the Siddhi Vinayak Temple came up in Bombay in 1801. At that time, they all were migrants; the British, the Parsis and even the Marathis from the hinterland - all attracted by dreams and opportunities. But no history of Bombay can be written without paying tribute to the Parsis. It was a Parsi that built the first dock in Bombay, launched the first newspaper in Bombay, started the first cotton mill, the first modern bank and, of course, the magnificient Taj Hotel. It was Parsis like Dadabhai Nowrojee and Bhikhaji Cama who first raised the cry for India's independence from Britain. Tilak, Gandhi and Nehru came later. Bombay has always been a part of India and yet unique in its own way. When Maratha ambitions crumbled with the death of Baji Rao Peshwa II in the Third Battle of Panipat in 1761, Bombay was busy

rebuilding the Mount Mary Church in Bandra. When the rest of India was dealing with the collapse of the Mughal Empire in the 18th century, Bombay was charting its own course as a trading hub, long before New York and Shanghai came into the picture. When the rest of India was involved in the bloody First Battle of Independence in 1857, Bombay launched its own university. When the Doctrine of Lapse was being used by the British to gobble up kingdoms in the north, Bombay saw the first train service to Thane in 1853. Bombay also became home to the first stock exchange in Asia. Unfortunately, Bombay also exhibited the worst traits of India. One hundred years before the riots and bomb blasts of 1993, Muslims and Hindus indulged in an orgy of hatred and violence that was reported by the New York Times. Some things never change.

A few months after my 1 AM trip back home from VT, I persuaded a Parsi landlady to let share a room with two other seekers and dreamers in her house that was right above Olympia Cafe, which is bang opposite Leopold Cafe. She was cantankerous and yet generous and once even loaned me Rs 200 out of the Rs 900 in rent because I wanted to take a girlfriend to Leopold and impress her. She wasn't impressed and I spent a few hours with the landlady musing about loneliness. I wonder how lonely Bombay feels now.