19th August was the Parsi New Year.
We decided to celebrate it the way Parsis would approve of. By eating with joy and gusto. We chose a place which was not a Parsi restaurant. But situated in a building built by Parsis. As are many other parts of the original business district of South Mumbai.
We went to Cafe Samovar at Kala Ghoda’s Jehangir Art Gallery. The only reason a philistine like me would spend time in an art gallery.
Samovar is an old favourite of the arty crowd and regular hungry souls. It is located in a long veranda by the garden in the art gallery. I had been there when I worked at Nariman Point. Colleagues had strongly recommended the kheema (minced meat) parathas then.
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| The gentleman in the white shirt and the lady in blue work with me and patiently waited while I clicked photos galore. Photographing Vintage Bombay was an old dream of mine. Managed a part of it thanks to Chinmai and Neha |
Close to ten years later the kheema parathas remain as satisfying as ever. Both the thin paratha and the lightly spiced mince stuffing seemed more like home-made stuff than oily restaurant food. The alu (potato) paratha didn’t thrill me. Lacked a bit of salt. The alu stuffing had turmeric and I prefer the whiter stuffing that Banu, our cook, uses for her alu parathas. The surprise of the afternoon was the sprouted moong dal paratha. This healthy high protein paratha had a debauched, degenerate foodie like me purring in delight.
The chicken vindaloo roll was another show stopper. Tasted nothing like vindaloo but I just loved the succulent, juicy chicken stuffing which came in a fiery looking, yet demure, masala mix.
All of this washed down with a rather petite and chirpy sweet lassi. As you guessed, we didn’t see any of the paintings on display.
The walk back to office on a wet afternoon wonderfully captured the magic of Mumbai.
Hawkers selling everything from pictures of deities to porn dvds to pirated books to plastic cutlery, cigarettes, shoes, nameplates, biscuits, fruits, peanuts, Bombay sandwiches, Bombay chaat. Petty commerce surrounded by majestic buildings of yore. Many built by Parsis. Parsi shops and Fire Temples.
So join me and feast on the photos of the Mumbai I fell in love with.
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| Porn DVDs on one side and Parsi Matrons checking kitchen utensils on the other |
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| This was the landmark given to me for my first office at Mumbai (summer of 96) |
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Kala Ghoda. Fountain. Fort. And the leafy lane leading to my temporary office building. A building blessed by the Goddess Laxmi. The Goddess of wealth and prosperity. The quirk of fate by which a simple market researcher momentarily occupies the corner office where the man who was once the most powerful man of Indian advertising sat in his heydays.
And yet Mumbai or India is not the tourist hot spot it deserves to be.
The answer perhaps lies in the mysterious columns of pillars on the stretch we walked back. I have often wondered what they were. I checked thoroughly today. No sign plates. So we have to go by the words of young Chinmai who claims that these columns were part of the original Fort of Mumbai.
Now imagine what Singapore, KL, Bangkok or Istanbul would have done with something similar. And you will get your answer.
