Taste of Mumbai

Woke up late yesterday morning so my blog posting was only after 8. I had a whole lot of things to do, so I made my list. Annikki was down with bronchitis and many other disorders caused by fatigue and heat.

After breakfast I set off to Colaba Causeway as I wanted a soft leather briefcase and to repair my hand held passport case. I used the city taxi and the fare was Rs. 70 (Euro 1). I cannot get onto a bus in Oulu for that price!

I then strolled down the street I knew so well and saw my many landmarks. I remembered the Saturday when I listened to Radio Ceylon, answered a question and ran full pelt down to Grand Bazaar to be the first in line for a Rs. 10 grand prize. I won and bought Rs. 9.50 worth of sweets and a plastic jar for my mother (before I had started to study plastics). My mom waß happy with the plastic container but not so happy with the sweets!

I went past my old Irani restaurant haunts which have now become famous for all the wrong reasons. Leopold used to be hang out for us Colabites as it served a great biriyani and also had a Juke Box which pumped out the hit songs of the fifties!

Memories flooded back but I was sad to see that many old shops as my favourite barber shop, Modern Hairdressing, was no more. The bus stand where I used to catch the bus to school, opposite Regal Cinema had been removed.

I went on to Trident where I was to have lunch with Mohamed Noorani. In 1964 Mohamed had been working at Bayer in Leverkusen, and although he was an expert in leather he was then working on Rubber Chemicals. He was assigned to look after me, and we have become fast friends from then. I had not seen him since 1984 and I was overjoyed at seeing him look so young and fit. Waiting in the restaurant was one of my dearest friends - Viney Sethi, whom I had introduced to Mohamed, and they had enjoyed a great relationship since.

The three of us joked and laughed through a very light lunch, as i was still full from the enormous meal I had had at Radisson the previous afternoon.

After lunch I strolled onto Marine Drive and went to the house of another old friend - Vijay Kumar. He used to be the Technical Director of the State Industries Corporation of Maharashtra when this state was the leading industrial state in the country. He was such an honest officer that he could not even buy a ticket to the cinema without thinking twice.

Then fortune struck him in the form of Dirubhai Ambani. Vijay became the advisor to that giant before he became a household name. He served Dirubhai faithfully and he was rewarded in many ways. Vijay, brilliant as he was and with a razorsharp mind, used to use me as a sounding board, and it is no small thing to say that many a Dirubhai venture in the field of Petrochemicals started with a conversation between Vijay and me.

It is a friendship which has stood the test of time, and even though difficult times fell on Vijay after he left Dirubhai (as he knew he would never fit in with the two sons), he was still smiling when I saw him today. He now has to spend Rs. 15 lakhs as his wife Veena is seriously ill and has to be flown in a private plane to Coimbatore to be treated.

Vijay will do anything in his power to look after his lifelong companion.

I heard news of Vijay’s two sons who had become part off our family.

Then it was time to go home and talk on the phone to my dear cousin, Susykochamma (Mrs. T. Thomas) daughter of the late Mr. K. M. Eapen (Eapachayan), my god father.

There is only one person who looks into the mirror and remembers me - that is Susykochamma. When I was born and the news arrived at their home in Bangalore, she was so excited she ran full pelt from the gate to the house to tell her father the news of my arrival into this world. She tripped and fell and injured her nose, but even so she yelled the news through her pain to her father.

That scar has remained till today.

Susykochamma was another one of my guardians while I was studying in Delhi. I loved to go to her place to be with her, although her husband was not a person I cared for much as he was too aggressive. Considering how aggressive I am, we had to disagree on almost everything.

I will not say much about him, known to us as Papachayan. I do not know whether I will meet him. I have not met him for over 30 years.

Susykochamma was not the joyous self that I had known her to be all her life. She seemed depressed and I discovered the many reasons for it. I too felt depressed talking to her and I have promised to myself i will go and see her and meet one of my dearest cousins, an elder sister to me.

It was then time to go to the Chembur Golf Club where the caterer for the Friday dinner had organised a tasting session. I left Warden Road at 18:00 hours, giving myself an hour and half to reach Chembur. It was an eventful journey in that although traffic continued to move, it moved at a snail’s place. At one stage I heard an ambulance wailing like a cat, behind our car. It was about three cars behind, but there was no way to get through, not that anyone would have given way. The cat wailing lasted for about an hour, all the time behind us. Then, when it came to side of our car, it had stopped the siren. I guessed the patient in that ambulance was no more and the emergency was now over.

I thought to myself how ridiculous all this was as I saw an ambulance rushing at snail’s pace in the other direction!

I reached the Club just after 20.20 for the tasting session. The taxi bill for the 20+ km was Rs. 280 (€ 4) which is what I pay for bus ride from my home to the City Centre in Oulu, 2.5 km away.

I will give you the delicious menu AFTER the dinner, but it is going to be wonderful with a couple of creations by the caterer himself. (As it was an air-cooled cab - it was 4 times the normal cab fare.)

I met with the decorators and Malathi, a Finnophile in Mumbai, and my organiser at this end, also joining for the final tasting session.

I went home in a normal cab and the bill was Rs. 70 - just € 1!!!!

I am set for another full day of things to be done before our reunion starts tomorrow at 18:45. I am excited, I have been 3waiting for this day for 12 long years - and the Mother of All Reunions is about to commence. Stay tuned folks.

PS: There was a tropical cyclone warning for Mumbai yesterday and a Police Alert last night. But I have trust in God that he will make the REUNION a total success! As I watch the sea out f my widow - it is quiet.