For readers who came in late, this is the second companion piece, to my first and earlier blog, titled ‘Mumbai Beckons’. That blog was about'the Mumbai that is'.
In this second narrative, we take a look at the 'Bombay(as Mumbai was then known as) that was’. As someone who has grown up, and spent the greater part of my life in Mumbai, I can identify with both Bombay and Mumbai at close quarters.
I have divided this narrative into two parts to facilitate ease of reading: Part I &Part II.
Part I will look at the scenic spots, the eateries and hotels, entertainment destinations, and the information network of the ‘once upon a time Mumbai’.
Part II will cover the climate, the festivals, the absence of crime, the airport facilities, the work culture, and the infrastructure scenes of again, the ‘once upon a time Mumbai'. Let us look at Part I now:
Variously called as a ‘global or alpha city’, or ‘the city that never sleeps’, partly on account of its ‘night life’, and partly on account of its ‘night shift’ work ethic, or ‘the maximum city’, on account of its financial and commercial clout, Bombay(Mumbai) as of then, was not the claustrophobic city we know of today. It was compact, orderly, and a visitors’ delight.
The Aarey Milk Colony,with one of India’s earliest milk pasteurisation plants,(Operation Flood In Gujarat happened much later),the Gateway of India, the Borivali National Park, the Powai and the Vihar Lakes were favoured spots for a family picnic, or a school excursion. If you were in the Grant road(Gowalia Tank) area, you could take a joy-ride in the red-coloured trams, a distinctive feature of those times. For the archeologically, or architecturally inclined visitors, there were the centuries-old rock-cut Kenheri and Elephanta caves, a must in any Indophile’s itinerary. The local Mumbai inhabitants could,over the week-end, catch a leisurely stroll on the cool and spacious Juhu or Chowpatty beaches, drinking in the early sunrise, or admiring the evening sunset, unencumbered.
The city had quaint Iranian restaurants, serving hot tea, bun maskas and cakes .It had its share of Udipi restaurants too, serving steaming idlis, ghee dosas and the uniquely filtered South Indian coffee, all at a pittance of Re1, or less. For those who preferred home food at their offices, there was the ubiquitous ‘dabbavala’, at your service, never misdelivering a dabba, the aberrations and the interludes shown in the movie ‘Lunch-box’, notwithstanding. The high net worth Mumbaikar, and visiting Indian or foreign dignitaries, had a choce of luxury hotels like the Taj Hotels(more than a century old), and The Oberoi Sheraton(then), all in South Mumbai, and the scene of the Mumbai terror attacks in 2008.
In the absence of television sets, cinema was the mass means of entertainment, with many single screen theatres spread across the city. For me, there was the Roop Talkies,a non-descript, non-AC theatre, located 2km away, from my house in Santacruz, which would feature all the latest Hindi movie releases in tinsel town(The term Bollywood had not been coined then).If you wanted to catch the latest developments in sound and visual effects, you could go over to the Maratha Mandir, or Minerva(called the pride of Maharashtra, with its stereophonic sound -Sholay ran here for 5 years), or Novelty, all located around Bombay Central-Grant Road .These were the premium single screen theatres for Hindi movies then. If you were a fan of English movies, you could catch up with the shows at Sterling(Fort) or Eros(Churchgate), or at the Regal, or Strand(Colaba). Of course, a flourishing black market prevailed for hit movies, an aberration to all the good things I am recording about the city. Today, many single screen theatres have wound up due to the crippling entertainment taxes, or to capitalise on the prime land they are housed in, and malls, multiplexes and bustling offices have come up in their locations.
The print media was ‘king’ in the absence of 24x7 electronic media of today. There was ‘The Times of India’, also known as ‘the Old Lady of Boribunder’.(Boribunder was the earlier name of then VT and now CST rail terminuses, and TOI offices were located there).The morning cup of tea would not be complete without a look at R.K. Laxman’s ‘You said it' cartoon of the common man,a silent witness to all that was good, bad and ugly about India and the world. There was TOI’s rival ‘The Indian Express’, and of course ‘The Free Press of India’, among the major English newspapers. Mumbai also had its share of Marathi, Gujarati, and Hindi newspapers. Later on,’Midday’ and ‘The Afternoon Dispatch Courier(with the inimitable Busybee column ‘Round and About’), came in in with their afternoon editions.
There was also All-India Radio, with its newsreaders reading out their daily quota of news bulletins, in excellent English, Marathi, Hindi, or vernacular diction.
(to be continued in Part II)
