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Home , Bhendi Bazaar, Javed Akhtar, Pydhonie

FAREWELL, BHENDI

Sameera

Reprinted from Time Out , February 1-14, 2013, Vol.9 Issue 12, with authors permission. 18 / 207

MRE15.indb 207 04/12/14 11:44 am There’s laughter spilling out of an old but also the projected facelift of the building on Khara Tank Road in the neighbourhood. The nearly 100-year- heart of . Sitting in the old Mohammedi and Taiyebi buildings house where she has lived for most were demolished a few months ago, of her 76 years, Mehtab behn* is the first pillars to fall under the Saifee recounting a favourite family story. She Burhani Upliftment Trust-promoted was about ten and often went with her Bhendi Bazaar redevelopment project. four brothers to Chowpatty beach. A Though their own building is also horse-carriage ride from Chowpatty among the 280 buildings that will to Bhendi Bazaar then cost six annas. be pulled down, Mehtab behn’s “Of course we didn’t want to pay,” she family is not against said, “We wanted a free ride and we the redevelopment of Bhendi Bazaar. usually got it.” They hesitate to reveal their real names lest their opinions be construed as The modus operandi of the young objections, but they actually support the schemers was simple. After playing on project’s goal to provide many Bohras the beach, they’d fill a bag with sand with modern ownership flats with better and hail a carriage. When it would amenities. At the same time, they can’t stop in front of Mohammedi Manzil on help but hold on to the memory of their Ebrahim Rahimtulla Road, “We would mohalla as they remember it. get off leaving behind the bag of sand, telling the ghodawalla to mind our bag Bhendi Bazaar is one of the most while we went to get money to pay prominent old Muslim-dominated him,” she narrates. Then the children neighbourhoods of . But would enter Mohammedi Manzil and its significance is not limited to Muslims walk through it to the neighbouring alone. For the larger city, Bhendi Taiyebi Manzil – both buildings Bazaar is one of its old “native towns”: connected by an inner courtyard and layered with history and toasted for common corridors – quietly slipping its economic and social contributions. out from its entrance and going home. Local historians believe that it was “The ghodawala would keep waiting named after the plantations of Portia or and cursing us but by then we were Indian Tulip trees (Thespesia populnea), safely home in another lane,” chuckled locally known as bhendi, that once 72-year-old Sajid bhai*, Mehtab abounded in the area. Planned by behn’s younger brother. “That was the colonial administrators (along with Bhendi Bazaar we knew.” Dongri, Mandvi, , Nagpada) as a means of decongesting the Mehtab and Sajid’s memories now bear area in the early 1800s, it has always the twinge of nostalgia – occasioned been densely populated. not only by the passage of time,

* Names changed at request.

208 / 18 FAREWELL, BHENDI BAZAAR

MRE15.indb 208 04/12/14 11:44 am By 1839, it was crowded with horse where it’s still not uncommon to see one stables. When the first gas lamps of family running the same business – be Bombay were erected on October 7th, it glassware or hand-churned ice-cream 1865, the streets of Bhendi Bazaar (Taj Ice Cream, in particular) – over were the earliest few to be lit. The four or five generations. story goes that as the lamp-lighter went around lighting the lamps, vast crowds Still the area has undergone many followed him. In the 1863 classic book cycles of change. “At one time, there Mumbaiche Varnan, Marathi writer GN were 32 timber shops here. Now there Madgaokar describes the bhatarkhanas are barely five,” remembers 70-year old or inns of the Muslims located in Bhendi timber merchant Mohsin Gulamhusain Bazaar, “where Arabs, Mughals and Lakdawala, whose grandfather other Muslim travellers buy and eat food started a timber warehouse on Raudat worth two to four annas each day.” By Tahera Street in 1918. The height of 1890, the mohalla had given birth to this warehouse is 21 feet, ideal for Mumbai’s only native classical music holding long planks of plywood and gharana, the Bhendi Bazaar gharana, blockboard. “After redevelopment, developed by three musician brothers our business space will have a ceiling who arrived here from Bijnaur in Uttar height of not more than 13 feet so my Pradesh. Among those influenced by wholesale business will become totally the gharana are , unviable here,” he added, pointing out Asha Bhosale and . all his favourite places in the area – “my house, my masjid, my beloved sweet Simultaneously, buildings went up with shop [that has] sookha doodhi halwa” mainly chawl-type residences above – and advised us to return at 7 pm – many adorned with wood-shuttered when his preferred dahi-vadawallah windows akin to Dutch doors and opens shop. antique grill-work – and shops below. These sold everything including laces, Over the years, the area came to be ridas, leather buckles and bags (Dhabu the spiritual and professional centre of Street), automative spare parts (Chimna the Dawoodi Bohra sect of Muslims, a Butcher Street), topis and barah handi close-knit business community: today, cuisine (Gujar Street), cinema posters nearly 60 per cent of the residents of and gramophone records (Mutton Bhendi Bazaar are Dawoodi Bohras. Street), Unani medicines to treat piles As Mohammed Aslam, who has worked and eczema (Pakmodia Street) as well in Mohsin bhai’s timber warehouse for as flaky malai khaja and patrelwala more than 35 years, said, “Bhendi biryani (Khara Tank Road). Bhendi Bazaar ended long ago; now it is only Bazaar built its reputation as a , known as Bohri Mohalla.” wholesale and antique market hub

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MRE15.indb 209 04/12/14 11:44 am Initially, the Bohras had established “Bhendi Bazaar is the centre of the themselves in the early 1800s as Dawoodi Bohra community – all our itinerant peddlers, who would go door- significant events happen here,” says to-door, selling various knick – knacks. 40-year-old Zeenat behn*, who grew The Bohra street vendors’ “chow-chow” up in one lane of Bhendi Bazaar and or mixed-oddment bag charmed many now lives in another. “I will miss the travellers to Bombay such as James house of my childhood, every nook THE TIMES OF , MUMBAI 8 Maclean, J. H. StocquelerTIMES andCITY Amelia and cranny holds a memory.MONDAY, Here, JANUARY 6, 2014 I Falkland. Later the Bohras set up their feel the pulse of Ramzan and the piety New Year’s gift: edition own retail businesses in hardware, of Muharram.” of LGBT magazine launched Politics, power and the return of belief Mumbai: While the English can benefit from the materials crockery,Santosh Desai stationery,fort and familiarity, Congressshoes,guish the bulk of itsand represen- doer, and to use a Bush-ism, a ties is being felt by a citizen un- an act of governing from afar. media has much to offer the and resources available. Though has become a party of those tatives from those of the ruling decider. It is not very clear what used to such rapid change. In Corruption is a sign of the de- LGBT community, many have commendable work has been do- perfume.ho would They have whose opened only belief lies in smallthe de- party. provision But in the persona of Na- exactlyZeenat his economic behn philoso- Modi, expects sections of India seethe a caymohalla of the system which to has complained of the paucity of ne to address LGBT issues in re- Wthought it? It actually sirability of coming to power. rendra Modi, it has someone phy is, but it is clear that he has charismatic leader who pulls it stopped serving those it is queer writing in Indian languag- gional languages, a void exists seems that the 2014 Paying ritual obeisance to the that has energized a significant a top-down view of progress, all back together and restores meant to and started being es such as Hindi. To plug the la- when it comes to finding materi- stores electionsand mig- dynastichaberdasheries leadership allows its section of theselling country by prom- andbe is focused back-in-action much more on some kind ofin order. aThis feworder used years purely for personalwhen gain, cunae, LGBT magazine Gaylaxy al in Hindi. When a Gaylaxy rea- ht turn out to members to huddle together in Pic for representational purposes only is impatient of too much nu- and hence, needs to be fixed for has launched its first Hindi edi- der sent an email lamenting the be a battle of id- a weak imitation of coherence, ance or marginality, but deliv- reasons administrative more tion on New Year’s Day. lack of resources in Hindi, I tho- needleseas, and at least atthreads.hoping that eventually power the redevelopmenters to the mainstream plan view of isthan moral.complete. Corruption, par- “The gay movement has be- ught it was time to launch a mag- the national le- will come their way. Over the development. Under the label ticularly of the everyday kind, en called ‘elitist’ by some critics azine in Hindi,” says Sukhdeep vel. It is anoth- years, Congress has lacked any “Though the of progress,old-world Modi is promising charmrenders the implicitof contractthe as only English-speaking queers Singh, chief editor, Gaylaxy. TNN er matter that inner core of belief, and indeed a reduction of complexity, and between the electorate and its the elections might well be de- has come to a point where even a return to simpler, more cer- representatives null and void Fourcided on the ofbasis ofthe what hap- mostthe idea of havingsignificant one is a faint Dawoodi mohalla maytain change, times. I ’tsince it makesthink the vote theworth- pens regionally, but for the mo- memory. Tired evocations of in- Kejriwal makes no such co- less as a currency—the voter Bohrament it is important mosques to ack- clusiveness lie and in secularism, Bhendi re- Bazaar. taller, sleekersy promises. buildings The AAP promise getswill nothing inchange exchange. nowledge that something new peated with a transparent ab- is not about a glorious out- Arguably, both the belief is afoot. For what we are seeing sence of belief, have taken the come—it views politics not as a systems are flawed—in case of Thesetoday, is not merely include a choice be- placetheir of any world largest view or a de- mosque in the warm communitytransportation vehicle to feelinga pre- Modi the dangersand of believingour tween political parties or indi- sire to use politics as a transfor- determined and desirable des- in the opaque certitudes of vidual leaders, but a contest be- mational force. Rahul Gandhi’s tination but as an instrument someone whose ability to listen Mumbai,tween different kinds the of effortsimposing miss the point altogeth- Saifee masjidCITY CITY BANGneighbourly BANG bondswhose main objective built is to in-overand include decades. are suspect, are all political imaginations. er. The problem is not a lack of vite messy participation. He re- too clear and have been more whichThe outsider opened in this process ato grassroots worshippers organization or ising changein 1926, in a way that is be- deliveringBhendi whatever becomesBazaar a stores willto politics livethe idea ofonce fi- than adequatelymore.” documented. is ironically a party that has with internal processes, but lievable. Modi believes above priority. The choice of priori- delity—to what people want. In Kejriwal’s case, there is the come to power in the last two the absence of a central engine all in himself and, by implica- ties and the factors that govern His main contribution so far fragility of an experiment that andelections. the A victim beautiful of the hu- of belief. white-marbled What does a Congress tion, in a strongRaudat and decisive it remains a grey area, and has been to imagine politics as has loaded itself with so much bris that is a consequence of its worker buy into, what grand central leadership that is in- seems to be aligned with the in- being distinct from power. In self-righteousness that it could Tahera,structure, Congress canthe see themausoleumidea or cause, apart from of the tentthe on delivering former effective out- terests of groups that are dom- this vision, politics is about a collapse under the weight of its writing etch itself syllable by prospect of bettering his or her comes to the electorate. His im- inant in society. continuing process of engage- own pretensions. But both of- syllable on the wall, and finds own life? plicit vision is a technocratic What Modi offers is a coun- ment, and not a series of dis- fer more than what Congress Daiitself unable or to react,head trapped ofThe the dilemma Dawoodi of Congress one—the Bohras,world is seen as a se- terpoint to the growing sense of crete destinations. Here the does, which is a shame because as it is in its own narrative. is underlined when seen in the ries of projects that come with fracturing that the political distance between people and India still needs a Congress- Used to cobbling together ma- context of the emerging politi- a list of deliverables and dead- system seems to be experienc- politics is sought to be reduced, like party. Only, it needs one Syednajorities by working Taher the spaces calSaifuddin. narrative at the national lines. In a political context ing. In all spheres of life, eco- and in doing so politics be- that believes in something oth- between voter constituencies level. BJP as a party has over where such determined atten- nomic, political and social, a comes an everyday practice, er than a craven need for mon- and using the magnet of the the years come to resemble tion to getting things done is sense of an imploding centre full of local events and con- archic leaders. family to create a sense of com- Congress, with little to distin- rare, Modi comes through as a with a resultant loss of certain- stant engagement, rather than [email protected] Fest to restore Bhendi Bazaar’s glory as cultural hub Mohammed Wajihuddin TNN taught to a number of Vazir hotel which was once the film and music personalities, haunt of poets and writers who n 1903 Mumbai hosted a including , debated life and poetry over session of the Mohamma- Anoop Jalota and young Pooja naan, chicken tikka and end- Idan Educational Confer- Gitonde who will be singing less cups of chai, a segment of ence, an offshoot of Sir some golden melodies of Hindi the festival covers culinary life Syed Ahmed Khan’s Aligarh cinema at the festival. in Bhendi Bazaar. Stalls with Movementwhich helped inject “We have selected 60 songs piping hot payas, naan, kebabs, a modern spirit among Indian for the musical journey. We will harees and haleem are expect- Muslims. Among those who at- tell the audience interesting ed to spice up the palates of fes- tended that historic conference anecdotes related to the songs, tival patrons. were some of Urdu’s greatest films or the actors featured in If the soul-stirring kalam of writers and poets, including these songs,” says Sohail Ak- Sufi poet Hazrat Amir Kusrau Altaf Hussain Hali and Shibli htar Warsi who has penned the promises to lend calm, a discus- Nomani. A fading photograph commentary on 100 years of sion on shairi by and from that event underlining HOME TO THE ARTS: The festival on January 10-12 will highlight works in literature and music that sprung Hindi cinema. Javed Akhtar will offer food for Mumbai’s role as a crucible of from the south Mumbai neighbourhood; young patrons at Minara Masjid, an architectural marvel in the area Not many know that the lo- thought. Participants will also Urdu’s progress is part of a cality also gave birth to a classi- remember Dimtimkar Road photo exhibition at the first attempt to change that percep- and poets, will start from the Khushbu Khanam, a panel dis- cal music lineage called Bhen- and Sarvi Hotel near which Bhendi Bazaar Urdu Festival tion and rediscover the rich cu- festival venue at Imamwada cussion on the missing links di Bazaar Gharana founded by spent some of being organized ltural and literary contribu- municipal school and pass between Urdu and main- three brothers Ustad Nazir her childhood days. from January 10-12 by Urdu tions Bhendi Bazaar has made through densely-populated lo- stream media, a play— Mam- Khan, Khadim Hussain and At the old, decrepit Arca- Markaz, a cultural-literary in the mosaic that is Mumbai,” calities like Nagpada, Mo- mad Bhai— by iconic writer Chhaju Khan. The brothers diaBuilding opposite J J Hospi- think tank. says Urdu Markaz’s director hammed Ali Road and, of Saadat Hasan Manto and a per- came from Moradbadbad, UP tal lived lyricist Jan Nisar Ak- But then exhibition of se- Zubair Azmi who, along with course, Bhendi Bazaar. formance marking the music and settled in Bhendi Bazaar. htar, the father of noted poet pia-toned photos, paintings the Markaz’s general secretary “Bhendi Bazaar is not just a in 100 years of Hindi cinema. Chhaju Khan’s disciple Ustad and lyricist Javed Akhtar. “It is and calligraphic marvels is Farid Khan, have tirelessly famous locality, but also a “I remember meeting poets Aman Ali Khan taught many from this address that Javed just one segment of the three- worked for months towards mindset which needs to be ex- and lyricists like Ali Sardar Ja- singers, including Lata Man- Akhtar’s mother, Safia, wrote day carnival which will show- putting up the festival. plored and put in right perspec- fri, , K A geshkar. “Lataji has promised most of her letters to her hus- case the vibrant hues that While mayor Sunil Prabhu tive,” says Farid Khan. And Abbas, and Sahir that if she is in town during the band; these are now part of a Bhendi Bazaar epitomizes. will officially open the festival how will this mindset be ex- Ludhianvi at the Bhendi Ba- festival, she would come and collection,” says Zubair Azmi. “Bhendi Bazaar is often associ- on January 10, on January 6, an plored? Through mushairas, of zaar-based Urdu bookshop share her thoughts,” says Az- The festival promises to be a ated with bhais and under- Urdu heritage march compris- both, male and female poets, Maktaba Jamia,” recalls Ustad mi. Since several eateries and fascinating journey down world dons.This festival is an ing school students, writers qawwali, a ghazal soiree by Ibrahim Durwesh who has restaurants in the locality like memory lane.

* Names changed at request. Activists cry foul over death of 210 / 18 FAREWELL, BHENDIRottweiler BAZAAR

Vijay Singh TNN

Mumbai: An ailing pet dog, a Rottweiler, belonging to a bu- MRE15.indb 210 ilder in Bhandup died recent- 04/12/14 11:44 am ly even as activists of Thane Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Thane SPCA) lodged a police com- plaint to rescue the allegedly mistreated animal. Activist Meet Ashar, who visted the construction site at Datar Colony in Bhandup (E) where the animal was being kept, told TOI, “With the help of Kanjurmarg police, we tried our best to rescue the ca- nine, who was suffering from infection caused by mag- gots along with other compli- cations. The dog, who died on the night of December 31, belonged to a builder, May- ur Gunjal.’’ ‘NOT VACCINATED, DOG DIES OF INFECTION’ Ashar has lodged a com- plaint at Kanjurmarg police station against Gunjal for not caring for his pet, resulting in its death, under the Preventi- on of Cruelty to Animals Act. But Gunjal has refuted al- legations. “I have not ill-treat- ed the Rottweiler. It had been rescued along with another dog, but it died, unfortunately. The matter has been sorted out with the police.’’ But Ashar said that the ca- nine was in miserable condi- tion physically. “One of the dog’s hind legs had been am- putated earlier. The builder had not even vaccinated the animal for two years. A local alerted us of the case so the Rottweiler could be rescued along with another Dober- man, also kept there as a pet.’’ Ashar said that even if the Rottweiler had been picked off the street, the onus was on Gunjal to get it vaccinated. “We have lodged a police complaint, and with the help of Thane SPCA are trying to move court to rescue the Do- berman as well. The Rottweil- er could have been saved if it had been given timelymedical treatment,’’ said the activist.