The Hindu Business Line : A walk into the past

Century Mills and Bombay Dyeing still seem to be living entities while others like Elphinstone stand abandoned. At Lower Parel, the Phoenix and Kamala mill compounds have given way to computerised offices, banks and plazas.

CHURCHGATE to Dadar is about 18 km and we took three hours to walk the distance without a break. For sometime Shashi has been tempting me to try out the idea and on a lean Saturday we started out at 2 in the afternoon and touched Dadar station at 5.

Down Marine Drive we turned into Gamdevi road and looked up Gandhiji at Mani Bhavan on 19, Laburnum Road, lined with laburnum and coral wood trees. Even today the place is kept clean and except for two foreign tourists and one or two officials there was none around. Without fuss the official at the counter allowed us to move around the place where Gandhiji took the first lessons in carding from a carder who daily passed by Mani Bhavan in 1917. Going by the pamphlet given us the Old Man picked up spinning khadi here and agreed to consuming goat's milk at the coaxing of Ba in January 1919.

On the second floor is Gandhiji's room where he lived and worked between 1917 and 1934 with his charkha, spectacles, chappals, rosary, wooden stick and some books in place. None can enter the room which is sealed off by glass sheets. From Gamdevi we trudged along to Tardeo where we spotted an English style mansion manned by a Parsi trust. The 10-15 feet tall wrought iron gates were open and Shashi took the lead to move in. An old, single storey bungalow with a curved portico and a sandy car drive stood amid a few acres of mango, neem, casuarina, banyan, Flame of the Forest, banyan and other trees. An old watchman, who had logged 16 years guarding the place, told us a Parsi family still lived in the mansion. "Abhi sab log office gayen hain (They have all gone to the office)," informed the watchman and added that the mansion was at least 50 years old if not more. As we moved away the watchman told us, "Ye bhooth bangla nahin hai (This is not a ghost house)" and we believed him as at that moment a Parsi youngster drove by in a Santro.

From Tardeo we cut into Haji Ali, walking along the Worli Sea Face with the Mahalaxmi Race Course on the other side. In wooden shacks with plastic roofs, stuck between the Arabian Sea and the Worli sea wall, live a few fishermen while across is the tall Samudra Mahal where reside the premium population of the city. At Worli Sea Face one gets to view better the spread of the Arabian Sea than from Nariman Point. One skipped the corporate offices monotonously lined up on one side of Worli and entered the stretch which took us past Mahindra Towers into the textile mill area. Century Mills and Bombay Dyeing still seem to be living entities while others like Elphinstone stand abandoned.

At Lower Parel, the Phoenix and Kamala mill compounds have given way to computerised offices, banks and plazas. Their staff live in the high-rise apartments (built around the offices) shooting out into the Mumbai sky and probably know little of a time when Mumbai was only mill-land and mill workers. At Phoenix Mills compound, modern coffee bars and bowling alleys do business with a young crowd which step in and out of luxury cars. A coffee costs Rs 45 per cup while a round at the bowling alley is priced at Rs 149.

In the 70s and 80s the textile mills did work three shifts and some of the workers (mostly from Ratnagiri) lived on the footpaths adjacent to the mills. Local trains would be crowded with the going and comings of these honest, hardy humans who also doubled as watchmen and kept crime down. For relaxation, the mill worker would pull out from his vest a two-faced tin container with raw tobacco and chuna at each end, tap the contents into his left palm and grind it with the thumb of his right palm. After kneading the mix, by rotating the thumb, for a few minutes he would stuff it into his mouth and offer a pinch to others sitting with him in the train. On salary days, he would go to a nearby joint for a couple of shots of country liquor. Never did he get decent wages. It was a hard life with death being the only escape. Every festival in the Hindu calendar was celebration time for him while the mill owners enjoyed New Year Day in five-star hotels. Today, the mill worker and the file of alphabets denoting a way of living stand deleted. In place a new file complete with market jargon has been opened. From Elphinstone Road to Dadar station is just about 30 minutes. At Dadar, we took the crowded locals back home.

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