The Hindu Business Line : Roaring times again

Drawn like moths to a Kingfisher flame, most tourists end up at this Mumbai traveller’s institution at one time or another. Around since 1871, Leopold’s has wobbly ceiling fans, open-plan seating and a rambunctious atmosphere conducive to swapping tales with random strangers. Although there’s a huge menu, it’s the lazy evening beers that are the real draw.” That’s the travel-guide Lonely Planet’s word on “L eo”.

Directors Baz Lurhmann and Jean-Claude La Marre are among its celebrity clientele, with its most-famous patron being Gregory David Roberts, author of Shantharam. Leo’s or Leopold Café even features in the book. And now Leo is set to roar again, after facing the first firings on November 26, the fateful night that stretched into a 60-hour siege by gunmen at multiple locations in the city.

Farhang S. Jehani, the co-owner of Leopold, refuses to be cowed down by the terror attacks and has not only reopened his restaurant but also drawn plans to expand.

“We should be opening more shops soon. As of now we will be opening a Leopold’s in the north of Goa by March next year,” says an unfazed Jehani. A popular hangout among travellers, Leo’s gives customers a slice of busy Colaba Causeway without being in the midst of it. Backpackers, it is said, wait outside the restaurant more than two hours before its opening at 7 a.m. And though it may have started as a wholesale oil store and is one of the oldest surviving Irani-run restaurants in Mumbai, Leo’s is today popular for its huge three-litre pitchers of beer!

Foreigners largely throng the place, which probably is one of the reasons why it became a terror target. Six customers (four foreigners and two Indians) and two Leo’s staff lost their lives in the shootout that night.

“They came in from the front entrance towards the Colaba Causeway side. The assailants threw a grenade inside and soon after started spraying bullets,” Jehani recalled later. They emptied two magazines (56 bullets) at Leo’s alone, he says.

When Leo’s reopened a week later, the reminders were all there to see. Journalists sat at a table close to where a grenade had exploded. The walls around that table were chipped and there was a hole under the table where the grenade went off. A fan a little away from that table was shot at by the gunmen and all that remains now is the cup of the fan; the same fate met the light next to the fan. Bullet-holes on the floor scream out the horror that the customers and staff went through. A newly installed CCTV at the entrance was also shot at by the gunmen.

Jehani and his younger brother, Farzad, were on the first floor when the attacks took place. He recalls seeing sparks from where he was seated on the first floor. Jehani and his staff were in the restaurant till 1.30 a.m. that night, grappling with what had just happened.

It took them five attempts to clean the restaurant of all the blood!

The staff felt that as the restaurant lies en route to the Taj, the gunmen may have espied the foreigners seated inside and opened fire. One of the waiters who was shot in the leg has returned to his hometown in Meghalaya after surgery and will soon be back at work, says Jehani. A manager who preferred to be anonymous said a bullet had grazed past his head and has a wound to prove it!

The Jehanis were ready to reopen for business three days after the attack on Sunday, but they were forced to down shutters within 45 minutes because of an unmanageable crowd that had gathered outside in a show of solidarity. “In those 45 minutes we sold more than 20 of our Leo’s T-shirts,” says Jehani. And the already stretched police could not send the required protection to the restaurant, he adds.

After Leo’s finally reopened, it began attracting both regular customers and curious onlookers. An English couple, regulars at Leo’s, has come thrice since it opened and said they would come later the next evening. The couple had left an hour before the gunmen had sprayed bullets inside the restaurant. An Australian couple waiting for a table, a night after the reopening, said such incidents would not stop them from coming to Leo’s for a mug of beer. “We were actually at the bar on Wednesday night when it started. We are glad that the place has opened up.”

However, an English lady, peeping in for a glimpse of the place, said she would “think twice before coming to Leo’s now”. But Farzad says normalcy is returning and so are the foreigners. “Our loss is nothing compared to the personal loss people have suffered. We just replaced some chairs and have opened the restaurant as it is,” he said.

The Jehanis said the CCTVs will be running soon and the staff has been asked to remain alert and watch for “suspicious characters” or pakages. Outside the restaurant, two policemen sit guard. For the Jehanis, not only was their restaurant the first target of terror, their residence is two buildings away from Nariman House (one of the three places that were held hostage by the attackers for over 60 hours). Jehani shows us clips of commandoes conducting operations at Nariman House. The Leo may once again stand proud and tall, but “It has been a very tiring few days for all of us,” Jehani admits.

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