There's Something Special about Cheap Jack, says Roshni Nair as she visits the quintessentially-Bandra institution for bits and bobs that make up Christmas – and a little bit of nostalgia
Mabel Cordeiro shuffles through the cacophonous flock descending upon the seasoned attendants. As familiar with the shop as she is with the back of her hand, the 74-year-old stops short of the far corner, turns to her right and opens stacks of drawers, reaching for select buttons before moving towards the packets of knitting cotton.
"Didi yeh lace kitne ki hai?"
"Do you have bigger reindeer hairbands?"
"Chacha you have this pendant in silver?"
"Uncle, neon baubles hai?"
The attendants take on the army of queries, and Cordeiro approaches the counter, smiling knowingly at Akbar Kanchwala. Pleasantries are exchanged, but not the pointless kind – they've known each other too long for that.
"I've been coming here since his daddy sold stationery and candy to school children," chuckles Cordeiro, when approached just as she's leaving the shop. "But he'd also go out of his way to get things like hand-painted buttons, pearl buttons, floral borders and lace fabrics for us."
Something Special is one of three family-run shops that together span just over 2000 sq.ft. Along with the other two – Cheap Jack Gift Collections and Cheap Jack General Store – it is a member of that now-diluted species: the great Bandra colossi. It may have started life 62 years ago as Cheap Jack, Murtuza Yusuf Kanchwala's humble establishment on the curb near St. Peter's Church. But true to its present name, Something Special towers above the copycat stores selling the Christmas paraphernalia you'd once be wont to find elsewhere. So it is for the bits and bobs, Raksha Bandhan, Diwali and other festive trappings, and street fashion staples.
Those owl, evil eye and minimalist trinkets? Cheap Jack was their home years before they were donned by all and sundry. Ditto novelty straws, glasses, moustaches and LED gear in Cheap Jack Gift Collections.
While Akbar and son Huzefa are proprietors of Something Special, Akbar's younger siblings and the extended Kanchwala family man the Cheap Jack stores. Cheap Jack Gift Collections in particular evokes fond memories. In the days Searock Hotel was "glam" and Jeff Caterers outshone Lucky's (still does), mother would march to this stationery shop to buy essentials for one's school needs. Juggling maternal duties, long hours and resultant fatigue like so many single parents, she'd fight sleep just a bit more to craft a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles get-up for a fancy dress competition, or a tomato costume for a school play on why fruits and vegetables are good for you.
Cheap Jack was the Excalibur to mother's Arthur. As it is to grandmas and school kids, DIY enthusiasts and professional tailors, fashion police and fashion criminals, party goers and party poopers, and everyone in between.
Hill Road wouldn't be without the Kanchwalas – whose family home is at Bandra Bazar Road. It wouldn't be without other Bohra establishments such as the rival Hill Corner, Pinky Pat, and Sona Shopping Centre's lingerie, make-up, and kurti dukaans that made the area – and Bombay – what it is today.
Not to mention Cheap Jack General Store, which spawned many a budding pastry chef due to its array of baking equipment. Hushed whispers and giggles abound in some quarters about how a nouveau-Bandra crowd discovered Cheap Jack – and by extension, Christmas – only in the past few years, and how that led to overcrowding. But ask Mabel Cordeiro about this, and she smiles:
"Maybe, but it's good no? That means Cheap Jack will be around for a long time to come."
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