The beginning of an enduring tryst with Bombay

In 1939 we moved to Mumbai — then Bombay, of course. Both my uncles, one a chartered accountant and the other a dentist, practised in Bombay and were keen that their parents come and stay with them. So we move from our beautiful villa on Tithal Rd, Bulsar, to an apartment in Bombay — no longer waking up to the call of rooster, chasing butterflies in the garden, enjoying on the swing with my brother, taking an evening stroll with our next-door cousins, and savouring Sunday goodies at our grand aunts’ house. We would be counting days before our annual vacation when we would be back to Bulsar and Devka.

Our apartment was opposite the Oval Maidan where we would play cricket with new friends during weekends. Our school was Bharda New High School near VT (Victoria Terminus was rechristened Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus). In those days we used to call that area Bori Bunder — since it was near the port (bunder).

Bharda, named after its founder, was one of the prominent schools in the city. I was around 10 years old and my brother 9 when we started in the first standard.

Though a year younger, my brother and I were in the same class throughout school. He was more clever and generally stood first or second in class. Since I was scared of my grandfather, I saw to it that I stayed in the first five.

My brother was good in Maths. My favourite subjects were History and English. I was good at elocution. At the school’s annual day function I was selected to recite, not just recite but act out a poem called The Fat Little Piggy and I won the first prize. This was, perhaps, the first sign of my pursuit of theatre. I was quite chubby and the boys in the school started calling me “fat little piggy”.

We had a compulsory gym class once a week and I was pretty scared of climbing the rope and jumping over the double bar. I would need two or three attempts to clear. And to imagine that now past 80 I regularly go to the gym, where apart from treadmill and cycling I also do weights.

We had never seen a movie in all those years and were scared to seek our grandpa’s permission. My brother, who would sometimes bully me, once cajoled me to ask grandpa. Both of us slowly walked up to his room, my brother prodding me to go in and ask but I could not gather enough courage to do so. He pushed me from behind and I was in the room. Grandpa looked up and in his usual tone asked “Yes, you want something?”I muttered, “No, nothing, nothing”and ran out. I don’t recall when we saw our first movie.

I have already talked in an earlier article about my cricket and theatre activities in school. Add to that table tennis, where I also represented the school in inter-school tournaments. All these took a toll on studies and, much to the disappointment of family and teachers, I failed to clear the matriculation exam.

My brother enrolled for commerce in Siddharth college. I had to repeat my final year at school. My brother and I were separated for the first time. We were very close and it hurt. It shook me up and I studied hard and passed the exams the following year with good marks.

I joined one of the most revered colleges of Bombay, the Elphinstone College in the arts stream. A new life began at 17!

The author is a well-known stage personality