Bombay in 70's - Childhood of my parents

Recently I was chatting with a colleague of mine who works out of Mumbai office. She was stating, though she has been in many cities across the world, nothing beats the life of Mumbai. She mentioned she could never imagine staying anywhere else other than Mumbai. I am sure many of you would have heard this from your friends, peers, relatives who have been in Mumbai for years together. This brought back a lot of my conversations that mom that I used to have.

It is quite intriguing to hear how parents spent their childhood. My mom was 16 years when she left for Bombay to be with her aunt and uncle in Ghatkopar. Being the eldest in the family she took the responsibility to fend to herself and support her younger siblings. She lived in a totally different era ‘The 70’s ‘ when the hippie culture was setting into India.

As a kid, I used to eagerly wait for my summer vacation so that I can visit India to spend time in Erode with my maternal side of the family. A pit stop was always at Bombay since both my parent’s families are in various part of Bombay. July and August was the monsoon season and it was that era when you were allowed to get drenched in the rain; with no parents running behind concerned you will catch a cold; the amount of street food that I was allowed to eat; walking pass through the vegetable market amazed at all the variety of vegetables we have. I remember our dinners used to be chaat : paani puri my all-time favorite, corn cob with masala and concluding that with a sugar cane juice. I remember my mom’s smiling when she used to take me on those bus rides; the double Decker buses. Guess she was revisiting her childhood days.

During the visit, one day would be my mom and her cousins sitting and taking me down memory lane. My aunt and uncle used to tell me on how my mother a shy and introvert woman packed her bags and came to Bombay to stay at her aunt’s place without even a basic understanding of Hindi or Marathi. They were amazed that within months, we could see she has formed a group of friends in her regular train route and how she was talking in various languages; without any diction. This is something I have been amazed about my mom and wondered why have I not picked up her multilinguistic trait and stuck on as a receptive bilingual person.

When mom and her cousins start talking about their childhood, I realized it was a completely different world. I am taken by surprise when I hear stories that describe a city and an era which I will only be able to imagine and not feel it – A period which was more beautiful than the present crowd and chaos. As they start talking about the wonderful days spent, I listen amazed at things they have seen. My mom worked as a secretary for GM of Telephones and in those days having a telephone at home was a luxury. Famous personalities like Amitabh Bachchan, Rekha, singer Abhijeet (who was not a star still), Late Captain Nair of Leela Groups would come in person to get a telephone connection and would need to wait for the necessary approvals. I am listening to stories of times when kids played outside their building without keeping a vigilant eye on them; the time when ‘Bobby’ movie has released and similar to the story line young lovers were running away to get married; actress Zeenat Aman a fashion inspiration for college and working women; monthly trip to Fort area to have bun Maska and Irani tea from the Iranian café; weekly trip to Mt Mary church in Bandra; spending times in the second hand book shops which were lined one after the other on station road when returning back from work; the famous Vada pav for dinner which was around 1 rupee a plate; Ganesh Chaturthi and Janmashtami celebration with regular pandal hopping’s.

It was really refreshing to listen to the exchange of memories between them. Their growing up years in Bombay was a content time. There is a lot more convenience in today’s life, but they never missed the convenience then. They enjoyed that life which is etched into their memories. I am glad I was able to live some of the moments through their conversation.