Mumbai Rains

Mumbai Rains, originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1.

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The Arabs Middle Eastern folks were the first foreigners in modern times who discovered the Mumbai rains , for us Mumbaikars we are Mumbaikars now earlier we were Bombayites , it did not matter much we were quite used to the vagaries of monsoonal showers in our city.

The Arabs who stayed at the seedy lodges Grants building Kamla Mansions at Arthur Bunder Road loved the rains the buggy rides and once they got tired humping the local whores at Slip Disc it was the rains that caught their fancy.

They made love to the rains drenched to the bones eating Bhutta Seng channa hounded by a colorful crowd at Gateway of India, the snake and mongoose performer, the roadside photowallah, the quintessential Mereweather road pimp , who stood outside the Salvation army Hostel he supplied drugs too and was part time money changer we jovially called Abdul Kanya.

The Arabs were misers and you cant blame them they were always preyed and conned at Colaba Causway the thieves paradise , they hung around the lane behind Taj Mahal hotel and had their meals at Baghdadi Hotel or at Olympia close to Cafe Leopold.

They loved to tipple at Gables or Wales where I too drank beers and ate Goan food at the next door restaurant.

Most of the Arabs in the 70s came for treatment and the most famous was Dr Waghela at Mohini Mansions Strand cinema where we stayed even his compounder started speaking Arabic and such was his change in personality that he would greet me in Arabic too,I had recently returned from Muscat .

Colaba was the Arab haunt you could never miss them at the Colaba Fish market buying prawns that they asked their hotel guys to cook and promfrets too.

So many guest houses had only Arab clientele Gulmohar Guest house and they were all around you with their burka clad women in tow.

Outside Arthur Bunder Road they had their portrait hand drawn and painted ..before the Internet era.


My dad had a shop at Grants building Smart Wear Tailors and they would come to make safaris and kanduras.

They ate a lot of fruits , seekh kababs at Sindhi Kabab corner at Strand House and would taste the Sindhi pan sellers sweet pan too.

And Raj Sippy Romu Sippy and their dad , the famous Sippys who were incorrigible foodies ate at the Sindih Kabab corner watched them bemusedly ..a little ahead Rehman Saab Guru Dutts favorite actor helped the poor and the needy with his wife later he died of throat cancer..

Ekta Kapoors mom Shobhaji stayed at Anjali Apartments ..

And her dad Jeetendra in his struggling days stayed at Usha Sadan , Mr Prem Chopra is a Usha Sadan guy too.

Near the 5 NO Bus stop opposite the church at Colaba stayed Nutanji and her family.

Mohnesh was a good friend as Kimi Katkar his ex flame stayed near my house at Strand.

Erwin Vaz Philip Vaz sons of Chic Choc lit stayed in the next building next to Mohneshs house.

And so sitting in this ricksha on a rainy day in Mumbai I was thrown into a world of the past vignettes I share with you.