15 Growing up in Krishna Sadan

Krishna Sadan, where we lived in Mahim, had interesting tenants. The street below also had a lot of interesting activity – I watched this delightful panorama from our first floor window! I vividly remember the older kids in the building opposite, endlessly twirling Hula Hoops when the craze hit in 1958.

Krishna Sadan had many kids and some of them were my own cousins and relatives. I remember a birthday party of our neighbor that I attended and also vividly recall my intense shyness when everybody started singing happy birthday – I discovered that I just could not sing. Till today I have never sung a note! Maybe I am just tone deaf and cannot carry a tune.

At home, there was ample opportunity to play with my siblings. I think I really bullied my younger Brother Devdutt, who was a very quiet and docile kid by making him an accessory to my many mischiefs. We had a radio which was kept at a height on a cupboard – together we climbed on a chair and tried to pull it down – it almost fell on us but fortunately, my Mother had just walked into the room and was able to prevent this mishap from happening.

We also had a chair with a detachable red cushion, and I soon discovered that whenever I starting dancing with it in front of my little Sister Chitra, she would get frightened and start bawling –this delighted me and so I never lost an opportunity to repeat this prank!

On Sundays, my Father would relax on his easy chair and loudly recite Malayalam Poetry especially the poems of Vallathol which was his favourite poet. I would listen to him intently and discovered that I could recite these poems verbatim from memory without even knowing Malayalam – pure imitation!

Another favourite pastime of mine was to look at all the pictures in the Times of India Newspaper that we used to get at home, particularly in the entertainment section featuring movies. There were pictures and line drawings of the current movies in town – I vividly remember the ads of Harry Black and the Tiger.

Finally, I have memories of going to see the Russian Pageant: Holiday on Ice; that had come to Bombay. My cousins, the Shenoy Brothers, their Mother, my Aunt Mirakka and I, went to see this thrilling show comprising Russian Ice Skaters doing acrobatics!