08 And I am brought Home to Bombay
Knowing that Bappa would soon become a Father, he started in right earnest, to find himself a flat of his own in Bombay. Luckily in 1952, there was a newly constructed building called Krishna Sadan, built by a fellow GSB, a Mr AK Shenoy in the Bombay suburb of Mahim. Bappa quickly rented this flat for a princely sum of Rs 80/- sometime in early 1952. By this time I was a new born baby back in Calicut. Bappa proudly brought Amma and also my Grandmother along with me to Bombay, the Urbs Prima in India in the monsoons of June, 1952!
My father made it a point to bring his mother-in-law (we called her Ma-Amma) to Bombay along with him. Ma-Amma was a very quiet, self-effacing and dignified lady who had lost her husband when she was in her early 20s, and pregnant with my mother. She was well looked after and treated with dignity, by our joint family in Swargmadom after the death of my grandfather from typhoid.
Mahim was a quiet suburb of Bombay of those days, and two blocks away from Krishna Sadan were stables where cows and buffaloes were housed; there were also small fields adjacent to it where vegetables were still being grown. There were gas lamps in our street and in the evenings a lamp lighter used to come and light the lamps! My earliest memories were of being carried by Ma-Amma and going across the street to the grocer and vegetable vendor where my grandmother would make her weekly purchases. Ma-Amma was an outstanding cook and anyone who had tasted her dishes would rave about her culinary skills! My mother was lucky to have someone to manage the kitchen so well, and this gave her ample time to take care of me and my siblings also very well.
Talking of siblings, my brother was born on 31st October 1953, just a day before my birthday! I still vividly remember being taken to the hospital to see my new born brother. I believe I threw a tantrum when he was being brought home, saying it would be better if he was left in the hospital. So much for sibling jealousy!