23 New Friends, New Life in the Colony – Part 2

My younger brother, Devdutt suffered from a handicap from his birth – a congenital dislocation of his right arm which in turn affected him psychologically throughout his life. Because of Devdutt’s handicap, my Parents put him in a junior school which was just across the street from where we lived – the Seventh-day Adventist Church School! My Sister Chitra was also admitted to this school and both of them went together – it was just a few minutes walking distance from our Colony.

Being away from Krishna Sadan and Mahim, our trips to Ganeshpuri and Vajreshwari became less frequent as distance separated us from the Shenai Family, who still went every Thursday to Ganeshpuri. But now that we were closer to my uncle’s place, the beloved Dr A.P. Pai, we made frequent visits to their home at Kanji Mansion in the Prathana Samaj area of Girgaon. My favourite grand uncle Shinapmam, the maverick bachelor also lived with the Pai Family, and it was hence doubly interesting for me to spend time talking to him about the British Raj days.

One day, whilst playing cricket at our Colony ground I met Richard Samuel. Richie, as we called him, did not live in the Colony but stayed close by, and his father worked as a Literature Evangelist or Colporteur with the Publishing House owned by the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Richie and I became close friends and as we shall see later, he was pivotal in changing my life’s trajectory including my introduction to the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Our Colony had a very cosmopolitan population and our friends consisted of people of all faiths including Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Parsis and also a Jewish family. The Moses family and their son Jacky who lived across in the adjacent building were Bene Israelis. I remember seeing them have their Sabbath meal including recitation of prayers every Friday evening – this is how I came to know about the Jewish Sabbath!

When we left Mahim, my Father had transferred the tenancy of our Krishna Sadan flat to his cousin Ganpat Rao who now lived there with his wife. I liked Ganpatmam, as we called him because he was a very good conversationalist, though soft spoken – he had a very successful career with Ion Exchange Ltd which was into water treatment and helped build it along with its Founder, Mr Ranganathan into one of India’s leading Companies in water management.

Whenever I got the opportunity, I traveled all over Bombay with my Father, mostly sitting on the top deck of the BEST buses. By the age of 12, I knew the city so well that I volunteered to show Bombay to my visiting relatives coming from South India. It was around this age that I first visited Strand Book Stall in the Fort area of Bombay, which was run by the great book lover and book seller, the late Mr Shanbag. After browsing in the book shop, my Father would walk me around to the Bristol Grill which was a restaurant that served excellent food in a very spacious setting!