Till the time I was in Bombay, Byculla Railway Station was the hub of area activity. Not only did it serve as a local train station , but also a a shunting yard for fresh fruit coming from the hinterland for delivery to the Byculla Wholesale Fruit & Vegetable Market, just next to the rail tracks.
This proximity with only a compound wall separating the rail yard from the market, allowed local Muslim gangs to break the seals of the boxcars with impunity and take away as many fruit baskets as they would deem possible. Armed RPF constables would make the occasional rounds but these lumpen elements knew their schedules. The fruit vendors in the Byculla market were also Muslims and getting fruits and vegetables at a thieves' discount would enable them to make enormous profits. Their working day started at about 4 am when retailers would start frequenting their stalls and they were done by about 10am. Immediately after, they would frequent a 'social club' in Alexandra Terrace just opposite the station where they would play rummy with high stakes, in those days 5 rupees a point. The house would keep a portion of each game and provide them with liquor and meals throughout the day. It was a win-win situation for everybody, except perhaps the punters who didn't mind at all due to their high business earnings. The owner of the club a Gujarati named Dhiraj became a very rich man indeed. Besides this club, he was the local chieftain of Matka betting in Byculla. All bets from all lanes and corners were ultimately placed with him and he was rumoured to be a partner with Ratan Khatri a Marwari and Bombay Matka's king. Also profiting was an Anglo Indian lady who owned the flat from which the club and Matka business operated. She was allowed two rooms for her personal use and Dhiraj gave her a princely amount for the rent of her flat. Alexandra Terrace was an old English quarters five storey oval shaped residence just next to the magnificent Gloria Church accruing to Anglo Indians when the Brits left and each flat consisted of several rooms and a large hall which today would be used as 4 to 5 flats. Besides, there were servants quarters attached. On the ground floor were the venerable Byculla Pharmacy (also a general store) the famous Goan Cobana Cafe, OK Wafers and several other much frequented businesses that included a large Udipi restaurant (when Udipis didn't have the fame they now do) and a Muslim 'Chiliya' restaurant that served the most delectable mouth watering Mughlai menu. A plate of mutton kheema with a loaf of bread was 4 annas and a biryani with 2 seekh Kababs eight annas. If that was expensive for you, there was this old guy sitting on the kerb with a portable coal BBQ and a small electric fan to keep the embers alive who offered crispy kebabs with skewers of cow udders, kidneys, pancreas and lungs. It was a meat eaters delight and the cost was about right for the Anglo Indian lads who were doing their apprenticeships at Richardson Cruddas, Voltas or Mazagon Docks whose monthly stipend wore out at the end of the first payday week. The thugs in Byculla who would pilfer from the railcars also had another business. They would corner the ticketing on all Hindi and English movies shown in Palace Cinema, next door to Byculla market and black market them. That was as lucrative as stealing fruits and vegetables. Once some Hindu gangs from across the Station, on the east side started trying to muscle in on the ticket racket. The Muslims allowed them to feel they were succeeding but planned to teach them a lesson one day. They enlisted the help of the butchers in the market, all Muslim Kasai's who chased them away with their long and sharp butcher knives. The Hindu gangs never came back. Also I have described this Muslim presence, Byculla was actually a Goan neighbourhood with a sizeable Anglo Indian presence. There was a Best Ford restaurant whose curries were authentic Goan and several Goan tailors. One of those tailors was a young man whose father prematurely died and the business became his. He had a mother and several younger siblings to support and his father just got by. But the son hit on an idea to do better. His father turned away much business as he extended no credit. Many of the clients were Anglo Indians with a cash-flow problem. The son opened the floodgates of credit to them and never looked back. Although perpetually hard-up, the Byculla Anglos were honest people and all debts whether to the tailor restaurant or liquor aunty were promptly settled on pay day. Then back to credit a few days later. Adjoining the market were buildings that were rented by Goans for more than one generation. In Patel building in a terraced flat lived Gerald Pereira the communist trade union leader. Gerald was a lawyer and the entrance to his office cum residence was decorated with a large frame of Vladimir Lenin. Gerald was a generous man and did much pro bono work for the neighbourhood Goans. His son Thalmann Pereira is a trade unionist in his own right in Mormugao port. Goans in Byculla were of all hues. There were doctors, petty businessmen, tiatrists, police officers and just plain clerks working for commercial corporations or tradesmen at the large R&C Ironworks, in the Railways or at several medium sized industries in the vicinity. There were no class or wealth distinctions practised. They rubbed shoulders with each other at Church, Cobana's or at dances at Byculla Mechanics, a large outdoor court and attached clubhouse where prestigious weddings and social functions were held. Bandra today with its super-rich residents and homes worth crores of rupees had nothing on middle-class Byculla in those exciting times. Roland Francis 416-453-3371 > On Dec 21, 2016, at 10:08 PM, Frederick FN Noronha * फ्रेड्रिक नोरोन्या * > فريدريك نورونيا <[email protected]> wrote: > > http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/mumbai/Bye-bye-Byculla/article16914730.ece > > Thanks to Reena Martins, via the Bomoicar network.
