Mumbai Memories

The next stop is the pavement outside the Jehangir Art Gallery,where Das is welcomed by street artists and the security guards with warmth. “I have known them since they were young and every time I come here,it feels like a homecoming,” he says,sitting on the pavement to pose for his portrait that a street artist has requested to make. “I got married on the terrace of Jehangir Art Gallery and Cafe Samovar served the first round of snacks. The cafe was an abode for poets,artists and writers such as Akbar Padamsee,Shyam Benegal and MF Husain. That was a time of warmth and affection. If our friend was staging a play we would all buy tickets to support him.” As he patiently poses,other street artists take the opportunity to sketch his portrait. He signs these once they’re done.

The 68-year-old takes us to Churchgate where Bombelli’s,a Swiss cafe,had once stood. “It was somewhere here,” says Das pointing at a row of three restaurants—Kamling,Shiv Sagar and Mochas. He steps into each eatery to enquire about Bombelli’s. But it’s an old pan vendor who informs that the cafe stood forty years ago,where Shiv Sagar is today. “I am so happy. This has been a fun day. Let’s have lunch,” he suggests,as he enters Kamling. “I would have liked to go to Shiv Sagar but I am sure there is no beer there,” he laughs,recalling the days when he would visit Bombelli’s for a fresh filter coffee,cookies and croissants.

Post-lunch,we set out in search of other such memories of old Bombay that Mumbai has effaced. At Birla Kreeda Kendra in Chowpatty,Das points to the walls where he had made his egg tempera murals in the ’60s. The white-washed walls have no signs of the art. “We have no sense of historicity and preservation of art in our country. There was a horizontal mural and a vertical mural and today with the decay of the building,the art has also gone,” he sighs,“The murals can still be revived because they were done on plaster,which soaks in the paint. But I am sure no one will take on that responsibility,” says the painter,who was commissioned by the Indian Parliament Secretariat to do a 80-feet mural in oil called Journey of India: from Mohenjodaro to Gandhi. It still adorns the walls of the Parliament. As we reach Gallery Art & Soul,Das sums up his little trip down memory lane. “Art has become commercial and it’s essence has changed,just like Bombay has become Mumbai. For me the city will always be the one where I spent time on Marine Drive singing with my friends,painting freely and appreciating the little joys of life,” he says.