In one of the most crowded and buzzing areas in Mumbai, Somerset Lane off Breach Candyis an oasis. I can’t think of a more peaceful spot to live in than here. It is thesame Somerset Lane that Salman Rushdie wrote of in Midnight’s Children, where he grew up and spent his early years.
Twenty years ago, when I saw my future home, its name ‘Christmas Eve’ had melaughing...all the way to the bank! I bought the flat overlooking two gardens with a treegrowing into my balcony included in the price. Its name inspired Sharon and me to begin anannual tradition of having an open house every Christmas Eve for our friends from theatre,advertising and all other zany people of Mumbai.
For the past three years I have been a member of the Breach Candy ResidentsAssociation, BCRA(not pronounced Bakra!), an active citizens’ group that is workingmanfully against a reluctant municipal corporation on issues like garbage, hawkers andtraffic.
A year ago with BCRA, I led a padyatra down Somerset Lane and painted a big yellow‘X’ to mark where illegal hawkers sit. A year on, the hawkers are still theresitting ugly but I am an optimist and trust the new corporator will do his job.
(As told to Pramila N. Phatarphekar)
