On Saturday afternoon stood at Oval Maidan with a packet of sukka bhel, gazing the prettiest University Tower; an old daily rite for years; dont know why me did it and do it on my City trips;the Tower has watched over many Bombays and Mumbais; will be around when me am no more; with its many contentious books, absent professors and students (the University is now at a classless space in Kalina), chiming Time at an unhurried pace for Mumbaikars with mobiles; the Oval was full with cricket and the mobile had to ring with Paul Noronha on the line. 'They have found tramlines at Flora Fountain; are you interested.' Said Yes. Ryokan verses: ' To an old man, dreams come easy.' Dreamt of tram lines as we walked to Flora Fountain to find a digging machine dig tram lines; double tram lines; an old Muslim gentleman said it was the Pydhonie-Colaba tram line, the run costing two pais; someone else said something; and from somewhere came Behram Contractor with his midnight piece on the last tram ringing away the city in 1964. Behram Contractor, Mario Miranda and Olga Tellis are Mumbai's best chroniclers in English; they took (Olga Tellis still does) trams and trains, traipsed the coast lines, danced to offices located in winding lanes. Paul ran up and down the parallel lines clicking; 'they will take it,' he said; but Business Line Monday edition has not the pix. The Indian Express has a front page Anchor by Vishwas Waghmode and pix by Prashant Nadkar; the story has a prosaic headline, City's lost tram tracks surface. On a summer visit, has boarded a red (?) tram at King's Circle in the 1950s. My city like me has many fatelines: Train lines, tram lines, coast lines, ... and sad that son Ganesh does not know Mumbai; for him suburbs make Mumbai. When we made it to Flora Fountain, it needs a wash, there was the digging machine and three diggers...then in ones and twos they walked over with mobiles clicking but not a crowd being Saturday; today, Monday, there will be a crowd. Tramlines will be pulled out for a museum, Vishwas Waghmode reports. Hey, why not just leave them undisturbed; it might slow down car traffic; so what; a public display of tram history is needed for Mumbaikars, something to stare into the past ...That wont happen. After the shootings we walked past Bombay House with young 100 year old Parsis looking out of windows asking 'what's that digging' and on to Horniman Circle. Paul called a taxi to Press Club for a Business Line lawn party...reached home tipsy with tram bells of Calcutta (sorry Kolkata) clanging, operated by Biharis.....in Calcutta they still run at the pace me mind thinks and dreams .... Born in Kolkata, brought up in Mumbai, like me?
Sunday, February 21, 2016
Trams at Flora Fountain
On Saturday afternoon stood at Oval Maidan with a packet of sukka bhel, gazing the prettiest University Tower; an old daily rite for years; dont know why me did it and do it on my City trips;the Tower has watched over many Bombays and Mumbais; will be around when me am no more; with its many contentious books, absent professors and students (the University is now at a classless space in Kalina), chiming Time at an unhurried pace for Mumbaikars with mobiles; the Oval was full with cricket and the mobile had to ring with Paul Noronha on the line. 'They have found tramlines at Flora Fountain; are you interested.' Said Yes. Ryokan verses: ' To an old man, dreams come easy.' Dreamt of tram lines as we walked to Flora Fountain to find a digging machine dig tram lines; double tram lines; an old Muslim gentleman said it was the Pydhonie-Colaba tram line, the run costing two pais; someone else said something; and from somewhere came Behram Contractor with his midnight piece on the last tram ringing away the city in 1964. Behram Contractor, Mario Miranda and Olga Tellis are Mumbai's best chroniclers in English; they took (Olga Tellis still does) trams and trains, traipsed the coast lines, danced to offices located in winding lanes. Paul ran up and down the parallel lines clicking; 'they will take it,' he said; but Business Line Monday edition has not the pix. The Indian Express has a front page Anchor by Vishwas Waghmode and pix by Prashant Nadkar; the story has a prosaic headline, City's lost tram tracks surface. On a summer visit, has boarded a red (?) tram at King's Circle in the 1950s. My city like me has many fatelines: Train lines, tram lines, coast lines, ... and sad that son Ganesh does not know Mumbai; for him suburbs make Mumbai. When we made it to Flora Fountain, it needs a wash, there was the digging machine and three diggers...then in ones and twos they walked over with mobiles clicking but not a crowd being Saturday; today, Monday, there will be a crowd. Tramlines will be pulled out for a museum, Vishwas Waghmode reports. Hey, why not just leave them undisturbed; it might slow down car traffic; so what; a public display of tram history is needed for Mumbaikars, something to stare into the past ...That wont happen. After the shootings we walked past Bombay House with young 100 year old Parsis looking out of windows asking 'what's that digging' and on to Horniman Circle. Paul called a taxi to Press Club for a Business Line lawn party...reached home tipsy with tram bells of Calcutta (sorry Kolkata) clanging, operated by Biharis.....in Calcutta they still run at the pace me mind thinks and dreams .... Born in Kolkata, brought up in Mumbai, like me?
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