Many cafes have closed; in the 40s, 50s and 60s we had about three to four hundred Irani restaurants, bakeries, stores in Bombay.
Britannia Café was established by my father Rashid in the year 1923 and it happened to be the birth year, the year, I was born in this year, now nearly 84 years.
Not being educated my father could not do any other work except the Parsis told him to start with some tea business, to prepare and serve tea, and uh, the Parsis helped them in the business and slowly they prospered.
Many cafes have closed; in the 40s, 50s and 60s we had about three to four hundred Irani restaurants, bakeries, stores in Bombay, but slowly they are diminishing, and now they are on the verge of vanishing. I think only about twenty, thirty Irani restaurants are left today. Eating habits have changed, in the sense that formerly in the British time our restaurant was serving continental type food, bland food, and the Europeans and high society type of people were not eating spicy food, but now, after independence, we had to change, we had to cook food according to Indian tastes – with spices, and masala and all those things.
Gandhiji came in power and he became a political father figure of India, then they brought about independence, he said all of us are children of God, why should there be this difference? All restaurants to be open for all castes and communities. That forced us to put up a board, saying there was no restriction for any caste or colour.
When Iranis started coming to India, especially to Mumbai, there were a lot of vacant premises, and most of the corner premises were vacant, this may be superstitious, but the Hindus would not take the corner, saying that it was very unlucky for them, so the Iranis were coming, and they would find the corners better for business, and so they started renting them. My grandfather started Kohinoor Restaurant, just near Bombay GPO. It was one of the first Irani restaurants in the city, about 1890,'95, around that time.
From an interview with Boman Kohinoor,
Ballard Estate, Mumbai, April 2007
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IMAGES top to bottom:
BOMAN KOHINOOR WITH SONS AFSHIN, left, and ROMIN, right
-a portrait of Boman's father RASHID hangs above, 2007
BRITANNIA & Co., Ballard Estate, 2007
KOHINOOOR RESTAURANT, Fort, 2007
1 comment :
Britannia used to be a favourite haunt during my college days in the mid-90s. Then, as now, Mr K has been an integral part of the cafe, and that is what makes this such a fantastic place. Now I live in the suburbs, and I miss the option of hopping over whenever I felt like it. After reading this post, I am all set to make a trip to town to eat the infamous berry pulao. Thank you, Mr K, for many memories. See you soon.
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