Page 94 - English Expedition Class 6

faithful old jokes, which he repeated with great gusto.
Th e Patels (name changed) were neighbours who had
had many a lunch, dinner and tea at 46 Pali Hill, but
failed to reciprocate with the merest cuppa or biskoot
(Salim M’s name for the uninteresting, dry biscuits from
the local bakery). So on a morning when, aft er breakfast,
Nani would settle down to do the day’s menu with butler
Ibrahim, Saloo would beg her not to bother.
‘Koi baat nai, Kamoo,’ he’d say, wagging his head
back and forth, ‘something tells me the Patels are going
to invite us today.’
On summer nights, Salim M liked to sleep in the
patch of garden outside his study, under the bilimbi
(star fruit) tree, his trusty shotgun next to his camp cot.
Th is nook adjoined the garden of fi lm star Dilip Kumar,
our friendly neighbour. Th ey had a chat over the fence
now and then, as did we. (He once picked a ripe lemon
from a bush and threw it to me as I stood and stared at
him from our balcony.)

Munching on Mangoes

But the best times were in Kihim, Nani-Nana’s seaside retreat near Alibag, heartland of the alphonso
or aphoos mangoes.
Th e season (April-May) coincided beautifully with our school holidays and, thanks largely to
this King of Fruit, the grownups were always in a good mood, including Salim M. In mango season,
we could yell and screech, and even get away with some naughty behaviour.
Here too, Saloo was pampered, and given the best mango from the mango mountain that
Ibrahim ceremoniously carried in aft er lunch. It would be placed before Nani, who would inspect,
with eye and nose, each one, and duly indicate the person it should go to. It was accepted that the
rosiest and largest went to Saloo.
Accommodation in Kihim consisted of jhopdas or coconut-leaf huts, and Salim M’s was a
simple lean-to , wide open to the elements and facing a beautiful sea-view fringed with rocks and
13
casuarina trees. Until my teen years, there was no electricity or phone, and no running water; aft er
a dip in the ocean, we had to pull up our own bucket of fresh water from the well for a brief bath.
Nana oft en came into the sea with us, but Salim M never did.
Once or twice we wondered, in whispers, whether he could swim or not, and in a brash 14
moment my sister even suggested we ask him! But, of course, one can never do such a thing with
a legend. It was better, and far more respectful, to assume that he was too busy for trivia such as
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swimming.

13 lean-to: a shack or shed supported at one side by trees or 14 brash: feeling overconfi dent and not having much
posts and having an inclined roof respect for other’s feelings
15 trivia: things of little importance or value
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