Mumbai Masala: You can get a fancy makeover at CSMT but no cutting chai

Making up for shortfalls

One really feels sorry when a good restaurant is shut. One of the victims of the pandemic is Nrsinha Lodge. It was located not far from CST near Central Camera on DN Road. You climbed a flight of badly lit stairs and there it was on the first floor. Totally unpretentious and no ambience to speak of. But the place more than made up for it by the excellent Gujju thali it served. The food was excellent and unlimited. Garam chapatis were on offer along with dry batata sabji with suitable phodni, seasonal vegetables with gravy, sweetish dal, roasted papad, green salad and cool chhaas. The USP was the farsans, including cocktail batatawadas, khaman dhoklas, patras et al. Unfortunately this is all history.

A newspaper advertisement of 1937 inviting people to visit ‘Bombay’ from far away places like Andheri and Bandra! |

You can get a fancy makeover at CSMT but no cutting chai

Central Railway has certainly got its priorities wrong. At CST it has a beauty parlour and nail spa, but one can't get a cuppa chai. The entire local section which caters to lakhs of commuters daily has only one food stall selling packed wafers etc and a Himachal apple juice kiosk often selling diluted stuff on platform number one. Earlier there was a tea stall on the main concourse which has been removed even though it was not coming in the way of passenger movement. As for the men's urinal, less said the better. The floor is perennially wet and slippery and the stink is unbearable. Hawkers have taken over the pavement outside vastly impeding pedestrian movement. Wish the GM would come out of the air conditioned comfort of his cabin and take a chakkar.

From musical concerts to the best batata vadas and even dialysis

One normally associates Shanmukhananda Sabha hall at Sion with music concerts, drama shows etc where top notch artistes vie with one another to perform. Several legends, including M.S. Subbulakshmi, Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, Pandit Jasraj etc have performed here with panache. But, a lesser known aspect of this iconic institution is the medical facility it offers. The management has earmarked an entire wing for a dialysis unit. There are several state of the art machines where patients can undergo dialysis at a nominal price. So the next time you go to hear Ustad Zakir Hussain, Bombay Jaishri or Kaushiki Chakraborty in the vast hall please also think of the medical centre. Incidentally, the canteen there continues to serve the best batatavadas and patti samosas with chutney made of chana dal.

(Compiled by S Balakrishnan)