Art and Reality

firoze shakir photographerno1 posted a photo:

I come from a very humble background …we were 4 friends staying at Wodehouse House road three of us stayed in the same building Khatau Mansion we meaning my family lived as tenants in. a servants quarters of a Nawabs family the Nawab was related to the Nawab of Avadhs family Nawab Wajid Ali Shah our landlord had passed away he was a thespian of Indian film industry name Nawab Kashmiri .
Our building had two wings on the other wing lived Keith Kanga of Atomic Forest famous Rock band of Mumbai Keith s father was Parsi Mr Dosabhai Kanga wealthy Press owner New Era Printing Press Worli his mother was a Dutch Boer Gwendolyn..very beautiful woman .
Both his parents died Keith was bought up by his maternal grandma we called Granna she was a Catholic hating Muslim hating Hindu hating Jehovah witness her world was a isolated Watchtower .I have a lot of anecdotes but I pray for her my father went through a very bad phase of his life he had sent my mom and my siblings to the native place gave our house we had located to Strand Cinema on rent early 7os on rent .I took shelter at Keiths house till things normalized .Granna made me read the bible wash clothes take her horny female dog Fufu for walks and one day she decided to baptize me at far end of Cuffe Parade seaside my tryst with Christianity but to my luck it rained heavily the baptism was postponed meantime my father got my mother back and I returned home as the prodigal son..
Keiths band played at Slip Disc and jammed with Led Zeppelin Keith died unsung in Delhi.. that was one friend less .RIP
Second was Vimal Patacharige from Sri Lanka his father Mr Charly worked as a goldsmith with Gazdar Jewlers Taj they lived in the next wing same as Keith on the top floor he studied at Campion school he had two sisters he introduced me to Buddhism and he was an artist so I learnt a bit of art he had a camera so he took family pictures ..they left Mumbai and he died at Sri Lanka in a car accident he has a son and daughter he was a musician too..

The last friend stayed off Wodehouse Road Sobani Road his father was a retired RAF Pilot Mr Soli Framroze he had three sons Darius Sarosh Rayomand ..Rayomand was my childhood friend very compassionate his family moved to Framroze Court Marine Drive Rayo as we called him studied in Naintal Sherwood College later St Xaviers Mumbai we were friends on Facebook but later he moved away from me shifted to Goa and died there a few months back.
So I am now the survivor of my lost childhood lost illusions ,,I was close to the Parsis too and those days there were many Jews on Wodehouse Road Reubens Sophers Mayers Nicholson..I was close to them too and the granddaughter of industrialist Mr Sassoon who stayed at Wodehouse road she had a huge pet tortoise.
So this image on the past art and reality transported me to my past on the wings of my fortitude .
I have faced death several times but I cant escape it for too long ..