Missing bombil slats make for a nostalgic flashback
It must have been centuries ago, when as a just-hatched reporter, I had sauntered into the office of Maharashtra fisheries department on DN Road. Unwittingly, one of the more genial officers there lamented that the Bombay duck – which actually looks like a lizardfish – was under the imminent danger of extinction. Once found in abundance in the ocean stretch till Kutch, and in the Bay of Bengal, the dear old bombil was likely to become a rarity.
On submitting the report to my chief reporter, his eyes bulged and he sweated profusely, “What! Now what on earth will I eat with my evening drinks? Are you sure, this is true? If so, it’s a scoop.” To my surprise, the story was front-paged. The next morning the fisheries officer called me up at the office, absolutely alarmed, “You have created a panic. Now I’ll be pulled by up by the higher authorities. See the Bombay duck will not go extinct…it’s like the situation with tigers and lions.”
Yup, the Bombay duck survived. Dried bombil, hanging at kiosks on the bridge connecting Mumbai Central railway station to the Tardeo traffic junction, continued over the years, always emitting a powerful odour. The fish became a tad expensive, but it was still the poor man’s favourite with his rum or desi daru. The chief reporter wasn’t exactly poor but was a fish foodie, the sort who’d opt for crunchy, salted bombil rather than pomfret tikkas.
So, why am I recalling this story today? Simply because those sukha bombil stalls on the bridge have vanished…poof! Just like that. No more odour, no more beige-colour fish hanging from wooden slats. My chief reporter, the stalwart B. Seshagiri Rao, lord bless his soul, would have had gone blue in the face all over again.
No need for panic though. The Bombay duck hasn’t vanished entirely. The Khar-Danda fishing village is alive with the bombil odour. And at licensed country liquor bars, it’s still the fastest selling starter next to boiled eggs and the lime-soaked onion-channa-cucumber mix.
Incidentally, there’s a truly odd sight just across the Mumbai Central bridge — a conspicuous establishment which offers you (singles only) a bed to sleep and dream on, charged by the hour, in air-conditioned comfort. The city doesn’t lack ingenuous business ideas, does it?
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