Oceanfront love lane now distant memory
Okay, so I resolved to go literally down memory lane. Meaning I wanted to check out if it still exists. My fears were answered. It doesn’t.
Once called Prem Nagar, this was the Love Lane where canoodling, smooching, holding hands and necking sessions in parked cars were permitted. And that too at a sneezing distance from the official bungalows of ministers and Rocky Hill Flats, abodes of the top police brass.
This oceanfront Prem Nagar, on Narayan Dabholkar Nagar, faced the swanky Bakthawar and Sherman Apartments, where Zeenat Aman lived during her peak career years. She never stepped out though, or she would have been mobbed by the romantic couples ranging from teenagers to the goldie oldies.
In fact, every Monday a couple in their 60s descended there from their housing colony in Colaba, held hands and looked at the sea waves moonily. They were married, but not to each other.
A cleared space within different wild shrubs were the extra-special nestling spots. And bhel puri vendors were so considerate that they never wandered towards those X-rated shrubs. If the passion play was interrupted at all, it was by schoolboys who’d scream some expletives at those shrubbery couples, and bolt, laughing their heads off. No police complaints were registered. The last time I passed by that place, the Colaba couple was still watching the sun set, the woman’s head propped on her amour’s shoulder.
This must have been a quarter of a century ago, really. A revisit there was an expected disappointment. Prem Nagar has been replaced by a row of grocery, and cellphone repair shops. Hutments stretch on as far as the eye can see, and of course those shrubs have been uprooted. Romancing spots have shifted to the searocks of Bandra and the Marine Drive and Worli balustrades. Aah, time doth fly and all that, but mercy be, the city of love still hasn’t vanished entirely. Only Prem Nagar, and that Colaba couple have.
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