There’s nothing like Christmas in Bandra after the Bandra feast. Bandra looked pretty. In our times, all the cute little cottages had Christmas stars and lights and red poinsettias on the window sill. New lace curtains, new lace frilly dresses, and come December, it was time to start making kuswar. The Bandra aunties started taking orders for marzipan and milk cream while little kids helped in rolling out kulkuls. We used to make nevris, rose cookies, coconut toffee, fudge, and lots of Christmas Cake.
There was pure joy in putting up a Christmas tree, dotting it up with cotton as snow with Christmas carols blaring in the background. Making the crib and getting it together was a sacred affair. Crushing brown paper to make the stable and putting in straw and the lil figurines would take hours and one felt happy for a good job done. Cards were hung and holly and tinsel decorated the doors.
Music stereo systems competed as one heard a different carol while walking down any street in Bandra. Jim Reeves’ Silent Night and Elvis’s Blue Christmas along with Bashir Sheikh’s Christmas Polka were favourites till Boney M came out with Mary’s Boy Child. Hill Road was dressed with silver tinsel and the shops were decked up in celebration.
In those days, we spent hours buying cards at Cheap Jack and Hill Corner. Writing cards was a great chore while Bandra Post Office did an excellent job. I still remember the mothers getting worried if the cards were not written by early December. The postmen had lots of work delivering parcels from overseas and cards galore. There were no couriers in those days.
Carol Singers from the many parishes in Bandra went house to house singing with Santa in tow, while children joined in the singing. Every building had a children’s Christmas party and in school, we shared simple gifts. The nativity scene was enacted every year, renewing our faith and Mary’s role in the play was the most coveted. Hilton store and Bandra Gym had children’s parties and the altar boys in the church had their parties too. There were no altar girls at that time, and I remember us arguing in school with the nuns as to why girls were not allowed to become altar girls. Sunday school kids had Christmas party too. Damian Furniture store dressed its windows and we would all go to see it.
But the best part was getting a new dress. I remember it was a craze to wear a suit for young girls like formals which I found terribly boring. I preferred the frills and gathers and was happy with a length that was midway between a mini and midi. Midnight mass was beautiful in those days. Oh, how adorable the Bandra girls looked all dressed up to go for a Christmas Dance! It was a great thing to be asked out for a Christmas dance. And the handsome young men in dark suits looked dashing while trying to copy John Travolta.
The next morning went in distributing Christmas sweets. Bandra was an open house. Christmas Lunch was heavenly… fugias, sannas, chicken shakuti, sorpotel, roast, vindaloo, channa, yellow pea pulao ….accompanied with high spirits. There was no vodka, so Old Monk Rum did the rounds.
And the good old Bandraite never ever forgot to visit the Mount during the Christmas Season. The Lady in gold and blue on the top of the hill always protected her Bandra.
I miss my old Bandra. Times change. Roads get narrower and congested. The cottages have disappeared. Hilton, Mulchand, Bandra Talkies, Casbah & Irani’s and have long gone away. And so have many of our old folks.
But once a Bandraite, always a Bandraite. Bandra is in the heart.
