It was only last week that I managed to visit Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar’s former home in Parel. He lived at 50/51, second floor, BIT (Bombay Improvement Trust) Chawl No 1, Parel East, for 22 years from 1912 to 1934, in two modest rooms in the chawl—a row of rooms opening onto a common passage. The sweet-natured Rohan Tadilkar, 30, who works with Federal Bank, lives with his mother and sister in Room 50. “I’m very blessed to stay in this house. My grandfather Kalidas Sakharam Tadilkar worked with Babasaheb’s Samata Sainik Dal, which Babasaheb had created, and when he moved to Rajgruha, he gave the room to my father. I’m the third generation here. People come in all the time, especially on April 14 and December 6 [Babasaheb’s birth and death anniversaries], including many foreigners, but we are very happy they come,” he says. Room 50 was used as an office and library, and Room 51, opposite, was their living room and kitchen, he adds. He is a BCom, whose dream is “to travel the world,” and I try to persuade him to study a little more first. Babasaheb’s years when he was based here, were momentous: he did an MA in Economics from Columbia University, USA, in 1913; he started the weekly Mooknayak in Mumbai in 1920; he led the Mahad Satyagraha in 1927; he participated in the Second Round Table Conference in London in 1932. If Rohan can recall any of this, he doesn’t let on. Opposite, in Room 51, live Kalpit Khaire and his wife Supriya Kalpit Khaire; also the third generation there. “We are relatives of Babasaheb: Babasaheb’s older brother Anandrao’s wife is my father’s atya (father’s sister),” Kalpit tells me. “Babasaheb and Ramabai’s kitchen was here; and Ramabai also struggled a lot,” he adds.  

In the chawl outside, is a delightful poster for the “Independence Cup,” with local chawlwallahs assigned teams under Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, etc, organised by the ‘Parel Gunners,’ no less! Ashwin Gangal (I think), a young man lounging by the Ganesh pandal, tells me, “Shahu Maharaj of Kolhapur once drove here in his golden Maybach car [by Mercedes Benz] to meet Babasaheb. He called out to Babasaheb, and Babasaheb replied from his second floor window, ‘Wait, wait, I’ll come down.’ There are only two Maybachs in the world: Hitler had one, which was destroyed in World War I or World War II, but Shahu Maharaj’s Maybach is still there, which his son Sambhaji Maharaj drives.” I am absolutely charmed by this younger generation lore, the automobile connection to Babasaheb. In the lane is also a Malwankar Spa Ladies Beauty Parlour, a Bal Gopal Mitra Mandal organising ‘Dahikala’ and Shri Krishna Janmashtami, and New Maryam Fashion. And the tiny Radha Doordhwani Kendra (Radha Telephone Centre), is a convertible; now a two-chair salon, where the client, after a haircut, gets a dramatic psshk psshk fine water spray with a flourish. At the corner chivda shop, I pick up delicious sabudana chivda and sesame jowar munchies. At the foot of the Parel/Prabhadevi railway bridge, by the Church of St Mary the Virgin, I buy terrific razeli keli, a robustly flavoured, long yellow banana variety. I’d love it if Khaki Tours or someone else would organise a multi-sensorial, exciting, Babasaheb Walk in Bombay, led by a knowledgeable Dalit, that could include Rooms 50-51, BIT Chawl at Parel, Rajgruha at Dadar East, Chaityabhoomi at Dadar West, and expand to map the larger Mumbai Dalit experience. It affects the fundamental DNA of a city when the labour class that made the city, and allows us to run our homes, is squeezed out by highrises. Former CM Uddhav Thackeray announced in 2019 that the BIT Chawl would be converted into a national Ambedkar memorial. Hum dekhenge.

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Meenakshi Shedde is India and South Asia Delegate to the Berlin International Film Festival, National Award-winning critic, curator to festivals worldwide and journalist. 
Reach her at meenakshi.shedde@mid-day.com