Radhika Raj radhika.raj@hindustantime.com
The waiters at New Shahjan restaurant near Mohammed Ali Road are not use to an audience more interested in the cook's hometown than the food.
But when six curious kids insist that they want to see the tandoor (clay oven), the owner is more than willing to oblige.
Sulaimaan Mohamedy (12) passes this dingy bhatiyar khana, a humble joint that serves kararirotis and meat curry at Rs (13) a plate, almost every day. But today, he and the rest of the group of schoolchildren have stopped to watch Mohammed shamser (27) beat rotis into shape with the heel of his palm before carefully placing them in the clay oven.
"What if you could be someone else?" asks Hamdan Siddiqui (11).
Shamser drops his dough, throw up his hands and laughs. "I'd be the prime minister of India," he declares.
Siddiqui takes notes. "It will all go in our report, you see," he says.
The children are collecting anecdotes and information for Jalebi Ink's My Mohalla Project, which seeks to record the changing faces, history and culture of various Mumbai neighbourhoods through the writing of local children.
On Thursday, Anuradha Sengupta, managing editor of the independent media content space for young people, escorted the group of six children through Bohri Mohalla in south Mumbai.
But elsewhere across the city, children who have signed up for the programme are walking in twos and threes around their neighbourhoods, talking to neighbours, vendors and senior citizens who have watched their neighbourhoods change over time.
"Rapid urbanisation is changing our city," says Sengupta. "The idea is to see the neighbourhood through the children's eyes and document people and things that are interesting or might probably disappear in a few years.
In the Bandra-Juhu area, for instance, children spoke to long-time residents about the history of the many crosses, some over 100 years old. Others were told tales of bonesetters in Juhu who fix fractures without x-rays. And 12-year-old Kabeer Khurana even "discovered" the government air -monitoring laboratory in an old khar building.
Back at Bohri Mohalla, Shamser, who has worked at Shahjan for a decade, tells the children how he has seen his business dwindle as small local shops were replaced by glitzy malls and the flower market opposite shrank to half its size.
"The next generation may not see any bhatiyar khanas. The neighbourhood is changing every day," says a rather mature Yusuf (13), Sulaimaan's brother.
Yusuf and Sulaimaan plan to delve into the history of Vaid building, where their family has lived for over a century. The building has wooden staircases, sweeping banisters and hand painted tiles.
"It's so weak now...." says Sulaimaan, "I hope they don't have to bring it down.
Hamdaan siddiqul (11) takes notes for his My Mohalla report as cook Mohammed Shamser places rotis in a tandor at a tiny eatery in Bohri Mohalla, south Mumbai.
Mohammed Ali Road is the best place to eat. I am Planning to do a food guide of my area. My grandfather are here. It is a very interesting neighbourhood, but sometime it stinks. Khadeejah Mohamedy (9)
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