[Reader-list] Three vignettes

[Dilip D'Souza -- Sarai]

August 20

Dear Fellow Fellows,

As a final (7th) post, here's three short vignettes from my travels
through the "villages" of Bombay. I wrote these individually several
weeks ago, but since none of them made sense as an article on its own,
I put them together here.

I hope to speak about some of this at our gathering in a few days. See
you all soon!

best,
dilip.

---

Three Vignettes
------------------
Dilip D'Souza


The Magen Hassidim Synagogue turns 75 years old this year. (Well, by
some accounts the synagogue dates to 1904, but as fas as I can tell
construction on it was completed in 1931). It sits on Mohammed Shahid
Road in the heart of Agripada, and it is the largest Bene Israel
synagogue in the city.

On the Sabbath, the peaceful and spacious interior of this largest
Bene Israel synagogue attracts ... 60 worshippers.

I sit outside the synagogue, trying to comprehend that number, looking
up at various plaques and tablets that remember various donations to
the synagogue. Then the thought comes to me, for no particular reason:
on any given Sabbath, there are more names on these walls than there
are bowing their heads inside. And that thought makes me get up and
stroll around the little verandah, peering at the plaques.

There were once something like 50,000 Bene Israeli Jews in and around
Bombay. Most of them had done aliyah -- emigrated to Israel -- by the
early '90s. There are only about 4000 left in India now, though that
number has stayed more or less static instead of declining some more.
(Meaning that aliyah has slowed over the last decade or so, perhaps a
reflection of the ever-greater uncertainty and violence in the Middle
East).

Bene Israelis trace their history in India to a shipwreck off this
stretch of coast, two hundred years before Christ was born. Now you
may scoff at that, but Bene Israelis believe it. What's more, they
believe that story is supported by the DNA evidence unearthed a few
years ago by the English professor Tudor Parfitt. Certain features in
the DNA of Bene Israelis, Parfitt discovered, are "found only in male
descendants of Aaron, Moses' elder brother, who founded [a] line of
Jewish priests." (Times of India, July 20 2002).

So if this is to be believed and there's no reason not to, Bene
Israelis are descendants of a priestly class going back 2000 years.
But today? Daniel Vaskar, who calls himself the "manager" of Magen
Hassidim, tells me they don't even have a regular rabbi.

Now I know most Bene Israelis left here voluntarily, to do aliyah. Yet
somehow ... there's something infinitely sad about the slow fade of
Bombay's synagogues, and this one in particular. And I search in those
plaques for some explanation.

A sample of what they tell me:

  * Isaac David Mhedekar gave the synagogue Rs 5001 "in loving memory
of late Mrs Jerusha Isaac Mhedekar." (His wife, I presume).

  * Mrs Shoshannabai Asher Chewoolkar gave Rs 10,001 "in loving memory
of Mr Arthur Isaac Chewoolkar."

  * The golden letters above the Hekhal ("ark"; in a synagogue, this
refers to where the Torah is kept) were the gift of Mrs Hannah Abraham
Simeon Bhinjekar and Miss Ruth Abraham Simeon Bhinjekar.

  * Jonathan Daniel Chaulkar and Sharona Jonathan Chaulkar together
contributed Rs 15,000 for the small chandelier.

  * Daniel Joseph Bhastekar contributed Rs 750 for two fans.

  * Ephraim David Solomon, Retired Deputy Superintendent of Jails in
Rangoon, Burma, contributed Rs 100. (Oddly, there were plenty of
contributors from Rangoon).

  * Other places contributors were from: Karachi, Andheri, Surat,
Balsar, Nagaon, Manikpur, Sukkur, Badarpur and Bombay.

  * Of all people, Pestonjee Dadabhai contributed Rs 101 to the
synagogue. Yes, a Parsi name.

  * Just above the "Dharma Peti", a slot for leaving donations, is a
sign that says "Charity Delivereth from Death."

Reading all this, I get a sense of what this synagogue meant to a
community. What would all these people think, I wonder, to know that
their splendid temple now has a congregation of just 60 people?

***

Wandering over to Matharpacady, I find a gentle reminder of the
plaques at the Magen Hassidim Synagogue. At one end of this
once-largely Catholic village, there is a small grotto with Christ on
the cross. An inscription there reads:

"This cross oratory was erected in 1875 through the initiative of Mr F
Oliveira. Mrs I Butelho gave the land. Others helped."

"Others helped." A hint, no more, of people and generosity past. I like that.

***

In Zaveri Bazar, you find roadside vendors with trays full of tools --
mostly pliers of every description. Some like the squat curved beaks
of finches, some spring-loaded, some long and pointed like alligator
jaws, some narrow. And handles in every colour possible.

For when you make jewellery, I assume. Zaveri Bazar being, of course,
this city's jewellery heart.

And many of those same vendors also have piles of rectangular pads of
paper, also in every colour possible. What's that for?

And many of those same vendors also have piles of tiny earthen bowls.
Smaller than Diwali "diyas", much thinner too, and a much lighter
brown. Vendor after vendor, boxes and boxes of them.

What are these, I finally ask one.

"They are used to heat gold," he says.

Oh yes, jewellery.

Then this sign that sticks out from the wall of a crumbling building:
"The Bombay Bullion Association Limited (Gold Sample Tunch Receiving
Centre) 1st Floor."

What do they do with a gold sample tunch once it's received at the
Bombay Bullion Association? Heat it in a little earthen bowl?

And several shops that tell us they deal with "All Kinds of Immitation
Jewellery." Why? One, "Rupali Immitation Jewellers", informs us via a
sign that it also sells "Colouring Book, Comb, Pen, Needle, Thread,
Immitations, Cutlery and Bindi Item. All Family Use Items."

Real Combs? Or Immitation ones?

And finally the Mahalaxmi laundry, which has this sign outside,
Marathi below: "Clothes of Person Suffering From any Infectious or
Contegious Disease shall be properly Disenfected before Giving in this
shop for Washing."

Why a laundry in this jewellery heart? Why this warning about
"Infectious or Contegious Disease", in this jewellery heart?

And I would like to report that I have not found the word "tunch" in
any dictionary.