It would all begin a week or two earlier. My father would visit the head priest at the local mosque who, upon consulting his holy books, wo...
It would all begin a week or two earlier. My father would visit the head priest at the local mosque who, upon consulting his holy books, would pronounce the muhurat, the auspicious time: the precise minute on the evening of Diwali at which my father should open the accounts of his business for the coming year.
Like many Bohras, my father was a trader. He supplied tools and machine parts to factories on the outskirts of the city. Bohras are a Shia Muslim community from Gujarat. In the 19th century, many of them migrated to Bombay and settled in the areas around Fort and Crawford Market. In fact, a part of the Fort neighbourhood is still known as Bora Bazaar although few Bohra businesses exist today.
My maternal great-grandfather opened a hardware store in a street off Crawford Market in 1878. The family lived above the store. This is where my mother and her siblings and cousins grew up. Over time each street had come to specialise in a particular trade – hardware, pipes, glass, paper, gems, paints. Bohra, Khoja and Memon businesses stood cheek by jowl with shops started by Hindu and Jain traders of the bania castes from Gujarat. Bonded by language, place of origin and...
