Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar and Wayside Inn

If J. K. Rowling famously wrote much of her first Harry Potter book at the Elephant House Café in Edinburgh, then Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar drafted the Indian Constitution at Wayside Inn at Kalaghoda in Bombay in 1948. It was the great Indian jurist, social reformer, economist, and political leader’s birth anniversary yesterday. I remembered him and thought nostalgically of Wayside Inn.

It was a charming Dickensian café next to Rhythm House at Rampart Row in Kalaghoda. With a high ceilinged, triangular interior, large bay windows with potted plants that opened onto the road, antique wooden cabinets, a gramophone, crisp red chequered tablecloths, vintage crockery, sparkling cutlery, comfort food, and genteel old world service. No table had the same four chairs. A grandfather clocked ticked away solemnly on the wall.

Since it was the proverbial hop, skip, and jump away from my newspaper office, I spent many pleasant lunchtimes there in the 1990s asking myself whether I ought to order Fish and Chips, Spaghetti Bolognese, or Mutton Dhansak. Followed by a pot of the Parsi proprietor’s Pudina Chai. It drew an eclectic crowd. At other tables would be Bombay’s literati and glitterati, bankers and stock brokers, painters, and lawyers, poets and writers.

Dr. Ambedkar, it is said, would stroll in from the High Court across the road in his lawyer’s coat, and sit at Table No. 4 diligently drafting the supreme law of the land over several pots of tea. A pile of foolscap sheets, pencils, and erasers is on the table. It is the pot of tea that I remember. Wayside Inn shut down in 2002. And Kalaghoda became the city’s art and eateries precinct. But nobody makes Pudina Chai like it used to.

About Mark Manuel

The above thoughts/content has been proudly copied from the wall of Sir Mark Manuel. Being interviewing almost every role model of this country and going stronger each day. Mark Manuel is a respected Mumbai editor, writer, and columnist.

With over three decades of journalism in leading publications. This includes the Free Press Journal, Times, Dainik Bhaskar, Mid-Day, and Afternoon. He is famous for his brilliant pen interviews. He himself is a TEDx speaker.

Further

His interviews have been featured in several leading media houses. They include the Hindustan Times, Huffington Post, BBC, and Network 18. Almost every famous person has been interviewed by him in the country from Mother Teresa to Muhammad Ali. His first book is just out. It’s titled Moryaa Re! It is a crime thriller that is perhaps the country’s first police procedural. He began his career covering crime. And in a tribute to his experience and knowledge of this beat.

Several distinguished officers of the Mumbai Police and its Crime Branch collaborated with him to make this book possible. Amitabh Bachchan wrote the forward in a statement of friendship for Mark Manuel and admiration for his work.

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