Page 56 - Seniors Today - July 2021 Issue
P. 56
Nostalgia
Aunty’s Bar Dekho Illustrations Credit: Sudhir Shetty
Prabhakar Mundkur casts a fond eye back at the shady speakeasies of
Prohibition days
The ‘speakeasy’ got its name during the from all walks of life. People who could
days of the American Prohibition as Illicit discuss politics, literature, the arts and other
bars sprang up all over the United States. varied subjects. The prohibition introduced
Bartenders at these illicit bars requested in the 50s continued until the 70s, although
their patrons to speak a little quietly so as it might be difficult to believe for a city that
not to attract the attention of the police. compares itself to New York as the city that S Kumar
That is how it got its name, the speakeasy. never sleeps.
The Aunty’s bar as it was called was our My introduction to the Aunty’s bar
own Bambaiya version of the American however happened much later, around
speakeasy. 1970. We had got ourselves a gig at the Taj
In Bombay, which was a liberal city from which boasted of India’s first discotheque
time immemorial, our own version of the called the Blow-Up. We used to do two
speakeasy appeared on the Bombay scene, sessions, one between 10 to 10.30 pm and
ever since Morarji Desai took over as the second from 11 to 11.30 pm. Our usual
Chief Minister of the Bombay State from haunt during the half-hour break was an
1952-1956. Even those days, Mr Desai’s Aunty’s Bar just behind the Taj and almost
drinking preferences were well known. He diagonally opposite the well-known Bade
introduced prohibition in Bombay driving Miya. The building was dark and rickety,
the entire drinking population of this liberal providing just the right atmosphere during
city. The atmosphere in the Aunty’s bars of those times. During the Indo-Pak war of 1971
yore was interesting, as it attracted people the building took on an even more eerie hue,
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