Finding sunshine on Convent Road
The D'Souza's Of El Dorado
Memory Keepers Of Bandra is a project that documents oral history of the senior generation who live or have lived in Bandra, Mumbai. Through their lived experiences, it pieces together history, geography, culture and community, and offers an insight into the neighbourhood.
This is the story of a house called El Dorado. But it’s also the story of the D’Souza’s who have always lived in this house.
It was serendipity.
I walked across to The D’Souza home, El Dorado, on a balmy evening on 29th of February to chat with Crystal aunty and her sons, Brian and Cecil.
As we sat around the family dining table, the first thing Cecil said was,
“Tomorrow will be 92 years of this house being occupied. 92 years of our family continuously staying in this home.”
Imagine a family home that still looks as good as new in its delicous butterscotch and mango colors, with a garden that is bursting with flowers and birds and butterflies. Then imagine someone dreaming and creating this 92 years ago.
El Dorado started with Telephone D’Souza.
The great grandfather of Brian and Cecil, who was born in Goa. Telephone D’Souza’s father used to work as an engine driver or a conductor with the BBCI (Bombay, Baroda and Central Indian) Railway. And as he got transferred, his family moved with him. One of the places they moved to was Kirkee, and it was around this time that Telephone D’Souza who by now had grown up, got married.
He got a job as an electrician. And he moved to what was then Bombay. He was first staying in Parel, and subsequently got a job in the telephone department. That’s when he moved to Bandra, in 1924, to a house in Pali Village.
He had originally purchased a plot in Andheri to build a house. But then somebody told him about a new scheme that was coming up in Bandra. And the rest was history, 92 year old history.
‘As the English started creating suburbs, and the railway line came, Bandra slowly started to get urbanised. But when my great grandfather bought this place, people were telling him why have you gone to that god-forsaken place. And he said, no, the city will come to us eventually. He believed that.’
I remember being puzzled the first time they mentioned their great grandfather’s name.
Alexander John D’Souza. But everyone called him Telephone D’Souza.
Telephone D’Souza? Where does that name come from?
Crystal and Cecil start smiling. The explanation is simple. He worked for Bombay Telephones, as the General Manager. And in those days telephones were rare. He was the only one in that area to have one. Cecil adds that back then if you had a lot of people with the same surname, adding an occupation, or place of work or something unique to that surname, would be a way to identify a person. So they called the telephone company man, Telephone D’Souza. There was another person who worked in Hong Kong for many years, and they called him Hong Kong Tony!
During one of my visits to the D’Souza household, I wondered aloud why their great grandfather named the house El Dorado. Which refers to a fabled city in South America, rich in treasures of gold. Brian grinned, and said, he named it El Dorado because he put all his savings into it!
Brian is joking. But the fabulous part is they come from a family of meticulous record keepers. Their great grandfather, for four decades, kept records of everything in a book. Births, deaths, family, weddings and every expense to do with the house. Including blueprints and permission letters.
Originally the house had stained glass windows and balustrades. And the older generation in the neighbourhood remembers a tiny statue of a soldier on the top of the house. More on these statues in the next newsletter.
Cecil tells me they started work on the house in February 1931. And on 1st march they has a blessing and the inauguration of the house. And Telephone D‘Souza was very thorough.
It’s not like he just got a contractor for the house. He issued tenders. And, originally, this house was issued for a tender of Rs.6,800. But, due to certain cost overruns he had to pay Rs. 7,200. So that was how much he paid for the construction of this place.
The D’Souza’s are natural memory keepers. In fact as they sit around the dining table, they trace the timeline of Convent Road.
So the oldest house, actually if you go to see, is the house next door. Then, you have our house. Then, after that, for quite a while, there were no other places. Then if I am not mistaken, Valle Ville, it's the corner building. Then, after Valle Ville, Cresent, and then Palm Villa. And yes, we are the oldest family on this road.
What’s almost impossible to capture in writing, is the banter around the table. It’s like they are all roasting each other. There’s a JCB outside their road (people, this is Bandra okay, we have JCB’s parked in every road). And the conversation is about who is dying first. And should they measure the hole being dug outside, and see who fits.
I know Aunty is a fabulous writer, and when I mention this constant banter, she shows me her write up on how Bandra Boy’s and their mother’s have their own brand of repartee humour.
And of course it makes sense that El Dorado was an unofficial clubhouse for all the kids in the neighbourhood. And they even went on to make it official.
We started a club in1990. I was in the 10th standard then. It started in 1990 and it went on till about 96. The largest amount of children that we had on roll was 60. All the kids from the neighborhood were here. So, this was the unofficial headquarters of the club. It was called the Convent Road Recreation Club. CRRC. We had a flag. We used to have games. We used to have events. We had four houses. Red, blue, green, yellow. And we have our in-house magazine.
I realise not much has changed at El Dorado. I was there when they put up the christmas lights last year. And it had the same ingredients. Friends, good natured banter, and a good time.
For those who refuse to read, here are video excerpts from the dining table chat.
No part of this writeup, photographs or vidoes, can be reproduced or shared without permission. Thank you Aunty Crystal, Brian and Cecil, for being so patient and trusting me with your story.
And since you lasted this long, I leave you with this. The next story will be about Aunty Crystal and her memories of Bandra plus the iconic bakery she grew up in.
I grew up in Bandra in the 1970s and this piece made me so nostalgic. 😊
Loved this article! Pretty sure that’s me jumping in a sack in that Convent Road Recreation Club picture 😊 Wonderful memories