Surprisingly the coming of summers brings to mind many memories from my childhood. While this narrative isn’t about summer specifically, I was reminded of it while on my morning walk.Most people go to their native place during the summer breaks, and spend the long hot, summer days there. It is common knowledge that many flats in the city are locked up as their owners are away for the two months or at least a month of the school holidays. It is common knowledge to the potential thief also. And so one finds the police urging people to be vigilant about who they inform when they go away on holiday and if possible to inform the local police station if they plan to be away for a long stretch. Of course the pandemic stretching over the last two summers has made travel plans close to a fantasy.
As these thoughts crossed my mind on my walk this morning, two incidents came to mind and in spite of them bit not being funny situations per se, they never fail to make me smile.
My mother grew up in Girgaon. Those who are familiar with Girgaon of olden days will recall the various chawls where multiple families shared a life in them. My mother grew up in one such chawl, though it hosted just eight families. She often narrates snippets of her childhood. Even though each family occupied a one room accommodation, the bond shared by the families residing there spread over the entire chawl. Everything was a collective activity, including measles and chicken pox. we have heard stories of how they celebrated festivals together, studied and played together within their limited space and means. It is one such incident which comes to mind whenever I think of house thefts.
Because space was tight, many residents slept in the common verandah at nights to avail some cool breeze. there was no practice of locking the doors to the rooms at all. The doors to all the rooms were shut but never locked. The people sleeping in the verandah slept in a way which left no room for movement once everyone had settled in for the night. One night a thief chose to visit their chawl.Little did he realise when he climbed up to the first floor verandah that there were so many people sleeping in the verandah. Within a few seconds he had stepped pn someone’s out-stretched limb. The startled but alert person who had been woken up by the thief, raised an alarm and soon the verandah was full of light and people. In all the humdrum, the thief had no option but to head for the nearest exit. What he didn’t realize was that the opening at the end of the passage led to the common washrooms and not to the stairway. Realizing he was trapped , he headed into one of the toilet cubicles and locked himself in. It was around 4 am by then and the men of the chawl settled outside the entrance to the washrooms, after urging the women and children to go back to bed. Having a thief locked up inside the washroom didn’t deter any of them from sitting and having a good chat and before they knew it, the sun had risen and everyone realized that soon they would need to use the washrooms in order to get ready for work. The thief too spent those hours huddled in the cubicle, too petrified to peek out. When there was no alternative left but to force him out, they started hammering on the door of the cubicle. Only when they threatened to break down the door, did the thief meekly open the door. He was given a sound thrashing and a warning before being allowed to go. The simplicity of life in the mid 50s is seen when one notes that no one rushed to call the police, but instead dealt with the situation in a very simple manner.
Am sure the method worked, and the thief spread the word, because though another such incident did take place in the following years, it didn’t affect the residents. After the above described theft attempt, it was decided to employ watchmen for the chawl. One night another thief did come, but even though all the doors were open they didn’t dare enter the building. Instead they stole the wrist watch from the arm of one of the watchmen, who was sleeping on duty. This gave the children of the locality a great opportunity to tease the watchman for days to come.
Another interesting theft occurred in my neighbor’s house when I was a child. I use the word interesting because of the things which were stolen. In the 70s the concept of grilled windows were yet to gain popularity in Mumbai and one found many flats with framed windows, but having no grills as protection. Our flat had grills which could be opened and closed as per will, and that was because there were small children at home.Our neighbors flat did not have grills and they never bothered to shut the windows at night except when it rained heavily. We lived on the second floor and one night a thief climbed up to their flat using the pipes. He stole and left without awakening anyone at their home. When the occupants of the flat woke in the morning they realized they had had a nocturnal visitor when they found dirty prints of footwear near the living room window. This is where you will understand why I used the word ‘interesting’. The flat was occupied by five people. The parents, their two grown up sons and the daughter in law. The thief had only stolen the clothes belonging to the men. Not any cash , or any other valuables lying around the house, but only mens’ garments. This was one choosy thief. And while it was a serious situation initially, eventually it became a funny story which was shared by all of us.