In between building no: 22, 23 25, 27 and 26 is our colony, is a small ground. Its like a small patch of land in the concrete jungle of Mumbai. Although our building had names and registered societies, there were known by their numbers.
One day the municipality decided to build a 2 feet wall around the small ground of ours and the ‘Katta’ was born. Katta (pronounced as Kat as in cut and ta, so its cutta) in Marathi is a small wall, a kind of boundary but in Marathi slang it means a place to sit and waste away time. I don’t know the situation now, but Katta is hated by most parents especially by parents with young boys in the family. My parents would also hate the katta. My mom still does.
Our Katta was a small part of the wall under a big tree which had small leaves. It provided the much needed shadow from the Mumbai heat. It was the place we use to sit when we cheered for our building team. It was the place where we use to sit and discuss about everything from sex to politics to parents. Our katta was called “Sugandhi Katta” or the scented wall ‘inspired’ by a 1974 Marathi movie. Nobody has seen the movie, but the name stuck. A katta by any other name is a ‘Katta’.
During vacation it was always occupied. The same part of the wall was always occupied because it was in between two buildings. The other part of the wall remained unoccupied and dirty with dust around. We never had to go and clean the katta because someone was sitting there and dust never gather there.
The morning the first occupants were milk boys who would count their money after delivering milk. Sometimes and mostly during vacations, it would be youngsters who were ‘jogging’ to keep themselves fit. ‘Jogging’ was a special exercise which most of us remembered during our summer vacations. I was too thin then and jogging was looked to make myself fit. The first two week, it was religiously followed. The number of people would drop and then by the end it was completely stopped until the next vacation. When the whole ‘jogging’ sickness would take over again.
The katta was mostly vacant during the rest of the day unless it was vacations. Then the first occupant would be with a cricket bat in his hand waiting for the others to come down. The whole morning till lunch would be occupied by shouting children playing mostly cricket but sometimes volleyball and even badminton. The katta would fall silent mostly in the afternoon unless occupied by the woman of the building where again the topics would span a wide range from In-laws to children to the latest gossip. These neighboring aunties would be like small children discussing everything oblivious of the surrounding and still keeping track of what’s happening in the building.
The evening would belong to the children again. The katta would be filled with children shouting, yelling cheering and just running around. Children here would be mostly children between 10 and 18 or even 20. I know above 15 is termed as teenagers but when you see these teenagers playing and fighting over a non-existent rule in crcket, you really wonder if they had grown up.
After that, the katta is never free till almost midnight when the last of its occupant leaves it alone for a good night sleep. From dawn to the wee hours of the night, the katta would bust with activities.
Friendship, rivalry, fights, affairs, secrets and gossips the katta has seen it all and will continue to see it. It has seen children growing up into teenagers and then into adults. It has seen marriages and now their children walk on the katta continuing the life cycle.
The katta has a life of its own, a mood of it own. The mood of the katta was mostly in tune with the people sitting on the katta. The silence in the morning when the Milk boys and the early joggers would sit after a tiring morning. The excitement of the morning cricket game when the morning sunlight would slowly turn into scorching heat and with that there would be an increase in the noise and adrenalin of the occupants there. The afternoon would be lazy with sometimes the ladies or the children who were still active even after a morning cricket match. The evenings it was back to excitement again when the whole katta would be taken over by friends who were rivals now playing against each other. The nights when everything would be on the way to settling down, the talking turning to whispers when after dinner everyone wants to discus everything in great details. The katta always highlighted the mood of the katta-wasi (the katta occupant).
The katta is a small wall near our building but it does not have to be a wall every time. It could be a bench, it could be a closed shop, it could be an abandon car and it could be anything. It just has to have a place to sit. A katta exist in every corner of Mumbai. A place where people meet, talk, share and grow up. A katta is where you re-live your life, your memories, your days.
The katta sees youths eyeing women but rarely teasing. That is because everybody stays in the same area and something very Romeo-like would certainly attract the attention of the parents which was the least desirable thing. But it does not mean there was a shortage of gossips about girls. The age of growing up and in a conservative environment, there were proposals going on. A card here, a flower there, a eye here and a knowing smile there, the katta sees it all and so do a thousand eyes. An affair was a very rare possibility on the katta. Girls were rarely found on the katta excluding those occasion when the katta was surprisingly left unoccupied by any of the male species. During those occasions, boys would patiently and shyly wait till the girls leave and then they would capture their territory again.
Each group would guard their katta and the attendees would always be the same people rarely finding a new set of faces. Each locality, each building has its own katta. Its always occupied, it always alive
As the days pass, the faces on the katta change, a generation gives way to another generation. People become busy, change houses but the katta is never left unoccupied. When I use to come home late, I always found these kattas occupied. Rich, poor, high class, low class does not matter. What matters is a nice place to sit, friends and a topic to discuss.
In this fast life maybe someday the clubs, the pubs and the mochas would become more famous but for a time with the friends
“Chal Katte par chalete hai” (Lets go to the Katta!)
Punds,
Nicely written. I can see the Katta and the neighbourhood inside my mind with your descriptions. I have to catch up with Mumbai posts, very instructive!
Monica.
Thanks Monica
I am remebering what I had seen almost 2 years ago. I miss the city very much!
Punds
[…] This seemingly innocuous urbanscape object is the bane of all parents. Welcome to the world of Mumbai’s ‘Sugandhi Katta’. […]
good one Punds! In bong we have something similar, it is called ‘Thek’ (Th as in Thakoor). Ask any bong and he will have umpteen stories about ‘thek mara’ 🙂
humsafar.
Humsafar
Yesterday I read about Bong! Isn’t it a term for Bengalis in Kokatta?
I think they have adda too right?
Punds
hey!
tht was a cool post! 🙂 what many stories and gossips and talks the katta witnessed… if only it could talk 😉 now tht would be cool.
guys of my locality have a sort of katta too, by the wall under a letchi tree, on huge boulders. they talk and talk and talk. whoever said guys dont gossip should ask the kattas..
anyway, cya
eh, where did building number 24 go?
Nice post…reminded me of India…right about girls not having their “own space” grrr!
vi
Wbix
Boys have a lot of secrets and lot of things to share.
Strange it was, 24 was behind 25 number building
Vi
I guess girls had thier own space. Girls in our building use to talk in the stairs.
Punds
Mast post aahe.
Amcha katta samudra kinari hota. Miramar beach chya border var.
I like this article – it is a documentation of the small things that make our lives richer.
Its not really about a katta, but a lifestyle of that period.
Abroad, the architects actively plan their projects – which could be an urban community or a largish mall. There, they design spaces where people would naturally congregate and hang out.
And there are different systematic ways in which one creates a space where people would actually want to hang out. Of course, the commonest ways is to study a public place where people are already doing it – find out the precise spatial parameters which enable that kind of interaction, and then replicate the same parameters in the new space being designed.
If I was an architect, I would definitely record your article as a very useful input in urban planning. Or even as a historian, as a record of how we used to live.
Again – I like this piece. I think it is a piece of permanent value, just like a piece of fiction like malgudi days is of permanent value – it gives an insight into a culture in a particular time and space.
Atrakasya
Wow! I mean it was just a walk down memory lane. Yes it is a insight into a culture at my time but certainly not a record for any historian.
Thanks for the comment. It makes me feel I am writing something highly inteligent.
Punds
Punds, I beg to differ – I think it is very very important that such glimpses of lifestyle are documented for posterity.
You should write more stuff like this – you seem to be good at describing aspects of lifestyles. You caught the small nuances and the culture of the katta quie well.
I guarantee you this – 200 years from now, historians will be digging out ancient blogs to discover things. How many blogs do you think are on a Katta? How many explanations are around that tell you exactly what a katta is?
And do you realize that if your own grandkid reads this, he/she will get a precise idea of a bygone era? Whatever you write, it is something you pass on to posterity, my friend.
I mean, I wish my greatgrandpa had written stuff like this – I would totally go through it in detail to know what it was like in those days – through the eyes of my own greatgrandpa, imagine!
The things that we think inconsequential are not always so inconsequential. So, do write more stuff like this – we need such lively documentation of our times.
BTW, in west african – katta means “human”, and the australian aborigines mean a tiny hill, when they say katta. (just looked it up on google). Don’t both these words match the culture of the marathi katta?
I remember reading couple of posts from Ur “Living Bombay” series ages back on Sulekha.. Had lost track for sometime.. only to re-discover them again now !! On one of these days..will go through Ur archives at leisure. Meanwhile keep ’em coming mate.
The Katta i use to frequent (on weekends & during vacations) was Thane’s Talaaao Paali . It was one helluva long katta circumventing the lake . The best part was that the Paani Puri/Bhel Puri waala bhaiyaas were just arm’s length away from this Katta.. so whenever you got tired of bakwaasing / ogling you could refresh instantly over couple of plates of Paani Puris !!
Thanks Atrakshya
I still don’t know what you name means? Thanks again for the encouragement. That was a good info on the meaning of katta in different languages. Its amazing how they come close to what i was saying in my post.
Parikrama
I know you from Sulekha as India whining. read Vi’s comment too that she got to your blog using the “India Whining” link. I thought I should change it but then decided against it. I like that name. Yaar! Kya yaad dilayi. I have seen that lake. Evening is so wonderful there. Been there just once during the Ganpatis, i think. Thats one great katta out there!
Ash
That is a katta i like. Just opposite to the ocean. I once went to a friends place for New year and his village was near the ocean. At around 3 we sat on the wall near the ocean but it was december and it was damn cold. But we liked it a lot there. The sound of ocean!
Punds
Punds,
my nick is completely synthetic – doesn’t mean anything to the best of my knowledge. However, the predecessor of my nick that I used earlier (atracus), was synthetic too – I hadn’t taken it from anywhere. Yet, a couple of years after I synthesized the nick, I was surprised to discover that atracus was the name of a species of snake.
So, I guess one never knows – atrakasya may mean something that I am unaware of.
Lovely. It’s always great to meet another Bombay fan. Very nice post. Which area of Bombay is this ?
Thanks Atrakasya for the explaination of your name.
Bombay Addict
There are some nice pictures on your site. The place i described is Borivali (west) but if you are from bombay, every gali has a katta, right?
Punds
hi monika i hope u will be my best friends u give me ur number i hope i call u 9867861204 that my number
wah wah …. kya blog hai, ustad.
your Katta talk surely took me back to my school/college days and to those numerous evening hours spent wonderfully at our katta discussing all possible topics under the sky.
our katta was between the highway & a service road and once we were even asked by 2 police-walas to stop using the katta bcos it could be dangerous to cars using the service road !
but then few days later, after changing our adda to a ground nearby, we were back at our old katta.
I also agree with Atrakasya (Atracus) that your blog should be used by all urban planners / architects when planning urban living spaces.
badhiya hai.
taks
[…] Then, a couple of months back, I was missing my wonderful city of Mumbai so much that I decided to “google” for anything others like me might be writing about that wonderful city – articles, blogs, discussion forums. And thats how I stumbled over Punds’ wonderful Mumbai-Series post and his blog … man, that sure made me nostalgic. And that was the day I got struck once again by blog-mania. […]
[…] The Sugandhi Katta […]
[…] reader pointed out that one of my post about the Kattas of Mumbai was mentioned on the page 4 in the Hindustan Times, Mumbai edition. The link if still exist can be […]
..quite intresting got to know what katta is
whole life insurance verse term life insurance…
capstone drapers officiate …