BACK TO THE '90s BOMBAY

The Entities that Shaped The Culture of the City

- Sandesh Bhosle

What is Bombay to you? If you ask the 2-days generation, it would be a city they love for its high street malls, pubs and clubs. But for the people who were kids in the ‘90s, it would be a place they call home, cherished with memories. The city we’re seeing today is way too different than it was back then in the ‘90s.

Recently, we witnessed the departure of an iconic Premier Padmini Taxi from Mumbai’s roads, and it was not the first thing that left the city. Earlier, it was double-decker buses that went off the operation. The people who were kids in the ‘80s or were born in the ‘90s have seen the real Bombay, and I can bet it was magical.

KAALI PEELI TAXI

Let’s start with the most recent departure: the Premier Padmini Taxi or, in the language of Mumbaikar, the Kaali Peeli Taxi. When I was in primary school, I never wanted to sit in them, not because they were uncomfortable or noisy but due to the fact that I hated going to school when everyone was coming back.

The first time I realised the value of Kaali Peeli was when I took a rickshaw to commute from one place to another. Thank god to the people who refused to allow rickshaws into South Bombay; otherwise, the place would be shattered like goatshit. Then, when I was a teenager, I fell in love for the first time, and Kaali Peeli was OYO on wheels, iykyk.

As soon as I entered the adult stage, I was getting more solitary and at the same time, Kaali Peeli (the Padminis, not the Santro variants) was getting older, but the charm was there, the emotions were there, and I’m not the one who prefers to disown things when they were not needed. So yeah, I continued taking them for the commute in the city.