by Esther David
They had dinner, took a stroll around the block, returned and slept in each other’s arms, exhausted but happy. Whatever doubts Juliet had had about motherhood disappeared by morning as the light filtered in through the double lace curtains. She woke up looking forward to the prospect of having a child. Romiel pampered her with tea in bed. By late afternoon, however, Juliet began to feel that she did not want to give birth to the child in Israel. She wanted to return to India. She needed her mother more than anything else.
At the time, Juliet was working as a sous chef at a seafood restaurant and had a bright future in the food business. She finished work early, went home after shopping for supper, cleaned the apartment, ate a light meal and went to bed. When Romiel returned from work, Juliet was watching television and waiting for him. As a rule, because they worked long hours, they did not usually stay up for each other. Romiel sensed that Juliet had something on her mind. She was heating a bowl of noodles in the microwave with tears running down her cheeks. She said, ‘I want to go home.’
‘Home?’ he asked, holding her in his arms.
‘Yes, home…’
‘But this is home…’
‘No, during the sixth month, I want to be with Mamma and have the baby in Ahmedabad.’
Romiel laughed. ‘After so many years in Israel, home means Ahmedabad and you want to be with your mother for the delivery…’
That night, they decided that Juliet would resign from her job, pay the arrears and return to India. But, Romiel’s contract was more complicated, as he was the chef for the Indian menu at a five-star hotel, so he would have to stay back in Israel for six more months and follow her later. When they were both back in India, they would start a new life; by then the baby would have been born. Snuggling together in bed, they decided the names of the baby and the café. If the child was a boy, they would name him Aryeh and if a girl, she would be Maayan. Their café would be known as ‘Fun with Falafel’, where they would serve varieties of falafel with Turkish coffee laced with cardamom. They had researched the eating habits of Ahmedabadis and had come to the conclusion that they would do well. Both were experts in making falafels with a slight Indian twist and would serve them in a platter, like a one-dish meal, with French fries, gherkins and lettuce. They planned to have their café on the popular S.G. Road, which connected the Ahmedabad highway from Sanand and Sarkhej to Gandhinagar. They had been told by friends and family that all the eateries on this stretch did very well. They asked Ezra to send them details of possible sites to start their dream project.
Before Juliet left for India, whenever she had time, she made a variety of sauces to seduce Indian tastebuds, along with the typical green and red Israeli sauces. She was pleased when she hit upon the idea of making sweet mango chutney with ripe Alphonso mangoes and a tangy chutney with raw green mangoes. She had discovered that some agencies sold frozen mango pulp, and raw mangoes were available all year round. With her innovative mind, she would spice these up and create her own exotic version of Indo-Israeli chutneys. Juliet was excited by the thought that she would conquer Ahmedabad’s falafel market. Both she and Romiel were already well known in Israel for their falafel and Indian curries.
According to Israeli regulations, as Romiel was in his thirties, he was a reserve soldier, so there was always the possibility that he would be called to serve in the army. Both Romiel and Juliet had prepared themselves for this eventuality.
During the week of her departure, Juliet decided that she would not return to Israel again. One afternoon, she made chai for herself, lay down on the sofa chair and took a nap. She woke up with a start as she heard sirens. The glass panes of their windows rattled and she saw a huge flare of light. It was as if a meteor had hit their building, followed by a huge booming sound, as if a hundred tanks were rolling down the street below. It was a missile launched from the Iron Dome Missile Defence System to destroy the rockets aimed at Israel. Juliet immediately picked up her runaway bag with her passport, medicines and a bottle of water and ran down to the basement bomb shelter, also known as the strongroom of their building, where she stayed with her neighbours and their children.
Since the time Juliet and Romiel had arrived in Israel, they had finished a course in Hebrew at an ulpan in south Israel, where new immigrants were housed. From there, a social worker from the immigration department helped them find jobs in cafés and restaurants. They had worked hard, from early morning to late night, and eventually decided to settle in Ashkelon by the sea. From their fourth-floor apartment, they could see the turquoise-blue Mediterranean Sea, cutting along the sky like a sharp blue line, so serene, so beautiful and so peaceful. On some nights, they sat in their balcony, watching the two dark masses of sea and sky, gazing at the stars and listening to the waves. On full-moon nights, they never missed their late-night rendezvous. It was then that they forgot all their worries and day-to-day tensions and felt at peace, wrapped in the cocoon of their private world. But on that particular night, a week before Juliet was to leave for India, she felt her world had shattered. Although the airlines were operating as usual, Juliet and Romiel decided that she would fly to India before the scheduled date.
On the day of the flight, Juliet went through the procedures like one in a trance and, like a zombie, reached Ahmedabad’s Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport, where her parents were waiting for her. As soon as she hugged her mother, she wept as though she had lost everything. She regretted her decision to return to India. In her mother’s house, whenever the phone rang, she started. She watched the news about the conflict in Israel and dreaded the worst. Although she knew that Romiel was used to the situation, he would not be able to leave Israel unless there was peace.
The conflict lasted fifty days and those were the most difficult days for Juliet and their families. As planned, she did not go back to her apartment at Shalom India Housing Society but stayed with her mother in her old room, sometimes chopping vegetables, sometimes cooking, trying out a new recipe and zapping television news channels. Her nerves were on edge, although her gynaecologist had asked her to relax and exercise. Eyes brimming with tears, she told her gynaecologist that all she wanted to do was curl up and die. She was immediately sent to a therapist, who tried to divert her attention to other matters. Besides sending her to a yoga class for pregnant women, where they did regular exercises, she suggested that Juliet listen to music and get involved in activities like painting greeting cards or learning a new craft. It helped her wait for Romiel. Juliet would keep visualizing her reunion with Romiel at the Ahmedabad airport, when he would arrive with a happy smile. But that was not to be.
On the fiftieth day, when the conflict in Israel ended, Juliet received a message, which was also relayed in the media: We mourn the passing of a civilian, Rahul Romiel Abhiram, of Indian origin, aged thirty-two years.
Acknowledgements
THANKS TO ALL the Jewish characters I have created through the years. They stay close to me, like an extended family, and have reappeared in Bombay Brides.
While researching for my earlier novels, I had noticed that most Bene Israel Jewish men of Ahmedabad are married to brides from Mumbai. I would like to thank my publisher Krishan Chopra for his insights that helped me explore this theme. My thanks to Mala Dayal for editing this book, along with Amrita Mukerji, who was in continuous conversation with me, asking innumerable questions about my characters and illustrations, so that Bonita Shimray could design a striking cover. To Anand Zaveri of Swati Snacks, Ahmedabad, for making it possible for me to write Bombay Brides while sitting there almost every afternoon and to Somnath Chatterjee who solved my laptop problems.
About the Book
Stories of Love and Loss in a Transit Flat
When Juliet Abraham, who is Jewish, has a runaway marriage with Rahul Abhiram, a Hindu, their families are initially furious but soon relent. They buy the couple an apartment in Shalom India Housing Society, Ahmedabad. However, once the couple leaves for Israel, they rent out the apartment to a
series of tenants from the Bene Israel community, for each of whom it becomes the venue of an unfolding love story.
Myra comes to India from America to teach the Torah to Indian Jews. Wooed assiduously by Ezra, she instead escapes into a new life with a Hindu guru. Ruby rekindles an old flame, only to find out too late that men betray. Ilana, a strict and uptight police officer, is forced to meet potential grooms by her parents and realizes that it’s good to let loose sometimes. And Bollywood-crazy Sangita has many adventures in India as she tries to trace her grandmother’s grave. The mischievous Prophet Elijah, benevolently presiding over the small community, occasionally creates havoc but finally makes sure that peace prevails.
Bombay Brides is about home, heritage, rites, rituals and roots. It offers Sahitya Akademi Award-winner Esther David’s evocative observations on what it means to be the last surviving members of a diminishing community, accompanied by her exquisite illustrations.
About the Author
Esther David is an Indian Jewish author and illustrator belonging to the Bene Israel Jewish community of Ahmedabad. Her first novel was The Walled City, followed by Book of Esther and My Father’s Zoo. Her novel, Book of Rachel, received the Sahitya Akademi Award for English literature in 2010. She has also written By the Sabarmati and Ahmedabad: City with a Past, in which she explores the nuances of the city. Her novels have been translated into French, Gujarati and Marathi and have received awards for the French translation. Her work is included in the library of modern Jewish literature, Syracuse University Press, New York, and she has received the Hadassah- Brandeis Institute Research Award, USA, for documenting the Bene Israel Jews of Gujarat and the study of Indo-Jewish cuisine.
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First published in hardback in India by
HarperCollins Publishers in 2018
A-75, Sector 57, Noida, Uttar Pradesh 201301, India
www.harpercollins.co.in
2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1
Copyright © Esther David 2018
Illustrations by the author
P-ISBN: 978-93-5277-945-1
Epub Edition © October 2018 ISBN: 978-93-5277-946-8
This is a work of fiction and all characters and incidents described in this book are the product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Esther David asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
All rights reserved under The Copyright Act, 1957. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins Publishers India.
Cover design: © HarperCollins Publishers India
Cover illustrations: Esther David
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