Keki Irani

Rasta Peth is another working-class area where I wouldn’t expect a Parsi to be staying. But Keki Irani stays here in a dingy dilapidated building that used to belong to his mother. His home has just one tiny window for exhaust. The floor is pot-holed, and his house is literally a hole-in-the-wall. Everything in it used to belong to his mother, Keki hasn’t added a single thing except a table fan. He is 64, and gets 4000 a month from renting out space in the building, half of which goes to his brother in Bombay. He spends 6 rupees a day on moong and 3 on methi, which he cooks and eats three times a day, but 18 bucks on a quarter of santra. When he has a little more money he treats himself to chicken at Blue Nile. Keki has been unemployed for the last 20 years. He used to be a driver at Kirloskar Pneumatic, but took up voluntary retirement when his drinking habits came in the way of his work and promptly blew up the 45000 he got on women.

The broken tiling that serves as the floor in Keki Irani's home in Rasta Peth