I didn’t realize it then, but growing up in the Mudis was a very privileged upbringing. We were sheltered and pampered amid the most natural and beautiful surroundings, living in beautiful big bungalows and being raised amid a warm, caring family - that was the BBTC of my childhood.

When my parents married in 1959 Dad was at Nallamudi estate and that is where both my brother Homi and I were born. We don’t really remember much of living there or at Thoni Mudi where they next moved to. Our only memories were of living at Green Banks where my parents moved to in 1964. This would be our home for the next 11 odd years. My fondest memories of Green Banks were of waking up on the first day home from boarding school (the only down-side of growing up in the Mudis, to my mind!) and running down to the chicken coup below the bungalow to collect fresh eggs, then wandering across the beautiful lawns and gardens chatting with “mallis”, running over to see our pet sheep Pancho & Pedro and then going down to the “lower garden” to see if the company elephant Cauvery was there!

Homi and I had a blissful childhood in Green Banks. I often think now that our home was a veritable guest house with the constant flow of visitors we had. My Mom could have written a book on the people they hosted from company executives from Bombay & the U.K, one who snored so loudly that the whole house was disturbed, to a wonderful friend of my parents’ who unscrewed his wooden leg as entertainment for Homi and I – and the numerous prospective entrants to the BBTC family – one who brought his own food in tiffin carriers because he did not trust our cooking to another who stripped the linen off the bed and unrolled his own bedding on top. We loved having guests as so many of them were great entertainment for us.

While home on vacation, for the most part I was happy to stay close to home and to go out with Mum for numerous coffee mornings as I thoroughly enjoyed the company of all the “auntys” and had many friends in the district. Homi, on the other hand, could be seen all over the Mudis either on his bicycle or in some lorry or tractor that he managed to get a ride in. He loved the Group Workshop and much to Uncle Eric (Karambaya)’s consternation would spend a good part of the day there. When he wasn’t at the workshop, Homi was invariably at the Mukutto Mudi factory where I have heard, (but never seen) Homi was the bane of uncle Ram Nair’s existence as he would use the factory as his own playground!  Of course, we lived for Tuesday and Saturday evenings which were club nights. The only reason for one not being at the club on those nights was illness or one being out of town. As kids and teens the club was the hub for socializing, eating Anthony’s famous chips and playing “cops and robbers” in the car park.

Memories of Mudis could not be complete without mention of the following unique features:
The Group Hospital:  It isn’t so much the hospital that is worthy of mention but the doctors we had there. The hospital was run by a wonderful couple Dr. Munchi and Dr. Gool Disawalla. Munchi uncle was an excellent doctor and one of the nicest human beings I have had the good fortune to know. He was a deeply principled person with a wonderful sense of humor, his diagnosis were excellent, and he was a man ahead of his time in his insistence on car seat belts and helmets – even on bicycles – which we thought hilarious at the time. Munchi’s dog Cleo accompanied him to work every day so it was not uncommon to see someone peering under Manchi’s desk looking for the doc because if Cleo was there – Manchi was somewhere in the hospital!! 

The Mudis Telephone Exchange of old. To phone someone within the group one had to pick up the phone – wait for the operator- tell them who you wished to speak to! Phone numbers?? Direct Dial?? Oh no, never heard of that stuff!!! The amazing thing is that the Telephone exchange knew where everyone was. This was a typical occurrence with the exchange:

“Operator, please give me Mrs. Muthanna’s bungalow”.

“Oh sorry Madam, but Mrs. Muthanna is at the Group Stores. I saw her go inside there 5 minutes ago”!!!

The Mudis Talkies: Thursday night was English movie night. But no one said that the movie would be shown in correct sequence at all! Most often, unfortunately, we’d see the ending first, followed by the beginning and so on…. But for us kids it was still so much fun to go the movies because we got to see our friends there and well…. Where else could we go for a movie???

These along with so many others are my wonderful memories of growing up in the Mudis. We were lucky and blessed and though I now live a world half way round the globe from there my memories are never far from my mind.