Dr. Irani and the deonar farm

Back in the years 1936-37 Amiruddin Ali’s father, Jabar Ali had stopped participating in politics and was focusing on growing fruit trees in his farm in deonar. Near his farm in Deonar, one Dr. Sohrab Irani, bought a big piece of land and this land had an adjoining border to his farm, separated by the nulla flowing from the BARC mountain to the creeks. {Dr. Irani was a successful medical practitioner, who had lived all his life in Central Bombay (Mumbai), had very little knowledge of farming, He was 6 ft. tall, strong as an OX. }

Dr. Irani’s land is where BARC Hospital is built now. Dr. Irani’s farm was 50 acres right next to Jabar Ali’s farm and another 50 acres in a nearby spot in Deonar. Dr. Irani wanted to build a fruit plantation on his farm. So in order to start, as Dr. Irani was not very knowledgeable about agriculture, Dr. Irani dug up some soil from some high land, and started to fill up the nulla next to his farm adjoining Jabar Ali’s land.. The nulla was the only drain for the rain water from the mountains to flow to the creeks. If filled up it would overflow and ruin the lands next to the nulla.

Jabar Ali walked over Dr. Irani’s land, when he was digging it to get soil for ****, and tried to explain to Dr. Irani that he should not fill up the nulla with soil, as it will flood the lands next to the nulla in monsoon season. Dr. Irani being a hot temperament person asked Jabar Ali to leave and threatened him of being thrown out if he did not leave and not to come back or if you do then “get thrown out again”. Jabar Ali left saying to Dr. Irani that “he will look into options to stop Dr. Irani from filling the nulla”, with Dr. Irani swinging his fists in air daring Jabar Ali to return.

Next day, morning Jabar Ali was inspecting Jalnaroji’s well on his farm which was adjoining Dr. Irani’s farm on the other side, and he happened to slip while going to inspect the well under construction. Luckily he fell from the stairs of the well onto a wooden plank that was place diametrically in the well about 10 feet below where he was standing. {Jal Naroji was Jabar Ali’s friend from their day at Cambridge 30 years earlier. He belonged to a very wealthy Parsi family and was a senior executive with Tata and sons. He and Dr. Irani have personalities as different as chalk and cheese. The Naroji family story deserves a full long chapter of its own.} 

Mr. Naroji saw this happen and saw Jabir Ali on the wooden plank unconscious, but not fatally injured. Naroji ordered his employees to quickly bring Tayab Ali out of the well, and immediately asked his driver to fetch his car. He raced to J.J. hospital in Byculla. 12 miles away and managed to return in just over an hour with an ambulance and a doctor. They got Jabir admitted to the hospital and under treatment in good time.

The hospital found Jabar Ali’s injuries were serious but far from fatal. By evening he was fully conscious. There were no head injuries only a brushed nose.

The very next day, Dr. Irani went rushing to the hospital to visit Jabir Ali with a huge bouquet of flowers. He hugged Jabir and said to him in Gujrati “Arree mara Deekra (oh my Son) what have you done” and wished him a speedy recovery. Dr. Irani even tipped the ward boys and nurses to take extra good care of Tayab Ali. “Take good care of that man. He is specially precious to me.” After 10 days at the hospital, Tayab Ali came back home for rest and recovery.

The relationship between the 2 people became even more friendly when Jabir returned home after a week. Dr. Irani arrived to Jabar Ali’s house with another bouquet of flowers and after a brief chat he said in a manner that could accept no negative answer “Jabir, from today you are my farming consultant. I know nothing about farming as you have realized, but I want my land to be developed into good modern fruit orchards. You are the only person who can help me achieve my dreams, so don’t try saying no!”.

This is how few years before independence, three highly educated persons (Jal Naroji, Dr. Irani, Jabir Ali) began their efforts to bring modern horticulture to the Bombay suburban area.