By Raj Lalwani, TwoCircles.net
Mohammed Anees has been selling pav (a type of bread roll) outside B Merwan & Co since the past 33 years. He comes in at around seven in the morning, when the activity inside is at its most hectic, and often waits till eight in the evening, a little after the place shuts.
The Anees family have a long-standing relationship with the 101-year old Irani cafe. Before 1982, it was his father who would religiously do the same. Every time I shoot a picture of his, he looks at it with great glee. But if you ever want your own picture outside the cafe with some friends, and hand him your camera, asking him to shoot, he will shake his head and turn away. “Sirf button press karna hai,” you may assure him, but he would solemnly refuse, saying that he is not a photographer.
Anees usually enters the cafe around half past five in the evening, just before it shuts, to get a meal. During Ramadan, the Parsi-run place lets him in a little later during iftar time, and serves him a meal, though the other patrons may have all left.
TCN series: Ramadan 1436