Rex Bakery, like Nariman House, closely edges the teeming back bylanes of Colaba Market. You pass a banana wholesaler, a couple of jewellers, two mandirs for Sai Baba, the Pravin Cloth Shop, Dr Neeta and Pravin Jain's clinic, Dr H P Mody's clinic, a whirring chukki (where wheat is ground into aata or flour) and Gala stores to get here. But your nose -- tracking the fragrant aroma of baking bread -- could guide you to Rajwadkar Street as well.
Dr Zorabi's clinic, Colaba Eye Clinic, is around the corner from the bakery and when you step into his clinic you realise you are probably in the most posh outfit in this locality.
Says the surgeon, "They were quite a lovely couple. Friendly, although they did not intermingle much with the locals. They minded their own business. The couple -- Gavi and his wife -- and especially Moshe (the Holtzbergs had one more child, Dovi, who suffers from the rare and debilitating Tay-Sachs disease and lives in an institution in Israel) were quite visible in this area. He was always clothed in black, the black gown, a white shirt with his black hat and glasses, a fair man. She also had glasses, was slim and fair and kind of attractive and about 5'4". They actually did not have much of any kind of accent. We always exchanged pleasantries -- how was your day, how are you... Gavi was always concerned about the cleanliness of this street."
Image: The Rex Bakery. Photograph: Vaihayasi Pande Daniel
Also read: 'Moshe, you are the child of entire Israel'
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