Bombay Bol: Jeet Thayil explains

Jeet Thayil

Sala

It's well known that the Portuguese gave Bombay its name. What is not so well known is that they also introduced the popular greeting, sala, which, as we all know, means living room in Portuguese.

Today it is heard hundreds of times a day in the leafy precincts of the city. Whenever I hear it, I smile because I always imagine the living room of Portuguese commandant Nuno da Cunha, who captured Bassein [Vasai] in 1534. Don't you?

Jeet Thayil is an author and musician