MUMBAI, Nov. 9 -- Zia Mody, co-founder and managing partner at AZB & Partners, is among India's top corporate attorneys. She put the Z in AZB, which she co-founded with Ajay Behl and Behram Vakil in 2004. Among India's leading law firms, AZB has a presence in Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai, and Pune, with over 800 employees. After pursuing her law education at Cambridge University (1978) and Harvard Law School (1979), she returned to Mumbai in 1983 and never once thought of leaving. In this interview, she talks about being a "pucca Mumbaikar" at heart, and why the city has produced some of the country's finest legal luminaries, including her father, Soli Sorabjee. At heart, my entire family is Mumbaikar. My father (former attorney general of India, Soli Sorabjee) was born here. My siblings and I were all born here. I was born at St Elizabeth Nursing Home at Malabar Hill in 1956. My schooling was at J B Petit, where I spent 11 years of my life before moving to Elphinstone College for my BA in philosophy and political science. It was only after that that I left to study law abroad in England and, subsequently, my masters in America. I came back to Mumbai in 1983 and got married to my boy next door (Jaydev Mody, chairman of Delta Corp). Mumbai is home. The city has, of course, changed, but the old haunts remain the same. Our favourite food places are still around. Our three daughters grew up in Mumbai, and two of them are back here, happily married with children. The third one is in Goa, happily married with children, but I think she misses Mumbai more than she lets on. The hustle and bustle, the network of friends over decades, are all that keep me grounded in this city. As a child, I lived on Nepean Sea Road. I lived in a bungalow with my parents, and it was, despite being a bungalow, quite cramped in the sense that we were four children. My grandmother lived with us, and it was a family which was bonded together simply because we were all in one house. We would go to the Willingdon Club, and I would also go riding as part of the amateur riders' club for many years. I participated in Gymkhana races as an amateur jockey. My brothers went to St Mary's Boys School, and as I said, when I came back from America, I married the boy who was literally next door. I am very happy that god granted me all that he did. My daughters, too, are married to men from different communities. One is a Punjabi, one is a Sindhi, and one is from Mangalore. Thanks to my husband, we celebrate Ganpati and Janmashtami too. These were all opportunities to celebrate all of us being together and explaining to the children what the religious importance of each festival was. Also, there is a meld (of languages). You're talking in Gujarati at home to your grandparents, you're talking with your parents in Gujarati/English, you're talking to people who speak Hindi in Hindi, and you understand Marathi because it's the language that you hear all around you. I also understood Konkani because my nanny, who I grew up with, was from Goa, and she would talk to me in Konkani. I think the tragedy of succeeding generations is that you lose languages along the way. So, whilst my children would talk to my mother-in-law in Gujarati, their children, I think, have lost Gujarati. It is no longer a spoken language in their homes. When the British left, they had four chartered high courts, which had something called the original side. Lawyers who argued and practised in the high court from the original side were really passionate and very well-trained. I would say Bombay and Madras were the two high courts which produced some of the greatest counsels. In Bombay, of course, you had (Nani) Palkhiwala, (Fali) Nariman, (Soli) Sorabjee, (TR) Andhyarujina, Kavas Daji, who was an old hand, (M C) Setalvad. That's some roll call! And then you had great judges. Judges who came either from the bar in Bombay or just got elevated through the ranks were just fantastic. When you argued before them, even as a junior (advocate), you felt that they would take care of you. Many a nervous moment for me in court was becalmed by Justice (M N) Chandurkar and several others. Some of our finest Supreme Court judges, too, have come from the Bombay bar. Former chief justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud, and now CJI B R Gavai, to mention a few. We've had so many judges from the Maharashtra cadre in the Supreme Court. You always felt (in Mumbai) you were a cut above the rest, and the Supreme Court was the ultimate goal to reach. Of course, there are great corporate lawyers as well, but to succeed as a fantastic senior counsel is, I think, the name of the game. I'm not sure. I always knew I wanted to be a lawyer. Elphinstone (College) was a BA degree because I thought that these subjects would help as a lawyer. Government Law College in those days was the premier institution. You had people like Nani Palkhiwala and Justice Y V Chandrachud coming to teach. And my father always told me that he had won a gold medal in Roman law. So those were the subjects that were taught back then. It was very much what we call first principles. There were many before, there are many after. You look at some of justice Chandrachud's judgements, you look at some of justice (Rohinton) Nariman's judgements, they all lay down jurisprudence, which again goes back to the basic values of the Constitution. And they're very nuanced in their own way. Some are worth reading, like the Ayodhya judgement. To see how the dissent worked, how the judges conferred, and what impact it had on India. But I think that these judgments will always continue to happen. To keep pace with them is great. It is impossible for me to write another book. I don't have time. But if someone could write a book on the ten greatest judgments for the last ten years, that would be great. It's inevitable. We're lucky we still have Marine Drive the way it is. But the rest of the city, if it has to develop, needs to have taller buildings. The heritage rules are the protect (the city) as much as they can. So, for example, in the bungalow that we live in today, we were required under the heritage rules to keep the facade the same. So, we did that and just changed the interiors. So, to the extent the city feels that certain areas or certain buildings need protection, it's fine. The heritage committee is quite vigilant about it, and they don't mess around. But, for the rest of the city, if it has to grow, how else does it develop? We are an island at the end of the day. We have to go up. You had mentioned that you like your food. Which are the places in the city that you would recommend to your grandchildren? Swati Snacks, which is legendary. My husband often goes to Mohammed Ali Road for biryani. We also go to the Juice Centre at Haji Ali from time to time. Restaurants have changed, but we still like China Garden and they know our menu by heart. We also like to go to some of the places at the Taj and the Oberoi. We like good Chinese food, and Royal China is one of our favourite spots, as is Wasabi. The new places, most of them, are at Bandra-Kurla Complex, and that is a long haul for dinner. So, we stick to what is closer to our neighbourhood. The children and grandchildren, too, like them. When we were kids, I used to go to a pani-puri guy at Babulnath Road and the pav bhaji guys at Nariman Point. It was cheap food and we had good immunity....