Wednesday, August 29, 2018
Meeting my Mentor at Sr. Xavier’s College and Attending an Interdisciplinary Lecture-Demonstration.
Namaste from Bombay!
I awoke very early in my West End Hotel room, blogged, caught up with email (Thank Heavens for the WiFi in such places) and then went down to the Dining Hall for Breakfast at 8.00 am. Once again, I was greeted by a bevy of waiters eager to please. I decided to stick with an Indian breakfast today and I enjoyed a hot idli, vada and sambhar with superb coffee. A waiter asked if I would like to have an omelette—I told him, No thanks, I will stick to an Indian breakfast today. He then asked if I would like a dosa. Now who can resist a dosa hot off the griddle? I said I would love to have one. And ten minutes later, he produced this crisp and delicious treat with accompanying sambhar and coconut chutney—so good! With fresh tropical fruit (papaya, watermelon, pineapple), it made a marvelous start to my day. I am so grateful for this hotel room that is offering me the space to be alone, get my work done, have the meetings I need to get started on my research and yet be close enough to see Dad daily.
A Meeting at St. Xavier’s College:
Talking of meetings, I had one scheduled today at 12. 15 pm at St. Xavier’s College with Dr. Pearl Pastakia, Head of the Department of English, who will function as my Fulbright supervisor. Accordingly, I showered, dressed a bit more formally than I would for the Bombay tropics and walked to St. Xavier’s College. I thought it would take me about half an hour—but it took me only twelve minutes. Since I was very early, I explored the three quadrangles that make up this lovely Victorian Gothic structure that was built in the late 1800s. Being at Xavier’s for the year will undoubtedly give me a chance to explore its history and learn a little more about the college and its founding.
The canteen was abuzz with noisy, talkative students enjoying their break. I went past it to find a little corner of the college where I got out of the heat and settled down with my Ipad to continue reading. I have downloaded the new biography of Prince Charles by Sally Bedell Smith and I am enjoying it very much indeed. I have gone through his rather lonely childhood and confused adolescence that included three years at Trinity College. Cambridge, and have just reached the point where he met the then still single Camilla Shand for the first time. Although he is deeply smitten by her, she is less impressed and only flirts gently with him. She apparently, only had eyes for Andrew Parker-Bowles with whom she fell deeply in love and whom she married. What a gossipy look at Royal life the book is!
My meeting with Pearl went off really well. She is the sweetest person—soft-spoken, gentle, charming. She greeted me warmly and welcomed me to Xaviers. I thanked her for the work she put in, on my behalf, to bring me to Xavier’s as a Fulbrighter. We met in the ‘Staff Room’ of the College that includes a wide balcony that overlooks a patch of greenery.
Pearl then took me on a tour of the college. She showed me the classrooms, the Multi-Media Room (where, a few years ago, I had given a lecture), the canteen, the administrative offices, the Room occupied by the Department of English. It is a real pleasure to walk through their historic Gothic corridors that are kept in fairly good condition. Maintaining these spaces must be a labor nightmare and I could quite understand why they look so worn out—dust is a real curse in the Indian atmosphere and every surface of the college seemed dust-ridden including the English Department where Pearl had hoped to provide me with a corner in which I could work.
Pearl also took me to meet the outgoing Principal, Angelo Menezes who had arranged for my stay as a Fulbrighter at Xaviers. I expressed my gratitude to him for facilitating my arrival in Bombay as a Fulbright Fellow and for providing the paper work that had made the appointment possible. When we talked about office space for me, he was far from forthcoming and I shall have to find a way to resolve the impasse. It is impossible for me to believe that on a campus that houses three quadrangles and so many hidden nooks and crannies, one cannot carve out space for a Visiting Scholar. We shall see...I am ever the optimist.
A Most Unexpected Musical Treat:
Pearl then told me that she would be delighted if I could stay for a lecture-demo by a Bengali poet-scholar-performer named Dr. Chandranath Chattopadhaya who was winding down a series of 15 lectures he had conducted for students of interdisciplinary studies by presenting his final session that afternoon. She had asked his permission to bring me to the session and he was delighted to have me. By the end of it, I was simply enthralled. Quite unexpectedly, I found myself in the presence of a multi-talented individual whose work combines Comparative Literature (English and Bengali poetry of the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries) with Indian music as a singer and composer. As if his own contribution to contemporary transcultural studies is inadequate, he also happens to be the great grandson of Bankim Chandra Chatterjee who is well known to readers of Bengali and English Poetry in English as the author of the Indian patriotic song, Vande Mataram. You can just imagine how privileged I felt to have had the chance to meet him. His daughter Jiniya was also present and she did much of the singing. What a wonderful thing—to pass on your talents and your interests to your daughter. I thought the father-daughter duo were a true delight to hear.
What Chandranath did, through his lecture, was bring Victorian (Robert Burns) and even Shakespearean poetry (he referred to the work of Ben Jonson—‘To Celia’—“Drink to me only with thine eyes...”) to the attention of the students and to juxtapose it against the work of Indian Bengali poets such as Rabindranath Tagore and Kazi Nasrul Islam. He told us personal stories about these poets and the manner in which their exposure to English metrical rhythms led to their imitative compositions. For example, the Scottish ditty ‘Auld Lang Syne’ inspired a response in Bengali from Tagore. Who knew?? He placed the lyrics on a PowerPoint presentation and encouraged the audience of 25 students to sing with him as he played the harmonium. I was amazed at the effortless manner in which he brought Indian colonial history, the stars of the Bengal Renaissance, British attitudes towards Indian composers, the intricacies of performance arts, etc. together to create a vibrant capsule of the kind of music that was influenced by cross-cultural similarity and that continues to be sung in Bengal today.
I saw, from this one day, how easily my Fulbright experience could bring unexpected forces of performance art into my life as a Fellow—in ways that I might not even expect. I was so grateful to Pearl that she included me in this session and to Chandranath for permitting me to participate in it.
Back in Bandra at Dad’s:
Pearl dropped me off in a cab to Marine Lines station from where I took the train to Bandra. I am beginning to feel comfortable using public transport and understanding how the system works—for instance, I had to ask women around me where the First Class Ladies compartment is typically found on a suburban train (right in the front). I also discovered that a lot of ladies ride the General compartment where, I suppose, there is safety in numbers during hours when the crowd is thin (yes, there really is such a thing in Bombay, as I am discovering).
I took a rickshaw to get to my Dad’s building and I spent the evening with him. I was delighted to discover that with some tweaking and a visit to the man who sold me my SIM card, my phone started to work with a Bombay phone number. Hallelulah! I am now connected by phone plus I have internet connections at my finger tips. It makes a world of difference to be able to pick up the phone and be able to reach out to people.
Somewhat disappointed, I discovered that the registration process for my rental studio has to be rescheduled. I will receive the contract papers in the mail this afternoon after which I shall peruse them carefully and then sign the registration papers on Friday. No matter. This delay gives me a chance to sort out exchange issues with my bank, etc.
At 6.45 pm, I joined my Dad at the Novena service to Our Mother of Perpetual Succor to whom I have had an enduring devotion since I was 17 years old. This was followed my Mass and a quick dinner at Dad’s before I said goodbye to my Dad and Russel and left for the night at the West End Hotel. I was also pleased with myself that I found a 220 bus pull up at the bus stop just as I got there. Naturally, I took it and for Rs. 10, I was at the station in the same amount of time as it would have taken in a rickshaw as both vehicles are fighting the same amount of traffic. I took the train to Churchgate and was at my hotel by 9.30 pm.
On a slightly negative note, I am sorry to say that air pollution in Bombay has already caused an irritation and dryness in my throat. I am hoping that I will gradually develop immunity to it.
By then I was very sleepy—so I did not waste too much time getting ready for bed and going off to sleep.
Until tomorrow...
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