Interview with a Pioneering Musician and A Truly Brilliant Play

Wednesday, November 21, 2018
Bombay

Interview with a Pioneering Musician and A Truly Brilliant Play

     Namaste from Bombay!
     I'm not sure I am entirely happy with these late wake-ups...now averaging 6. 30 am. It means a rush through my blog post, downloading of The Times of London and my work out at the gym. Something, I suppose, has to give...and I am not happy when it is my workout.
     Today was one of those days--I had a muesli and coffee breakfast, showered and was out the house at 9.20 to get my 9.45 train from Bandra Station.  I was headed to do an interview with a woman called Jini Dinshaw in downtown Bombay.

An Interview with a Unbelievable Musician:
     Jini Dinshaw's name and number were given to me by adoring members of the Symphony Orchestra of India who trained under her. They had spoken of her with awe, reverence and respect. I could not wait to meet her.  The Dinshaws own the fourth floor of a building called Ventakesh Chambers opposite the Tata Telecom Building, one of the city's first skyscrapers. Jini has a music studio on the terrace of the building. In it, her piano and musical paraphanelia reside besides a lifetime's worth of memorabilia.
     I took the train to get to her place, then crossed the Cross Maidan on foot and arrived ahead of schedule. Her building is sandwiched between three famous Bombay schools--The J.B Petit School, Alexandra Girls High School and the famed Cathedral and John Connon School. Like most Parsis of her vintage, despite her almost 90 years, she is as slim as a reed. The years sit lightly on her beautiful face and her mind is as lucid as a bell.
     I had the most wonderful time talking to Jini about her life and the tragedies that have befallen key figures of the golden era of classical music in Bombay. By the time we finished our conversation, I had reams of notes and cannot wait to write about this little old lady and her contribution to Western classical music in India.  She founded the Bombay Chamber Orchestra and remains, to date, the only Indian to have received the MBE--Member of the British Empire--from the queen.  Yet, two years ago, she suffered a stroke that left her entire left side paralyzed.  She can no longer play the piano, but she can still play the violin and she still continues to play in the symphony orchestra.  What an inspiring person she turned out to be!
     I suppose I ought to have gone to the museum as I had no afternoon appointment--but I decided to go home for lunch and a nap before my evening's engagement.
     And that was exactly what I did! Lunch was green chicken curry, spinach and corn tartlets and methi with potatoes--all wonderful! I then took a 20-minute nap and when I awoke, I transcribed my interview with Viraf Pocha. I need to meet him again as we did not finish our conversation as he is able to offer me incredible historical details about the early English theater in Bombay through his family connections.
     When I finished my transcribing, I had a cup of tea with chocolate truffle cake and part of the chocolate eclair I had purchased--wickedly sinful of me, especially as I did not have the time to work out today.
    Then, I left for Dad's and spent the evening with Dad and Russel.  Dad left for his novena but I could not join him today.  Instead I stayed on and took off the dressing attached to the tiny hole made by the needle aspiration that had been carried out at the hospital to remove the fluid from Russel's knee. That done, I left and walked to The Cuckoo Club as I had tickets to see a play.

Seeing Khatija of Karmali Terrace:
       Khatija of Karmali Terrace has been penned by Quasar Thakore Padamsee of QTP Productions--he is the son of Dolly Thakore and Alyque Padamsee. He has clearly inherited the drama genes from both his parents.  Although I am not sure he continues to act (I had seen him on stage, ten years ago, and was frankly not impressed), he has turned into a producer, director and writer par excellence.
     The play is a one-woman show based on the life of Quasar's grandmother (Alyque's mother) who was called Kulsumbai. The building she owned and lived in on Colaba Causeway was called Kulsum Terrace (her husband had named it after her). The actress playing her was Jayati Bhatt and she did the most brilliant job. That said the script was so marvelous that it would be hard for any actress to ruin it. I was so impressed by Quasar's talent that, at the end of the play, I wanted to wait to meet him and congratulate him on his achievement--forget about the prowess of the actress. I realized that it was not just the names that were dramatized but also key events from Kulsum's life including the suicide of her eldest son Aziz (Sultan or Bobby, in real life), her husband's infidelity and bullying from her older sister-in-law for the family's real estate holdings. She held her own fiercely, however, through the ups and downs of her life and left the audience hugely awed by her achievements. A truly brilliant performance!

Off to Doolally:
     Shahnaz, who accompanied me to the play, then suggested we join the members of her Book Club at Doolally, a beer bar, at Khar--so we hopped into a rickshaw and got there in about fifteen minutes, reaching at about 9.00 pm.  It was wonderful to put faces to the many names I have heard her speak about through the years. They welcomed me warmly into their midst as we got to know each other.  We sipped Belgian White beer and entered into a long and interesting game of Scrabble--boards and tiles were available at the venue and everyone was seated casually at play at the end of a Pub style quiz which we had just missed.  Seriously, Bombay blows me away in the variety of evening activity it is now able to offer its young folks.
     Shahnaz's friends Nandini and her husband Dinesh then dropped me home in their car.  I had my dinner and finished watching The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society that I had started watching during my lunch--as you can see, I have returned to watching movies with a vengeance.  It was quite wonderful and what made it especially so was seeing that a lot of it had been shot in Clovelly in Devon which Shahnaz and I had visited, two years ago. Clovelly, in fact,  stands in as Guernsey Island (one of the Channel Islands of the movie's title). I finished watching it (liked it) and went off to bed at 11.30 pm.
     Until tomorrow...