Lunch with Denzil and Ruth and An Interview in the Evening

Tuesday, November 21, 2018
Bombay

Lunch with Denzil and Ruth and An Interview in the Evening

     Namaste from Bombay!
     Today was a bank holiday in India--it was Id (one of the many Ids). Schools were closed as were banks and the courts. This was why my friend Denzil D'Mello (a Bombay High court lawyer) and his wife Ruth invited me to their place for lunch. I was eager to go as we have been close friends since our teenage years and it would be great to catch up.
    Accordingly, I awoke at 6.00 am, blogged, downloaded The Times and left for the gym. I spent an hour working out and then went straight to Dad's to drop off my laundry. Then I went back home for a shower and to change. I took a rickshaw to the D'Mellos as my toe is still a bit sore from my cut. I was there at noon on the dot.

Lunch with Denzil, Ruth and More Friends: 
     It was such a delight to be at the D'Mello's.  They had moved about 12 years ago and I had never visited their new apartment.  It happens to be the terrace apartment on a building with five floors. Their living rooms opens up to an enormous mosaic-floored terrace that Ruth has converted into a superb container garden.  It was simply spilling over with a riot of colorful flowers--tons of bougainvillea, orchids, buttercups--you name it, she had it. It was simply amazing. The view, looking out to the distant sea, was also pretty. The apartment is on level with the many coconut palms that are all over Bandra.  In fact, the best part of living in Bandra is that it is so green--everywhere you turn, there is tropical vegetation. The coconut palms alone continually make me feel as if I am living in a beach resort.  I absolutely love it.
     I congratulated Ruth on her brilliant gardening--she has a gardener who comes in thrice a week (she said that she could not possibly do it all alone--although in the West, we would if we had time on our hands). Ruth gave up her career as a secretary when her first child as born.  Denzil who switched from Banking to Law, many decades ago, has shaped into the best-known lawyer in Bandra on property matters and family law. He was tipped off for a judge-ship in the Bombay High Court only very recently. I am very proud of my friend and cannot wrap my head around the fact that when we were teenagers together, little did we think that we had the capacity to go out and conquer the world--and yet, in so many ways, each in our own way, we have.
     We were joined by another one of our mutual friends, Vinita (we were all in our church Youth Group together at St, Anne's Church, Pali Hill, many years ago) who came with her husband Herman Rodrigues whom I was meeting for the first time. Herman has the gift of the gab and it was such fun listening to everything he told us about his involvement in local community affairs such as the many controversies raging on at the Bandra Gymkhana and his wonderful craft work that he carries out at his farm about two hours' drive from Bombay. I am also discovering that while I was away, a lot of people bought property outside of Bombay--rural farms or beach-front villas--and so many of them escape from the city routinely at the weekends to tend their farms or to luxuriate by the ocean. I am getting many invitations to enjoy farm life with them--from my friend Annabelle recently  who has converted her farm at Powna into a full-fledged camping site and events locale and now from Vinita and Herman.  Sadly, my work is picking up so much momentum now that I cannot leave at the weekends and go anywhere.
     Ruth and Denzil have a cook (that's another thing: almost everyone in Bombay that I meet has a cook or someone who comes in to cook for them!) and were able to put out a lovely spread--a huge treat for a lunchtime meal. There were pan rolls, a pasta casserole, pullao, chicken curry, a lovely green salad and brinjal pickle. This was served after we'd sat on the terrace sipping cold shandy or beer and 'starters' that included cheese croissants, mutton samosas and chicken rolls! I was full by the time lunch was served! For dessert, we had Naturals' Fig Ice-cream and Apricot Ice-cream. Really such a treat! And what a grand way to spend the holiday!
     Vinita and Herman dropped me home in their gigantic station-wagon (that's yet another thing: everyone in Bombay now has a gigantic imported vehicle--or two). I just hit the sack when I got to my studio.  A lovely short nap later, I read a bit of the The Times on my IPad. I then decided to do something that I cannot believe I have not done in three months--I sat to watch an entire movie on Netflix at home. I chose Allied starring Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard and I realized, as I kept watching, that I had seen it before.  But it is a superb movie--a very tender love story set in Casablanca, Morocco, and Hampstead, London, during World War II. Really worth seeing. Now that I have discovered movies on Netflix, I really do think I will spend some time watching them.
   
An Interview with Yohan Jeffereis:
      Then, I left for The Cuckoo Club where I was supposed to meet Yohan Jeffereis who is the nephew of Alyque Padamsee--his mother was Alyque's sister Shiraz (known as Bee). The Cuckoo Club is a small theater close to Candies and McRonnels' which are popular teenage hangout spots about a five minute stroll from my place in Bandra. While waiting for Yohan to arrive, I made friends with Dolly Thakore's sister Esme who happens to be known to my brother Roger and his wife, Lalita.  We chatted for a while and then Yohan made an appearance and we found a quiet spot at Candies' next door where we settled down for an interview.
     Yohan was a fountain of knowledge about the Padamsee family and gave me so many little details about his father Deryck's involvement as Lighting Designer and Production and Stage Manager for so many Theatre Group productions.  He also threw so much light on the Padamsee clan--the vast lot of cousins, aunts and uncles that were produced by the matriarch of the family, Kulsumbai, who is the subject of the play that Yohan would be seeing later in the evening (and I will be seeing tomorrow)--it is called Khatijabai of Karmali Terrace but it is based on the original Kulsumbai of Kulsum Terrace (Alyque's mother).  You see what I mean when I say that my work and my leisure are intersecting in the most amazing ways!
     With the interview done, Yohan went to see the play next-door and I strolled off to the laundry to drop off one of my T-shirts--I dropped chocolate sauce on it, a week ago, but the stain has not gone with regular laundering in a home washing-machine. I begged my usual laundry man (who knows me well) to do his best to get it off. He told me that they often use color in chocolate sauce to make it look more choclatety--if there is color added, he told me, it would be difficult to remove...but he would try his best, he said.
    I dropped in at Dad's for just ten minutes as I was so close to this place and then I went straight home to have my dinner and finish viewing my film Allied.
    It was early (about 10.15) when I switched off my light and went to sleep after what had been another terrific day filled with old friends whom I have dearly missed.
     Until tomorrow...