A Visit to Dad's Doctor and an Evening at the Opera

Monday, December 3, 2018
Bombay

A Visit to Dad's Doctor and an Evening at the Opera

     Namaste from Bombay!
     I ear-marked today for accompanying Dad to Hoy Family Hospital so that he could get his annual visit to his endocrinologist, Dr. Vaishali Naik. So with most of the day yawning free, here is how I spent it:
     I awoke at 6. 30am, blogged, read my Twitter feed and zoomed through the headlines in The Times of London. It was peaceful next-door as the wedding preamble, which reaches its crescendo in the evenings,  had calmed down. I ate an almond croissant for breakfast with 2 cups of coffee to wash it down. Then I phoned Dad to find out what time he would like me to be at his place--he said 10.45. That left me with enough time to shower and begin transcribing my interview with Gerson da Cunha.
    At 10.45 on schedule, I was at Dad's. We took a rickshaw to Hoy Family Hospital's Out Patient Department where the place was fairly crowded. However, it is very orderly, peaceful and comfortable and, in due course--although Dad's number was 17--we did see the doctor and were out in under an hour. All is well with the health of Dad's thyroid holding steady. Next visit after a year.
     I hopped off at my place while Dad carried on home in a rickshaw.  I had another hour to continue transcribing before lunch, but I barely put in 15 minutes when Dad called to tell me that the man who has to come over to his place to measure Russel for a boot to enable him to start to walk with a stick through physiotherapy would be arriving in 15 minutes.  Dad wanted me to be present.  So I dropped everything and returned to Dad's place, finished off with the task that was carried out by one Mr. Vijay More and returned home again.
     I was hungry so I had lunch at home immediately--leftovers from my earlier tiffin although a new one was delivered today. While eating, I watched Come Dine With Me and then got back to the task of transcribing and proofreading my interview with Gerson. I also managed to get in a short nap.
     At 4.45, I left my home to take the train to go to the city. I was at the NCPA at 5.30 well in time for the 6.00 pm viewing of the HD Live screening from the Metropolitan Opera in New York of Puccini's La Fanciulla del West. Shahnaz was waiting for me inside as she had spent the day with friends in the city. I also ran into my friends Kamal and Firdaus and I saw Jinx Akerkar whom I interviewed last week.  It is nice to find familiar faces and have people that I can actually say Hello to--I am not as anonymous now as I was when I first arrived in Bombay.
     There weren't many people in the theater as this is not a very popular opera.  Also, its setting is weird--California during the Gold Rush.  It was a bit incongruous to see cowboys spouting arias! Still, it was fun and unusual and the music was great. Puccini considered this his best oepra--but it is a difficult opera to produce and, therefore, not staged too often. Shahnaz and I enjoyed it overall but it was not one of our most scintillating nights at the opera.
    I had snacked on chicken and chutney sandwiches through the evening bought from the snack bar plus I had nuts and biscuits in my bag. However, after a super quick cab ride home--that took exactly 30 minutes, if you can believe it--from Nariman Point till Shanaz's place--we were ready for dinner. I was spending the night at Shahnaz' place at Pali Hill to avoid the tumultuous din of the pre-wedding ceremonies next door.
     Shahnaz had pomfret curry and lovely kheema parathas for us for dinner and a kheer for dessert. Her son Hasan joined us from his late evening out halfway through dinner--so we sat catching up with him as well. At midnight, we finally called it a day as I used her daughter Azra's room to bed down for the night.  Shahnaz lent me one of her nighties and after brushing and flossing my teeth, I was off.
     Until tomorrow...