Another Interview and Library Study at the NCPA

Tuesday, December 11, 2018
Bombay

Another Interview and Library Study at the NCPA

     Namaste from Bombay!
     I awoke at 6.30 am today--the reason I keep jotting down my wake-up time is that I am amazed at how it keeps fluctuating daily. I am routinely waking at 4. 30 am (yes, still) and if I am lucky, I will nod off again and awake after 6.00 am.  If I am too wired, it is more like 5.30 am. Anyway, it seems to work for me to wake up early and get started on my laptop. And I do have the luxury, most days, of taking an afternoon nap.
     As usual, I blogged, read Twitter and checked my email before getting ready for my day.  I had an appointment in the city in the morning--with Khushroo Suntook, Director of the NCPA--plus I wanted to get on with some reading in the library. Breakfast of muesli and coffee done (during which I continued to watch The Two Fat Ladies) and I was ready for a shower.  Only I found out that I had no water! So no shower!
      I dressed and left and was in the city by 10.45 am. I used the time before my interview to fish out the latest book that I am reading--Theaters of Independence by Aparna Dharwadkar--an Indian-American academic that I had met briefly once, long ago, at an MLA Conference--as I am finding it very useful for the manner in which she has grounded her study of Indian language theater in India. Since I am focussing on Western performing arts, her book might be a good model to follow in terms of structure and theory.
    My interview began at 11. 30 and went on for one more hour--till 12. 30 pm. It is amazing how busy the Director is and how crazy his life can be with so many people begging for his time. Now I understand why I had to wait for so long to get these interviews with him.
     As I had not made a sandwich today, I walked off to the INOX Theater's Food Court for lunch as I was quite keen to taste the Frankie--"a mutton-egg roll in naan"-- as I remember it fondly from my teenage years in Bombay when it used to be sold by a company called Agha's at Electric House in Colaba.  I have fond memories of long BEST bus drives as a family on a weekend evening when we'd get to Electric House and my Mum and Dad would take us to Agha's for a Frankie. It was always delicious. Well, it turned out that the one I ordered had far more onions in it than I remembered plus the masala wasn't exactly like the one I recall. Still, it made a good meal with a sweet lassi that I ordered from Tarachand--another food kiosk in the Food Court.
     Back at the NCPA, I returned to the book I was reading and continued to make notes. I am finding it exceedingly difficult to sit at the library for a long time as the chairs are so horribly uncomfortable and merely twenty minutes into reading, I get a really horribly aching back. I actually have to bend over at the waist and continue to read if I want to get rid of the pain. As it turned out, I had a lot of notes I wanted to make from the book and thought I would just get the pages photocopied--when it struck me: I wondered if the book right be available at the NYU Library because if it was, I would be able to access it with my ID card online. And guess what???? It was!!!! I was thrilled. I do have wifi at the NCPA Library and I was able to download the book. I was particularly keen on the helpful appendices at the back that Dharwadkar has provided--plus the excellent extensive Bibliography (some of which would apply to my work). I have all this now on my fingertips and can continue to work on it at home (where I can eliminate the aching back!).
     I waited till 4.00 pm to finish browsing through those bits of the book that are relevant to my study and then I left. I was home by 5.00 pm for a cuppa--I was dying for one. But then, my neighbors at the entrance told me that there was no electricityh and that it would come back at 6.00 pm. Oh dear! I was so looking forward to some tea (but without my electric kettle, I could not have one) and a shower (but without my geyser, I could not have one). So I had a nap instead!
     Twenty minutes later, I hear a commotion downstairs and discovered that the electricity was back. I fixed myself a pot of tea with two cheese sandwich biscuits out of a packet--they are delicious!--and then I went in for a nice shower.  Since the weather is lovely and cool now, a hot shower feels so good.  All these months, I had the shower on tepid--as hot water was much too overwhelming in this climate.
     Then, I left my house for Dad's, but I had only about 20 minutes with Russel today before I had to leave a bit early for Mass.  I told Dad to follow when he was ready as I needed to run over the reading for the day as I had been assigned it as a Lector. Following the Mass and the reading (which went well--phew!), I walked home with Dad who was full of the assembly election results and the good showing by the Congress against the BJP. He had been glued to the TV all day as the results poured in.  They had been see-sawing all day, he said, with the Congress celebrating prematurely as early results showed them sweeping. By the end of the day, it was obvious that they were neck to neck in many states. Still, it kept most of the country on edge as these results are a good indication of what will happen during National elections 2019. Suffice it to say, that overall it was a big debacle for the BJP and a big victory for the Congress.
     I got back home for dinner--chicken curry, a cutlet, a pan roll and some cabbage--and finished watching Hot Fuzz. It turned out to be the silliest movie you can imagine and for the life of me, I cannot understand how so many actors agreed to do those silly cameo roles. It was also perhaps one of the longest movies I have ever seen--it had Simon Pegg and Nick Frost in it and it was crazy!
     I fell asleep at about 10.30 pm after another day well-spent thinking that I really ought to start sending out our Christmas letter tomorrow as well as doing a bit of gift shopping.
     Until tomorrow....