Transcribing and A US Consulate Event on 'Women and Violence'

Friday, December 7, 2018
Bombay

Transcribing and A US Consulate Event on 'Women and Violence'.

     Namaste from Bombay!
      As I have said before, the thing about my life in Bombay is how unpredictable it is and how each day is completely different from the one before it. Today was one such day.
     I awoke early actually--about 5.30 today, and used the time to blog, read my Twitter feed and respond to email. This part of my life has become routine. I was also determined to go to the gym today. I ate my entire breakfast (Muesli and coffee) while watching The Two Fat Ladies whom I have discovered on You Tube--they were in Winchester at the Cathedral cooking for the choristers just before Christmas. How cool was that? I used to own their entire set of programs on VHS--but now, of course, with all of us using DVDs exclusively, I miss them so much!
      And then I was off. It was a late start at the gym (I got there just before 10.00am) and I  stayed till it closed at 11.00 am.  Felt great to get back to my workout. Hopefully, I will keep this up.  Morning interviews in the city make it difficult for me to fit in a workout unless I am willing to wake up at 4.30 and 5.00 as I used to do! The extra sleep is certainly better for me.
     Back home from the gym, I had a shower and was about to get down to work when I called Dad to tell him I would come to his place just before lunch to complete an errand. He told me that Russel's boot maker would be arriving in half an hour and he wondered if I would like to be present while Russel took his first steps with it.  I decided to go there although I would be right in the middle of some work.
     So I started transcribing my interview with Pooh Sayani and half an hour later, I dressed and went off to Dad's. The boot maker had just arrived and had fitted the boot on Russel's foot. This gives him stability and will probably facilitate his attainment of mobility.
     I did not stay long as I then went on to the bank. When I got there, I found a crowd at the window. I asked if the crowd was there to deposit money and I was told that all functions were being carried out at one window only (as the second clerk was absent today) and that the "machine" (by which I think they mean the computer) had broken down. I was darned if I was going to stand in such a long line when I had so much work to do.  So I made a right about turn and thought I would return to the bank tomorrow. This is one of the occupational hazards of living in India.  Things such as banking (which ought to go hand-in-hand with great customer service) are generally a hassle. I am banking with one of India's best and most reputed banks (The State Bank of India) and I still run into these sorts of road blocks.  It can get very frustrating--which is why I restrict my banking as much as possible and go there only when absolutely essential.
     Back home, I finished transcribing my interview with Pooh--by which time it was about 2.00 pm. I stopped for lunch and decided to proof read it after I had eaten. I ate more bits and bobs from my fridge as I want to finish up my leftovers--in fact, I suspended my meal delivery service until Monday as I do want to finish up all my food. I continued watching The Two Fat Ladies as I ate. In some ways, my TV entertainment is exactly the same as it was when I lived in London, two years ago.
     I took my 20 minute power nap, finished proofreading Pooh's interview and contacted Michelle, my Fulbright colleague, to find out at what time and where we would be meeting for our next appointment. We had been invited by the US Consulate in Bombay to attend an evening of screening of short films on 'Women and Violence'. This event was being co-sponsored by the Consulate and was  held at the poolside of the Novotel at Juhu. It was scheduled to run from 6-8 pm.
     I, therefore, decided to have an early visit with Dad and Russel. When I got there at about 4.00 pm, Russel's physiotherapist Lenita, was almost at the end of her session with him.  She told me that Russel is doing better with the walking stick instead of the walker and that the boot is helping. But sometimes, when he gets tired, he does not place his leg correctly on the floor and is appears to twist.  We all knew that Russel's rehabilitation would be a long and slow road--so I do not feel unduly unhappy that he is not progressing as quickly as we would like. I know that with patience (and prayer), he will do better and better as the days go by. It is his knee that does not provide him with the support he needs, plus he is reluctant to put weight on his fractured leg. Instead of picking up his good leg and stepping on it in the normal course, he keeps dragging it. He also tires easily and is reluctant to keep at it--he seems to lack the motivation to do so.
     After Lenita left, I stayed with Dad for another hour. I darned one of his pairs of shorts as it needing some mending and I also told them where I was headed.

An Evening Out at Juhu:
     At 5.15 pm, I left and met Michelle at the corner of my street. She arrived in a rickshaw that took us to Juhu. Finding the hotel was not difficult with Google maps-what would we ever do without it??? And what did we ever do before it???
     When driving in the rickshaw past Juhu Beach and in the area that is now almost unrecognizable to me because it is just crammed with upscale designer boutiques, expensive eateries, etc. that tap into the pockets of India's ultra-rich, I told Michelle about my college years when we used to hang out at the beach (much less crowded then), have camel rides on the sand (yes, camel rides during which the ascent and descent were the scariest things and always accompanied by peels of giggles), eat bhel puri and kulfi on the sands and go back home--that was a great afternoon out wth college buddies. In later years, once Chriselle was born, my parents and I would take her to the beach on a Saturday morning (when the beach was virtually empty) and they would sit facing the water while Chriselle and I frolicked amidst the waves. My Dad would then dig her a well so that she could stand in it and I would be helping her build a huge sand castle. We did this regularly for a couple of years at least and looking at the wide expanse of beach from the poolside of the hotel, I was filled with all these beautiful memories of years gone by in India.  
      At 6.00 pm sharp when we walked into the venue, there was barely anyone there.  This was one occasion on which I found that no one kept strict time. I suppose the moment you have a bunch of celebrities invited to an event, you can be sure that it will begin at least an hour late.  The Pool was surrounded by chairs and tables and there were two gigantic screens assembled there. A few US Consular staff could be seen but other than that, it was mainly the film-makers and their teams milling around.
       The hotel had a fabulous location and the pool where we hovered overlooked the Arabian Sea. The sun had just set and the sky was streaked with pearl-like luminescence. Next door, I was tickled to find the Sun and Sand Hotel, the oldest hotel in Juhu and the snazziest one before the international hotel chains came along. It is still holding its own in the midst of so much gentrification that I said Three Cheers to its longevity.
     Michelle and I found seats right in front that offered an unobstructed view of the screen (since we had first dibs) and chatted about her background.  She happens to be from the North Mariana Islands. I was shocked that I had never heard of this place--I who pride myself on my knowledge of global geography! It turns out to be one of the territories of the United States (such as Puerto Rico, Guam and Samoa-of which I have heard!) Who knew? They are located just north of Australia and Papua New Guinea and are a part of Micronesia. They used to be a Spanish colony until the 1940s when the US used them as a military base and then annexed them! Same story as in Hawai'i!
     Michelle looks like the native Hawaiians do--she is dark skinned and has very curly (corkscrew) hair. She could pass off for an African-American but, as she told me, she has no African blood at all. She is pure Polynesian! How cool is that??!! She went to school on her island--the syllabus is exactly like that of any US public school--and studied in the mainland US (at the University of Iowa) before securing her undergrad Fulbright Scholarship to India. She is working with the Tata Institute of Social Sciences on "Women and Violence in India" and was fully familiar with the context of the awards'  ceremony.  I was very pleased that I had the opportunity to get to know her a little bit.    
     A really funny thing then happened...funny and unexpected.  The two of us got talking to the women behind us--they all looked about my age and they were all film-makers. When I introduced myself and said my name, one of them asked if I had studied at Elphinstone College. When I said yes, she told me, we have been chatting on the Whatsapp group. I asked her name and she said Rashmi. And I said, "Rashmi Lamba?" And she said, "Yes". So there we were, recognizing each other from our names on our Elphinstone College Reunion chat group!
     As someone who is not on Facebook, this was quite fascinating to me--that we were able to make the connection. Naturally, she introduced me to her friends--one of whom I remembered well. She turned out to be Lijja Mathews who used to be a producer for Bombay TV (known as Doordarshan) and I had often appeared on her show which was called Young World as my Elphinstone College classmate Sharmila Mukherjee happened to have worked as her assistant producer on the same show! What a small world! Lijja is now a well-known director of films on women. Rashmi also makes films on Womens' issues--turns out that like me, she has returned to Bombay after many years as an ex-pat: she lived with her banker husband in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and then Toronto, Canada, before they returned to retire in Bombay. She lives in Juhu and she told me that she absolutely loves her life in Bombay--and I can see why.  She has easily picked up all her connections with other women film-makers and now falls within a neat coterie of female professionals who are doing meaningful work in an environment that strongly supports their talents.
     The show itself turned out to be interesting. A few short speeches from US Consular officials including the Consul-General who welcomed the audience followed by a screening of five entries.  These were 'shorts--films that ranged from one to five minutes each.  We stopped for a beverage and snacks break--there were sandwiches, chicken quiche, chicken patties, brownies and cake. The screening of five other films followed after which the audience was invited to opt for their winner as a special People's Choice award would also be given. The dazzling team of judges were people connected in some way or the other with the depiction of women in films and other media--I have to admit that, as a result of suffering from cultural illiteracy (I have been away from India for too long)--none of the judges' names meant anything to me. But I believe some of them were stars of local TV shows. As I do not watch any local shows, I do not recognize these local celebrities.
     A very long and very high brow discussion on stage among members of the jury followed during which most of the audience began to leave. It was a time when they were counting the votes actually--so they had to have some kind of activity going on then. But I thought it was hardly the right time to launch into such an intellectual dissection on the condition of women in film-making and of the depiction and portrayal of women in films as well as the sexual conditioning that we all undergo from birth and the sexism to which we are exposed every single day. If they had scheduled this discussion earlier in the evening, it would have been far more fruitful.
     The awards were finally announced and I was happy to see that my choice won second place--it was the first film screened (An Independent Day) and it had the entire speech that Prime Minister Nehru made on August 15, 1947,  in the background--the 'Tryst With Destiny' speech as it is known played ("At the stroke of the midnight hour, while the world sleeps, India awakes to freedom, etc"). Hearing that speech--no matter how often--never ceases to bring goose bumps to my skin. I thought the overall concept in that film was really great.
     It was 9.30 when the event ended. Michelle and I bought bread from the French bakery attached to the hotel and with our parcel, we hailed a rickshaw using OLA and got home at 10.15 pm.  I invited Michelle to come up to my studio to check it out--and made the disheartening discovery that my gun-throated neighbor (the blushing bride of two days ago!) is back and yelling lustily every time she opens her mouth! Michelle too loved my place and told me how lucky I was to have found it. She did not stay long.
     We have made plans to organize a Fulbright holiday party for the few Bandraites here and shall have a screening of Love, Actually--which is a part of my annual Christmas rituals--together with some good wine and victuals and shall bring in the holiday season soon.We will hold it at Michelle's larger apartment that she shares with a room-mate down the lane at Turner Road.
     I was asleep not long after Michelle left at the end of what turned out to be a most unusual day!
     Until tomorrow....