Tuesday, February 5, 2019
Bombay
Another Interview, Banking Chores and Work
Namastefrom Bombay!
It wasn’t much of a day, to be honest, but it feels good to return to routine again. Up at 6.00 am, I actually finished my blog post but had not finished proof reading it and posting it when I got up to wash and eat my breakfast of muesli and coffee. Before I knew it, however, it was time for me to shower and leave for my morning’s interview appointment. My blog post, therefore, lay on my computer, waiting to be posted…
An Interview Close to Home:
It was with a huge smile that I set off for my interview appointment as it was literally just two buildings away from mine, on my very own lane. I was meeting Etienne Coutinho who is known to be a director of large-scale stage plays. His name was suggested to me by my friend Annabelle whom I had also interviewed about two months ago. I knew nothing about Etienne—had never even heard of him—so I was eager to hear what he had contributed to Western drama in Bombay.
Our conversation took place in his home which, from what I am guessing, was one of those old Bandra bungalows that was given over to developers—so while a high rise building came up right above it, the original bungalow was retained. I could guess that by the original ceramic floor tiles which were just gorgeous.
Etienne and his wife Blossom were welcoming and we settled in the living room to chat. It turns out that he has worked on the Bandra Zonals and on larger productions with the new crop of writers/producers/directors that emerged long after I left Bombay. Towards the 1990s, the trend changed (as I am rapidly finding out) and the classical British and American theater was abandoned as irrelevant while the search for original, indigenous material began. Etienne belongs to the group of directors who preferred to work with such material—material with which, they say, they can identify. Yet, I find it pretty baffling that although they wish to work with Indian material, they still seem to procure a sense of validation from the distinction of having taken their shows overseas—as if having a foreign audience for their show provides a stamp of approval of its quality. I had some probing questions to ask Etienne as our conversation continued.
I cannot pretend that I am sorry that the Golden Age of English Language Theater in Bombay has long passed and while I do think that the current work is relevant, there is nothing classical about it and I wonder if it will stand the test of time as say works by Samuel Beckett, Arthur Miller or Tennessee Williams have done.
We spoke for about two hours and then I excused myself as I had banking chores to do.
Doing Banking Chores:
I then rushed off to Jay, my photocopy man, to get some printing done as I had to submit a document to my bank and had to accompany Dad in getting some of his work done too. It was at the photocopy place that I realized that to print, I needed to get into my Google account. But I forgot my password! I made various attempts at getting in and in the end had to actually ask to have my password changed. As I got more and more frustrated, I was taken into my account and I got my printing done.
Meanwhile, Dad began panicking because I told him I would be at his place at noon and it was close to 1.00 pm when I finished. He called Jay to find out if I had reached there. Turns out that he was trying to reach me but I had placed my phone on silent as I did not want to be interrupted while I was working on my interview! Long story short, I have realized that If I am even 15 minutes late for any appointment with Dad, I should call and let him know as he panics really easily now!
It also turns out that he had really sad news to share with me. A very young neighbor had passed away—I believe he was under 40—and Dad and Russel were filled with sadness. He happened to have been a diabetic and his blood sugar had shot up and that was the end of it. I was plunged into shocked grief. There are just too many deaths. Dad actually had a funeral this very afternoon too—so he has been engulfed by deaths—so very many of them.
We left for the bank soon after and I have to say our job was done much sooner than I expected. Doing any banking work is rather trying in India as there is always a wait involved—there are just too many people looking for service from too few personnel. By this stage in the game, both Dad and I know most of the folks who work in the bank and they are extremely nice to us.
Back Home for Lunch, Rest, Work:
The rest of the afternoon passed by in a flurry of activities as I tried to tick off the items on my To-Do List one after the other. But first lunch: Valerie’s tiffin is of great help as I ate dal with white pumpkin (curry), eggplant with potatoes and chicken mince with peas. For dessert, I had freshly peeled pomelo. All the while, I watched Grace and Frankiewhich I am enjoying.
Back to the drawing board, I tried to get into my Gmail and that’s when disaster struck. As I had just used a computer at a cyber café, Gmail would not allow me to enter my own accounts on my own laptop without jumping through hoops—yes, I do understand that they needed to establish my identity for security reasons, but I got more and more entangled with their firewalls and ended up locking myself out of my own accounts completely. I simply could not get in again and was told that since I had made too many attempts, I had been locked out and would have to wait until the account was verified. So my blog post has probably disappeared (as I do not believe it was saved—well, hopefully, as a draft) and I can only access my mail through my phone (thank God for little mercies!). In desperation, I sent an email to my techie pal, Meredith in New York, but thanks to the time difference, I would not hear back from her for several hours! Truly frustrated, I turned to other tasks.
I had calls to make for two important interviews with personnel from the Symphony Orchestra of India who are visiting India very briefly—Marat Bissangaliev from London and Zane Dalal from Los Angeles. Some emails and a couple of phone calls to also secure tickets for one of the performances of the SOI kept me busy for a half hour.
I then tried to take a nap but barely slept as my mind is much too frenzied at the moment. So I awoke and read through two more chapters of my memoir manuscripts which required a lot of changes to be made as some links had to be established as I had restructured part of one chapter and placed it somewhere else. I then began transcribing the interview I had done with Alfred Dsouza and continued to do this until 6.00 pm when I stopped for a cup of tea. I raced out of the house again at 6.30 to get to Dad’s and went to Mass alone as Dad had attended the funeral mass.
Back home, I finished transcribing the interview and proof read it. Meredith, meanwhile, had woken up in the US and tried to help me, but we were finally informed by Google that they would take 3-5 working days to investigate my account and would get back to Meredith. We are now hoping that we will be able to retrieve and recover the accounts. There is nothing to do other than wait patiently for the time to pass. Meanwhile, it is good to know that I have my NYU account that allows me to send and receive mail—so I am not altogether cut off. It is only my blog that I cannot access or reach. Very frustrating indeed…but let us hope I can resolve this issue.
I watched Our Souls at Night, a poignant film that stars Robert Redford and Jane Fonda—these actors seem to have acquired a new lease on life. They were wonderful in a very quiet, very sad story about lonely widows looking for companionship. For dinner, I had the same things I’d had for lunch and fell asleep feeling far less fatigued than I had yesterday.
Until tomorrow…
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