Snagging a Major Interview in a Historic Venue and a Museum Visit

Friday, February 15, 2019
Bombay

Snagging a Major Interview in a Historic Venue and a Museum Visit

     Namaste from Bombay!
     Today was historic--in more ways than one! Not only did I snag an interview with one of the biggest current names in English language theater in Bombay--Raell Padamsee--but the interview took place in a most historic location. Yes, it was a huge day in terms of my field research.
     I awoke too early for my own good (about 5.00 am), so returned to sleep and did not awake till 7.15 am. Five minutes later, Dad called to ask when I would be coming to do Russel's dressing. I told him I was just awaking and could not give him a set time. I told him to get on with his day and I would come as early as possible at my own convenience.
      Dad is coping with a lot right now--a new full-time, live-in domestic helper called Rohit is being trained by Satyavati, the woman who has worked for Dad for almost 8 years and is on her way out. Russel is under the direction of a new physiotherapist who means business and has given a number of steps that must be taken to make life easier and more convenient for him--including using a cushion to heighten the seat level of his chair to make it easier for him to sit and using garden pavers to heighten the sofa--again, so that he can sit and rise from it more easily. The exercises he has suggested are also challenging ones that require the help of assistants, but Dad feels they cannot manage without him. I had to talk to him about delegating and not taking every thing on himself. I also had to talk to him about having confidence in the people he has hired and leaving them to do some of the work involved in Russel's physical rehabilitation. He says that he is now working on Russel around the clock and has not a free moment left to do anything else. He is looking to me for a lot of advice and help--the result is that I keep receiving calls from him frequently asking for guidance. I am here to help, of curse, but I find myself having to juggle my own responsibilities with giving a hand where I can.
     I raced through a blog post, called the bread man upstairs to buy one broon to make a lunch sandwich using cold roasted tongue, gobbled down my breakfast of muesli and coffee and then got dressed for the gym and went off to Dad's. I did Russel's dressing in very little time. I actually found his leg looking much better than I thought it would be. After I dressed his wound, I wrapped his lower leg in the crepe bandage as Valerian had told me to do. I then rushed off to the gym where I worked out for an hour--Go Me! Five days in a row of going to the gym has made me feel psychologically slim again!!!
     Back home for a shower, I got dressed, took the bus and train and arrived at Churchgate station. I had difficulty getting the cab today, but eventually managed. I arrived at Kulsum Terrace on Colaba Causeway earlier than my scheduled time of 1.00 pm. I killed it by sauntering down Colaba Causeway where I ended up buying a silver polishing cloth (the one I have at home in Southport was gifted to me by the English dealer at the London Silver Vaults when I had bought my sterling silver tea set from him--a tea set that I have carried to India and in which I have my pot of tea each day.) The silver polishing cloth cost me only Rs. 150--so I was very pleased indeed to find it. It is amazing to me how quickly sterling silver tarnishes here in Bombay--I have little doubt that it has much to do with the salt sea air of Bandra and the level of pollution in it. At home in Southport, I polish it about once every two months--here, I need to do so every two weeks!
     
A Major Interview in a Historic Setting:
     At 1.00pm, I was at the ground floor office of Ace Productions which is headed by Raell Padamsee in the iconic building known as Kulsum Terrace on Colaba Causeway. It was here in this building and in the flat that she occupies on the fourth floor of the building that Raell's uncle, Sultan (known affectionately as Bobby) Padamsee returned from Oxford University to found Theater Group in the mid-1950s. It was in a tiny room he occupied, next-door, that he committed suicide and left his mother Kulsumbai (after whom the building is named) bereft and mute for a whole year. This was so beautifully documented by Kulsum's grand-son Quasar Thakore-Padamsee in the play he wrote Khatijabai of Karmali Terrace which I had the good fortune to see at The Cuckoo Club during the Celebrate Bandra Festival, a couple of months ago.
     Raell was most helpful and promised, in the course of providing me with so much information, to give me a host of other Theater Group memorabilia--photos, programs, etc. To be seated at the famed horseshoe table that Kulsum had designed specifically to accommodate up to 14 people for Sunday lunch each week was an absolute privilege and I felt the weight of recent English language theater history settle about my shoulders as our interview progressed. Raell was also kind and thoughtful--she provided me with a delicious Club Sandwich for lunch while she ate her own gluten-free one. Roxanne, her assistant, sat by and also took notes to ensure that I would receive the material I needed.
     The entire experience was absolutely mind-blowing. To be seated in this huge drawing room in which so many of the earliest English plays were staged at a time when Bombay-audiences were starved of quality theater was a rare honor and I was so glad that Raell accorded it to me. There was a portrait of Kulsum and Bobby that dominated the space, there was another portrait of Shiraz (who married Hamid Sayani, mother of Ayesha--Pooh--Sayani whom I had also interviewed), there were loads of family photographs that celebrated the marriage of two of the greatest theater directors that Bombay has produced--Pearl Padamsee and Alyque Padamsee--whose children have gone on to make an equally substantial contribution to the theater--was something that does not happen to a scholar every day. I was struck by the rare scholarly privileges that have been bestowed on me through the decades--working with the Indo-British Kamala Markandaya in London when I was doing research as a grad student at Oxford at the age of merely 26 and now interviewing Raell Padamsee in the space that was inhabited for decades by some of the greatest names in theater history was not something I could easily get over. I know that it will remain one of the most important academic assignments I have undertaken and one of my most cherished memories.
     When we were done, I thanked her profusely and moved on. I will be seeing her again on March 5 when she puts on The Best of Alyque--a Tribute to Alyque Padamsee--her father, by doing excerpts from a vast number of the productions he had staged in his lifetime. It will be such a treat to relive again my own youth in the city of Bombay when I had functioned as a theater critic and reviewed most of his productions for the local press.

A Visit to the Shivaji Museum:
     The former Prince of Wales Museum has such a long name now that I cannot remember it and cannot even pronounce it--I am, therefore, going to refer to it from now on as the Shivaji Museum (because it is now named after this famous Maratha leader who fought hard against Moghul invasion of Maharashtra. He is famously known to have outwitted the emperor Aurangzeb by escaping from his prison in a basket of fruit!).
     My study of the first floor continued this afternoon as I perused works on Krishna--the most important of the Hindu gods, usually depicted with a blue face. Krishna's love for curds is legendary and he is often depicted in sculpture with a butterball in his hand. There were a vast number of paintings from the Gita-Govinda, a work that extolls the qualities of Krishna as well as depictions of Krishna on panels of embroidery, wall hangings, etc.
      The next gallery I visited was filled with Indian metal works--all Hindu, with the various avatars of Krishna well represented in small scale works. There were two large bronze castings using the lost wax method which in fact, originated in India; but I had seen massive examples of this type of sculpture in the Chola Bronzes in the Government Museum at Chennai, only a few weeks ago. There are also several glass cases devoted to Indian metalware in the form of jewelry (a more modern collection) which was also interesting.
     From this gallery, I moved onto the Buddhist gallery in which there is a large statue of the Buddha in a typical Gompa setting--of which I had seen many, as a teenager, when I had traveled with my family to far-flung places in North-Eastern India such as Gangtok in Sikkim and Darjeeling. There were lavish explanations on the wall about the tenets of Buddhism, its practice in India, the many figures that make up the pantheon (Bodhisattvas, for instance) and the various avatars of the Buddha (as Maitreya, Alokateshvara, etc). I was particularly struck by a splendid stone-encrusted metal plaque that was deeply reminiscent to me of the back of the Pala D'Oro (Curtain of Gold) behind the main altar of the Basilica of San Marco in Venice, Italy. I was in the process of taking pictures when the guard asked if I had a camera ticket--I did not even know I needed to buy one. Anyway, it was a wonderfully fruitful hour I spent at the Museum, after which I found that I have completed the entire floor and can now move on to the mezzanine and the ground floor.  

Taking a Ride one Routemaster Bus: 
     I took a bus from across the museum back to Churchgate. This was a double decker Routemaster bus (that are now pretty rare in Bombay) and I was so excited as I climbed to the upper deck and managed to get my favorite seat there--front and centre--exactly where I always sit whenever I am in London). Needless to say, I took a bunch of pictures from the top as the bus plied along Mahatma Gandhi Road and the one alongside the University of Bombay. The glorious Victorian Gothic buildings of these stretches made wonderful pictures and I clicked incessantly. Been There, Done That--another item can be ticked off my To-Do List (riding the upper deck of a red BEST bus in Bombay). What a throwback to my childhood! Did I say I was excited?

Back Home:
     I then hopped into a train to get home to Bandra. On the train, as I was still hungry, I ate the tongue sandwich I had carried. Back home, I made myself a pot of tea and ate chocolate cake and cheese sandwich biscuits. Then I left for Dad's to visit with Russel who has done a lot of walking today. The crepe bandage worked as the swelling in his lower leg has gone down considerably. However, the knee and upper thigh looked a bit swollen. I know from my own experience that therapy brings different results daily until eventually one recovers completely.  I told them not to worry but to let the therapy take its course. I removed the crepe bandage as it had been on for more than 8 hours, but I kept the roller bandage with the the dressing that was underneath in place.
     Dad and I then left for Mass after which I went home to eat my dinner of meatball curry with potatoes, cauliflower, ladies fingers and dal with a really sweet guava for dessert. I watched We are The Millers, a really whacky comedy that was very funny in parts and which was perfect for relaxing. Starring Jennifer Anniston (who acted beautifully), Jason Sudaikis and a really pretty Emma Roberts, it was silly but a perfect way to unwind.

Winding Down with the Oxford Webcam:
     I did have my Oxford Webcam going (from the Martin School which I have only just discovered, thanks to this webcam) after I got home and I wound down for the night as the sun set on another day and the city lights came on in this city that I adore. I love my new 'balcony' which offers me movement and human presence in my studio throughout the day! What a marvelous find it is!
     Until tomorrow...