48 Hours...and Still Waiting! Plus Rockin’ and Rollin’ With Bombay’s Elvis

Saturday, March 9, 2019

Bombay

48 Hours...and Still Waiting! Plus Rockin’ and Rollin’ With Bombay’s Elvis

I’ve been coping—barely. At the back of my mind, through all my waking hours, is the fear that all is lost, coupled with the hope that something might have been saved. It is over 48 hours since I faced the crisis of deleting all the Documents from my Mac and because Rome was not built in a day—not even in 2 days!—I am still awaiting  the verdict from my Computer Therapist, Himanshu.

It feels odd not to have my laptop by my side when I awake...instead with my IPad and my TV set, I have been trying to stay busy and keep my mind off being haunted by dread.  Someday, I shall write a short story about this—it is a true emotional arc—only I am not yet sure how or what the denouement will be! 

Up for breakfast after blogging, I ate muesli (sans apple today, as I ran out of them) while watching Clarissa Dickson Wright do her bit for The History of British Food.  Having learned about bacon and eggs, about cornflakes, kippers and marmalade, she has moved on to teaching me about dinner—yes, you guessed it! Roast Beef! Plus a great deal about dessert. Sugar was so precious a commodity that, in the 18th century, dessert consisted of a whole table of goodies served at the end of the main meal that it came to be known as a Banquet. In fact, whole rooms (called Halls) were dedicated simply to the eating of dessert—and that was why we have the famous Banqueting Hall on Whitehall in London! So commodious a space was designed by Inigo Jones simply for the pleasure of eating dessert. As I said, You Tube is providing me with all these treasures, but of the three, the Lunch episode is not available. Hopefully, it ill turn up sometime.

Sorry about the long digression. After breakfast, I went to Dad’s place as Valerian, Russel’s physiotherapist, was expected at 9.15 am. Russel had a really nice session with him. He is making Russel walk without a walker and it is evident to us that Russel has no confidence in doing so. He does not have the ability to take steps independently without holding on to props along his path. Valerian is confident, however, that he will do so. 

  After Valerian left, I went straight to my photocopier, Jay, and made copies of my publishing contract. I need to work now on the additional pages that are part of a manuscript—the Introduction, Acknowledgements, etc.. I left my bag at Jay’s by mistake and only discovered when I got home. I called him to confirm it was still there and told him I would return in the evening to pick it up.

  Once home, I had my lunch: Valerie’s meal consisting of dal, chicken curry and cauliflower with peas. Then, I got down to starting work on the Author Questionnaire that had been sent to me by Hamilton Books, I realized that I need people to write blurbs for my book’s jacket—and so I sent out emails to a few people that I think might be suitable for the task. 

     I took a nap in the afternoon and then heard from Himanshu (at about 4.00 pm) that the downloading of my hard drive to his hard disk was going on but that it was very slow—only 30% was complete when he spoke. He says, however that he can see my deleted files appear: only there are no file or Document names—they are only appearing as a string of numbers.  Let us hope my files have not been corrupted in the process of being thrashed and retrieved.  Fingers crossed!

Off to See Elvis:

I picked up by bag from Jay then spent about an hour of the evening with Russel as Dad went off to mass (I did not join him as I have been appointed Lector at the 9.15 am Mass tomorrow). Russel and I kept chatting until I left at 8.00 pm to rush off home to get ready for my evening out.

I had been invited by Siddharth (Sid) Meghani, who is known as Bombay’s Elvis, to attend his show at a place called The Table at the Peninsula Hotel in Saki Naka, Andheri. I had called Siddharth last week (after I’d heard him at the Elton John-Whitney Houston Tribute) for an interview appointment. I have known his father for decades—he is Madhu, a well known Bandra-based photographer who has done family photography including weddings and communions for years. 

     My Fulbrighter friend Michelle said she would join me and she invited her flat mate Sarah to join us. I had a shower, got dressed and met them at the corner of Turner and Perry Roads and in an Uber, we were off. I have no idea about places before Satan Cruz and when we arrived at the Peninsula Hotel, we realized there was no The Table Restaurant there. I was about to call Siddharth, when someone at the place told us that we were probably looked for The Stables at the other Peninsula Hotel—just Peninsula, not Peninsula Grand! Wow! I had misheard Sid on the phone!

Eventually, taking a rickshaw, we managed to get there. Siddharth was going on at 10.00pm—we reached at about 9.30 pm and found a table right at the back as we had no reservations.  With drinks ordered (later the girls would get a pizza—being on a strict diet right now, I avoided it), and me sticking to just Diet Coke, we had an evening that Rocked.

Sid was just awesome! When he came onstage dressed like one the Elvis Wannabes that we see crowding the streets of Las Vegas, I was so excited. And when he began singing, I was so glad I took him up on his invitation.  As someone who never goes ‘clubbing’ or to bars, being with two gals who were half the age of my daughter, was a completely novel experience and one I thoroughly enjoyed. We had such a blast! The evening was so entertaining and so much fun as the audience sang along with almost every song. Sid belted out all the Elvis hits, of course, but he also sang some Neil Diamond (‘Sweet Caroline’), some Engelbert Humperdinck (‘Please Release Me’) and the like. His fans were very much there in the front (probably most from Bandra for they were singing along and jiving to many of Elvis’ hits) and generally having a ball. I had one of the highlights of my experiences here in Bombay and, get this, stayed out till 2.15 am. Sid did three sessions with half hour breaks in-between two of them. 

At the end of the show, I had a chance to meet him and thank him and congratulate him on his talents and showmanship. He was simply dazzling truly!

Sarah met some friends of hers and decided to go out to dinner with them while Michelle and I took another Uber and got back home. She dropped me home before she took the cab on to her place. It was 3.00 am by the time I went to bed! Wow! I really am seeing good days (in my old age!).

Until tomorrow...