A Productive Day Ends With a Theatrical Show: The Best of Alyque

Tuesday, February 5, 2019
Bombay

A Productive Day Ends With a Theatrical Show: The Best of Alyque

     Namaste from Bombay!
     Attempting to fall into routine again, during a month (March) that does not involve any travel--at least there is none on my calendar so far--I awoke early and continued reading my novel Something in the Water by Catherine Steadman. It kept me spellbound throughout, but, at the end, so many questions that had plagued me throughout the novel, were left unanswered. I read Sarah Lyall's review of the book in The New York Times and while she raves about it, she does confirm that the reader has many questions that remain unanswered. So, for me, this was the most unsatisfying aspect of the novel. However, that ignored, it was a fantastic read. The book is really well written and I was thrilled to have come upon it, as it is a long time since I have found the time to read a book. I only downloaded it because I knew I would be traveling to Kerala and did not want to be caught short with no reading matter on my hands. Besides, the author Steadman, is also an actor--she played Mabel Lane Fox in the fifth season of Downton Abbey and I have seen her repeatedly in a load of British TV serials as I watch them constantly. So, overall, great book and well worth a read.
     I had just a little bit of the book left to finish and decided to read it while on the machines at the gym.  Also, suddenly, the bread man rang my bell and left me with a single broon. I have decided to control carbs again as my weight is off the charts right now! (Little wonder after all the out-of-control eating I did at the five-star meals in Cochin!) I ate it with salmon cream cheese, Sainsbury's Three Fruits Marmalade, Orange Ginger Marmalade and Lemon Curd with coffee--so good.
     Then off I went to the gym where I did actually finish my novel. Back home, I showered and was getting ready to go to Dad's to be present when Russel's physiotherapist Valerian arrived. But Dad called to tell me that their electricity would be turned off today from 10.00 am till 4.00 pm. He thought it would be too dark at home, so suggested I postpone the session till tomorrow.  Russel is not happy with his new physiotherapist and was quite agitated at the thought of his coming back. But this left me the entire morning to stay at home and attend to the gazillion things on my new To-Do List--not least of which involves deleting files from my hard drive as my start up disk is too full!
     So, seated on my bed, at my laptop, I responded to email, corresponded with Saida, a Fulbright admin assistant, updated my CV, finished drafting my February newsletter and sent it out (Only to discover, very shortly, that I had attached the wrong file--February 2016 instead of February 2019--which my vigilant lawyer friend Barbara in the UK pointed out). All of this work took me till lunch time when I stopped to eat Dal with Spinach, chicken curry and wonderful stuffed baby eggplant--Valerie's cooking is so good!!! While eating, I watched Grace and Frankie. I took a short nap and then began transcribing my interview with Raell Padamsee whom I would be meeting in the evening.  She is the daughter of the late Alyque Padamsee and the CEO of a company called Ace Productions. I had interviewed her before I left for Cochin, but had not found the time to transcribe it.
     I was able to finish it entirely when I stopped for a quick cuppa and to get ready for my appointment in the evening at the Royal Opera House. My friend Nafisa would be joining me there and we would attend a special show entitled The Best of Alyque which was being held to coincide with his 88th birthday which was today.
     So I got dressed and then took the bus and the train (after renewing my first class monthly pass) and reached the Royal Opera House where Nafisa had also just arrived. I met a whole lot of people there including Shabbir and Farzana, a couple from Toronto, whom I meet each year at the New Year Party at the Otter's Club to which my friend Shahnaz and her late husband Muharram always invited me. I also ran into Vinita Rodrigues and a bunch of her friends from Bandra, plus Merlin DSouza (the musician whom I have also interviewed) with Denzil Smith (a producer whom I had called up yesterday to fix an appointment to meet next week). People were happily milling around the venue and enjoying the gloriously refurbished premises of the Opera House before we all piled inside. We had great seats and we were delighted to be able to recognize so many of the folks that I now know well through my contacts in the world of the Performing and Theatrical Arts in Bombay. I spied Raell but thought I would see her when the show ended.

The Best of Alyque:
     The show was almost a repeat really of the Tribute to Alyque Padamsee Show that had taken place almost immediately after he passed away. So here is what we saw:
1. A Welcome Speech from Quasar Thakore-Padamsee, Alyque's son, and from Candy Bhatia, Alyque's sister who lives in Stamford, Connecticut.
2. A lot of video footage that was interspersed throughout the program as Alyque talked about his passions and his intentions as a director.
3. Delna Mody  playing Sally Bowles and singing "Life is a Cabaret" from Kabaret.
4. Sabira Merchant playing Blanche duBois in A Streetcar Named Desire with an actor whose name I did not get playing Stanley Kowalski.
5. Someone called TruBlu playing Judas and singing the "Overture" from Jesus Christ Superstar.
6. Siddharth Meghani playing Don Quixote in Man of La Mancha and singing 'The Impossible Dream."
7. Farokh Mehta and Dolly Thakore playing a scene from Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. 
8. Devika Bhojwani singing "My Son, My Son"--a song that Noel Godin and Alyque Padamsee composed in order to bring in the non-existent character of Mary in Jesus Christ Superstar.
9. Gerson Da Cunha and Sabira Merchant playing Petrucchio and Katherine respectively in Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew.
10. Sharon Prabhakar and Karla Singh playing Florence and Olive respectively in Neil Simon's The Odd Couple.
11. Sharon Prabhakar playing Eva Peron and singing "Don't Cry For Me, Argentina" from Evita.
12. Shiamak Davar playing the Emcee from Kabaret and singing "If You Could See Her With My Eyes."
13. Maryanne D'Cruz Aiman singing "Amazing Grace", Alyque's favorite hymn.
14. The Finale which saw all the actors of the evening come to the stage and sing "Jesus Christ Superstar".

     It was wonderful! However, something kept going wrong with the sound system and the cordless mikes were not working too well. Also I felt that the emotion that was captured in the previous show (because Alyque had just passed away) was missing from this evening. Still, all said, it was a very good evening at the theater which, once again, allowed me to wallow in nostalgia. I did get a chance to meet Raell and say a special Thank you to her.
     During the interval, Nafisa and I had a chicken sandwich and a coffee (I avoided the coffee) and after the show I was very pleased to be able to hook up with Vinita again who arranged for me to get a ride to Bandra with Roger Drego (a very well-known sound engineer who had been contracted to do many theatrical shows and musicals for Theater Group in years gone by) and his wife Lucia and a bunch of other women from our parish church of St. Anne's at Pali Hill.
     I walked back home from St Andrew's Church where they dropped me, ate a bit of dinner as I was quite hungry. I also had some ice-cream for the last time in 40 days--as I am planning to give up ice-cream for Lent! Ash Wednesday begins tomorrow and since it is a day of fast and abstinence from meat, I will have to devise some creative meals. I went to bed at about 11.00 pm after another very productive day.
     Until tomorrow...