One More Interview Closes the Work Week

Saturday, March 30, 2019
Bombay

One More Interview Closes the Work Week

     Namaste from Bombay!
     As Saturday rolled around, I awoke from a troubled sleep--I am not sleeping too well--what with the mounting heat, pesky mosquitos and the loss of my work on my computer that I am trying hard to re-transcribe, I find myself mentally troubled. However, I hope that once I have made up for the loss of my Documents, I shall feel less troubled and have a more peaceful mindset.
     I had a broon with spreads and coffee and then left immediately for Dad's place to be present at Russel's physiotherapy session with Valerian. I have to say that it was very painful to see Russel panicking every time he was told to climb steps--he is gripped by intense fear of falling again and breaking bones. It was hard for both Dad and me to see him struggle with Valerian. But, at the end of the day, he had the satisfaction of having climbed a few steps.  We are still hopeful that things will get better for him and that consultation sessions with orthopedists that we are soon going to see will provide some solutions on how he can acquire stability and get the knee bones of his left leg to align correctly--they are currently out of alignment.
     After the physiotherapy session, I want straight to our family doctor, Dr. Abbas, as I have been having an intermittent gripe that suddenly grips my abdomen, leaves me feeling very comfortable and then goes away just as quickly as it starts. This has been going on for a few days and I am very worried about it.  Dr. Abbas who has known me since my teenage years and remembered my name and asked after my Dad and Russel (also by name)--truly a Family Doctor--told me that I need to stop eating dal (as you know, I eat a lot of it!) and that I ought to eat a small bit of carbs with every meal--as I must eat a balanced diet. He has told me to eat one chapati with every meal and I shall do so now. Let us hope it is only a matter of recalibrating my food intake and nothing more serious that that. He left me with a prescription that I marched straight to the pharmacy to fill. Since I have read on Google that sudden abdominal pains can also be caused by stress, I can see that the events of the recent weeks (such as the loss of my Documents on my computer) might also be responsible for this strange development.
     That done, I returned home and straight away plunged into transcribing an interview I did yesterday. My life is now all about doing interviews and then transcribing them. In the meanwhile, I am also trying to catch up with the old interviews that were lost on my computer--so I am feeling the intense pressure of work.
     I stopped for lunch (mixed vegetables, chicken Curry (I forgot that I had to abstain from meat today!) and okra. While eating, I watched Mary Berry on You Tube, teaching us how to make a Lemon and Pistachio Roulade which I would simply love to try when I return home again. I suppose you could say that I am missing cooking and can't wait to get back to it again--especially if it involves making fun things.

Carrying Out Another Interview:
     One of the most challenging things about the work I am currently doing is getting people to grant me interviews.  Everyone is so busy that it is hard for them to carve time out of their schedules to accommodate meetings with me. Hence, I meet them at times that suit them and this afternoon was given to a man named Carl Mendes whose father, Melville, was a driving force in running the Bandra Zonals of St. Andrew's Church until he passed away, a few years ago. Carl too became a director and went on to produce drew Andrew Lloyd-Webber's Joseph and His Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat a few years ago in which many of the folk I have interviewed so far had acted.
     I met Carl at the Bandra Gymkhana and found him to be a really nice guy, full of information and anecdotes and willing to share them with me. We had a lovely hour-long conversation until the Gymkhana closed for the afternoon after which we moved to his car and continued out chatter there. It is my hope that Carl will be able to pass on to me archival material in the form of pictures, brochures, program statements, etc. in the next few weeks.
     With our interview done, I returned home and took a 20 minute nap and then awoke to take a shower and have a cup of tea with a few nuts. I did more transcribing until it was time for me to get ready to go for dinner to Byculla where my friend Nafisa invited me to dine with her. I took the Number 56 bus that goes directly from Perry Cross Road in Bandra to a stop right opposite her lane. I darted quickly into a Cafe Coffee Day to pick up a chocolate truffle cake for her and then sat down to enjoy being with very close friends. They had also invited a physiotherapist named Eustace D'Souza who happens to be a mine of knowledge on Bombay's local history and was very interesting to talk to.

A Grand Dinner with Close Friends:
     We had a grand evening. Although Nafisa invited Dad to her place for dinner too,he declined as he does not like to leave Russel alone with his assistant for such a long stretch of time. Nafisa cooked us a splendid meal—from soup to nuts as they say. There was delicious Vietnamese Pho (soup) to begin with followed by Sweet and Sour Chicken, Vegetables in Garlic Sauce and Steamed Rice; and for dessert, walnut mousse (nuts), rice kheer and jalebis. Boy oh boy! There is truly no greater gift that a fiend can offer than a meal prepared with her own fair hands—and Nafisa outdid herself.    
         Since the evening wound down slowly, I elected to spend the night in her home. She and her husband Husefa offered generous hospitality as they prepared me a room for the night and made me comfy with the AC on and a cozy blanket if I should need it. 
     It was with a prayer of gratitude on my lips for the company of such fine old friends and their generosity that I fell off to sleep.
     Until tomorrow