Three Interviews and Three Transcriptions!

Friday, March 22, 2019
Bombay

Three Interviews and Three Transcriptions!

     Namaste from Bombay!
     Wow! My holiday from work is over and it was back to the salt mines with a vengeance! Thankfully I am something of a workaholic...so this sudden increase in pace and volume was taken in stride.
      It was my broon day--so after awaking and checking Twitter, I got down to eating my breakfast (broons, spreads and coffee) and dashing off to the gym where I am finding renewed reason for zeal and ardor as my weight is falling--much to my delight--as is the girth around my waist.  Suddenly, my clothes feel looser and I am feeling more energetic too!
     Back from the gym, I had a shower and got down to transcribing. I had a few interviews with which I had to catch up in the time that my laptop was in the shop. And so I finished one and was just in time for my first interview--with Siddharth Meghani, Bombay's answer to Elvis.  Luckily, his office was just a five minute walk down my road at Studio Sinera, which is the photography business that he inherited from his father, an old family friend of ours called Madhu.
     Siddharth was lovely and answered all my questions adequately. He is the most modest young chap and had to be probed to get answers that in any way revealed his sense of ego--for he has none.  How refreshing to come across someone who has actually to be pushed to talk abut himself! I loved our hour-long chat during which time I learned so much about his rise to stardom in Bombay, at least.
     Back home, I had my lunch: beans, dal and chicken mince with potatoes with half a guava for dessert and then it was time for a short nap before I was back at my laptop working on the second transcription. When I was done, it was time for me to rush off to Bandra Gym for my 5.00 pm appointment with actor Shernaz Patel whose work I remember seeing on stage even before I left India for the US. She comes from an illustrious family of actors but has carved a niche just for herself in Bombay's English theater world by being part of the founding team that created Rage, a theater group that has done so well, over the years, that it is now giving back to the theater-loving community in the city. Again, I feel deeply inspired by the efforts and achievements of these young people who energize me deeply by their accomplishments. With that interview in the bag, Shernaz and I walked together as far as Dad's lane where we parted company--as she too lives in Bandra and decided to walk it back home to her place at Sherly-Rajan.
     I then spent a while visiting with Dad and Rusel before it was time for us to leave for the Stations of the Cross in our church at 7.00 followed by Mass.  En route to church, we caught my friend Sharon who was just emerging from her building that is just next door to Dad's. As she is returning to Toronto on Monday, I do not know when I will see her again..so it was great to have that bit of time with her. However, I had to leave church right after Communion as I had another appointment and Sharon told me that she would be happy to walk with Dad back to his building (which Dad told me later that she did very sweetly, actually holding his hand all the way home).
     My third interview for the day was with Brian Tellis, a continuation of the one we'd started at the library of the NCPA, a couple of weeks ago, Brian is extremely popular in Bandra and very well-known--so our time together was punctuated by a whole ton of people stopping at our table to Hello him. He answered the rest of the questions I posed, most of which had to do with the Zonals of which I was eager to gain more information. I sipped a lemonade soda while he had Red Bull during our time together.
     Back home, I dived into my dinner--a repeat of the afternoon's fare--and sat down to transcribe yet another interview as I was determined to catch up with all six that have accumulated in the past week.  Slowly but surely I am adding to my interviews and, now, because it is better late than never, I am saving each one to my Google Drive, on instruction from my friend Michelle.  Soon I hope to actually start catching up with the ones I did in the past.
     Then, having done three interviews and three transcriptions, I switched the light off and went to bed.
     Until tomorrow...