A Superb Sunday Ends with Superb 'Vagina Monologues' at the Prithvi Theater

Sunday, April 7, 2019
Bombay

A Superb Sunday Ends with Superb 'Vagina Monologues' at the Prithvi Theater

     Namaste from Bombay!

A Rude Awakening:
     It feels good when you have had a good Sunday to crown off a good weekend! Mine was superb!
     It feels blissful to awake at a decent hour and I was still fast asleep when an awful din next door woke me up! These flats really do have paper-thin walls, my door is simply too close to my only neighbor's, they leave their door open all day (a custom among many Hindus, I am told) and they have zero consideration for the fact that there is actually someone (Moi!) living next door. Be that as it may, it sounded as if a gaggle of guys was going off on a picnic.
      I waited for a few minutes for the din to subside and when it did not, since I was, by then, wide awake and furious, I got out of my bed, opened the door (just as they were leaving with loud goodbyes to those inside the flat) and said to them, "Could you keep the noise down, please? It is 6.30 on a Sunday!" They had the good grace to apologize (probably they had no idea that there was actually someone living next door) and fled. Silence returned but, by then, my sleep was disturbed and I was up and ready to take on another Sunday.

Dad Takes Ill:
     I blogged, checked Twitter, downloaded the Sunday Times of London on my iPad, browsed a bit through the magazine section and then got out of bed. I washed, put a chapatti in the microwave to eat something before leaving the house for Mass and spreading it with Sainsbury's Three Fruits Marmalade, I wolfed it down with coffee. Simultaneously, I got dressed and then left for church where I was doing the commentary (Introduction, Prayers of the Faithful and Notices for the Week) at the 9.15 Mass.  Just before leaving my studio, I called Dad to ask if he would meet me at the gate of his building, only to hear him sounding dreadful on the phone. I knew immediately that he was unwell.  Turns out he had the beginnings of an attack of vertigo (after absolutely ages)--thanks, he thinks, to the continuous hours of IPL cricket matches to which he has been riveted on TV. He popped a couple of pills and decided to take the morning easy while I hurried on for Mass.
     All went well although I was a tad nervous as I had never done the commentary at Mass before. After Mass, I picked up a Punjabi samosa for Russel as the vada pau were over and then went over to see Dad. He was lying down quietly and said that he was feeling dizzy although he has no nausea. Thankfully, Rohit had taken care of Russel's breakfast and everything was in control. I read out the notices for the week to Russel but then realized that I had taken a photo of the wrong set from the church notice board--last week's instead of this week's. Anyway, I left Dad's place quickly and told them I would return with Lunch.

Lunch with Dad and Russel:
     Back home, I made myself a small bowl of muesli as I realized that I was already hungry with the one chapati I had eaten. I also got down to transcribing one interview (part of my backlog) with Alfred D'Souza of the Stop Gaps choir, and then ordered lunch over the phone from Bandra Gym. Not too long after, I received a call telling me it was ready and off I went to pick it up.
     Lunch was Sweet Corn and Chicken Soup, East Indian Roast Pork and Methi Malai Mattar--all quite delicious indeed--with naans. I told Rohit to blend the roast pork for Dad who really enjoyed the soup and the peas--which were really creamy and good.
     After lunch, Dad who was feeling so much better, had a long chat with me about all sorts of things: the IPL matches (he can't get over how exciting they are), the state of current Indian politics in the run-up to the elections which should start soon and Russel's situation. I left his place at 2.00 pm and returned home and told them I would not see them in the evening as I had other plans.
       Back home, I had a short and lovely nap and then decided to continue reading the magazine section of The Sunday Times--I ended up having the sort of Sunday I usually have at home in Southport when I literally while away time in an attempt to enjoy my leisure.

Off to Prithvi Theater for The Vagina Monologues:
     At 3.00 pm, I jumped into the shower and got dressed and ready for my evening's appointment. I was meeting my Fulbrighter friend Michelle at the corner of our lane and together we hopped into a bus that took us to the Prithvi Theater where I had a complimentary ticket given to me by the director to see a performance of The Vagina Monologues. I had never ever seen the play before although I know that it has had many resurrections over the years all over the world. Michelle who works on violence against women had already seen it 5 times (in different parts of the States) but told me that it has always been adapted to what is going on in the world and, therefore, is always different.
     We had a hard time reaching the Prithvi because we took the wrong bus by mistake--we ought to have taken the 56 instead of the 51.  Still, the driver told us where to get off and which bus to connect to--I did exactly what I always do in London: I hop into any bus going in my direction and then the driver guides me and tell me where to get off and which bus/es will take me forward.
     The wait for the connecting bus made us a bit frantic and we were about to take a rick when our bus came. Then, it crept and crawled through the Juhu area and past the beach and literally got us to the theater door with only minutes to spare before the curtain went up. I picked up my comp, Michelle bought a ticket for Rs. 500 and we got the last two seats in a Full House! Can you believe it? Well, the Prithvi is small with seating capacity for only 185 and there were literally 4 shows that day! We were at the one that began at 5.00 pm.
     Well, what can I say about a play that this group has been putting on for 17 years except that it was stunning? And it was! I mean the script was simply scintillating and the acting was breathtaking--especially by Mona Ambegoankar and Swati Das. The other two cast members were Dolly Thakore and Mahabanoo Kotwal who also directed the play and gave us very humorous instructions on how to turn off our mobile devices before the play began.
     It was topical to the hilt with many references to the various atrocities committed against women in India. The monologues were done by Indian women from a variety of backgrounds (Maharashtrian, Sindhi, Gujarati, South Indian) and in each one of them, the first two actors I have mentioned gave us sterling performances as they got the mannerisms and the accent of these communities spot-on.
      I had no idea what to expect and I have to say that Eve Ensler's play is brilliant--I can now see why it has had repeated stagings over the years in different parts of the world. I am only sorry I had not seen it earlier. It was truly a memorable experience. Performed without an intermission, combining sadness and humor and evoking anger and disbelief in the audience, the play was minimally produced with just four red high-stools presenting four women who were dressed in delightful costume avatars of black and red--each sporting a gash of bright red lipstick and presented with very effective lighting and sound additions as it marched on.  What a grand evening at the theater! It is performances and productions like these that make me realize how much on par Bombay is with the rest of the world when it comes to the arts and culture and how tremendously enriched a life one can have in this city if one has a wide range of interests and the money with which to enjoy them.

Cake and Lassi at the Prithvi Theater Cafe:
     Michelle and I were both peckish after the play (which, by the way, Michelle also loved) and we thought we would crown a lovely evening with a bite in the iconic Prithvi Theater Cafe where, in my youth, I had sipped my fair share of Irish coffees. This time we were seduced by a mile-high cake called Chocolate Vertigo (because it was so high, got it?) and quite appropriate a thing for me to eat on a day when Dad's vertigo revisited him! I ordered a mango lassi and Michelle got a big bottle of chilled water. The cafe was simply packed...so we found a quiet corner on a marble seat around a tree and feasted on our very delicious cake (which we shared) as we made plans for tomorrow.
     Michelle is at the end of her Fulbright assignment in Inda--she had arrived here in Bombay much before I did--and she leaves to return to the States this Thursday. She has been a great friend and super help to me at a time when I was crumbling from the disaster of my lost files on my computer.  She is also a computer geek and I have leaned from her how to save my precious files on Google Drive! So I wanted to take her out for dinner and, thankfully, she is free tomorrow night. I also texted my friends Anil and Ninaz immediately to ask if they could make it--and they could! And so, we will be meeting again tomorrow night at the Bandra Gym for us to say goodbye to Michelle and wish her well as she goes on to take up a summer internship with US Aid in Washington DC and will go on to do her Masters in Public Health at Harvard in the Fall. I will be sorry to see her leave and I will miss her much!

Exploring Food Hall in Santa Cruz:
     We took a rick back home and en route stopped off at Food Hall, a swanky new two-level supermarket that has opened on Linking Road in Santa Cruz which I have been meaning to check out for a while. Michelle has been and is very familiar with this place and has bought some exotic goodies, she said, that have been much appreciated by her American friends in the States!
     Well, I have to say, it was a revelation. I thought I was in Waitrose, which, as everyone knows, is my favorite supermarket chain in the UK. There is everything you could ever want from fine fresh produce to frozen treats such as salmon fillets and unusual ice-cream. In the mango section alone, there were at least a dozen varieties of mango and I am kicking myself now for not taking a picture. It would have been just wonderful on Twitter! There is a bakery section (the almond croissants looked divine) and a whole section upstairs selling chocolates--hand made individual beauties that made me believe, for a minute, that I was at Harrods in London! There is also a cafe du the upstairs where people were sipping a cuppa and enjoying fresh pastries--again, the pastries were so pretty that I could have been in Angelique in Paris! I was hugely floored! Of course, I don't need to tell you that all this comes at a pretty price--but at least it is available! There were so many different kinds of fresh mushrooms, every condiment you can imagine, massive sections on tea and coffee (alas! Nothing was decaf--so I will have to get those supplies from overseas for the rest of my life, once I move here) but hey, you can't get everything, can you? I felt like a kid in a candy shop and I enjoyed every second except for one obnoxious kid whose parents and grand parents had no control over him and who was making an absolute nuisance of himself!
     Michelle bought some more of the fancy teas that her friends have told her to carry back home for them to the US and I bought nothing as I do not need anything for the moment. But it is good to know that this Aladdin's Cave of goodies exists not far from me, if I ever have Trader Joe or Waitrose Withdrawal Symptoms!
     We took a rick back home from there and Michelle dropped me off before she got back to her home. I walked one block to my place and then (because the cake and lassi were my dinner), I had a long chat with Llew on the phone and then sat down to watch Bloopers of some of my favorite British TV shows (As Times Goes By, Keeping Up Appearances, Absolutely Fabulous)--all on You Tube and fell asleep really really late as I did not want a really superb Sunday to end!
     Until tomorrow!