Good Friday in Bombay--After Ages!

Friday, April 19, 2019
Bombay

Good Friday in Bombay--After Ages!

     Namaste from Bombay!
     I awoke to the realization that today is Good Friday--a day of fasting and abstinence. I paused to remember my beloved mother, nurturer par excellence, who had started Good Friday for us, year after year, with hot cross buns for breakfast supplied usually at the door by our regular baker. This time round, I would need to go to one of the local bakeries to buy them: Russel, whom I called first thing in the morning to inform them about my safe return to Bombay from Delhi late last night--informed me that Dad had gone to Hersch Bakery to buy some buns. I settled for two chapatis with spreads and coffee as I had stale chapatis in my fridge and wanted to finish them up--I cannot bear to throw away food and the microwave makes them as soft as cotton if heated for just the right amount of time (too long and they turn crisp).
     Breakfast done, I set about unpacking my back pack and sorting through laundry that needed doing. I also took care of pending email and other NYU-related chores that had taken a back seat for two days while I had handled priorities in Delhi.
     That done, I sat down to transcribe my interview with Amal Allana and to confirm my interview with Naseeruddin Shah on Saturday. I shall be meeting him at his residence on Perry Cross Road, literally a block away from my place, to talk about the theater company he founded, called Motley and his love affair with English language theater. I am looking forward to the experience. I am hoping his wife, Ratna, will also be around. At one time, I knew her vaguely--we were classmates together at Elphinstone College and although we did not hang out together, we had a lot of friends in common.
     I then had my lunch: knowing that it was a day of fasting, I kept it very light: one chapati with a bit of cauliflower and the paneer sheesh kebabs that are still in my fridge. Then I took a short nap and had a shower and shampoo and got ready for my evening date with Dad at church.

Attending Good Friday Service:
     I am in India during Holy Week after a very long time--I recalled all the past church services we used to have (at one of which I had done the Reading). Well, this time too, I looked forward to the service. Having missed the Maundy Thursday service (since I was at Delhi airport), I did miss the Washing of the Feet (one of the most moving ceremonies on the Pascal Calendar) and the amazing reenactment of the Solemnity of the Eucharist which, in most churches, is done with the choir singing the Pange Lingua and the Tantum Ergo--these Latin hymns never fail to bring tears to my eyes and seem to make the entire Easter Triduum worthwhile for me.
     So it was with much excitement that I returned to the church of my teenagehood with Dad for the service. And it was fabulous! They brought in a guest priest, Fr. Andrew Aranha, who is the Dean of the Seminary here at Goregoan and boy, was he great! First of all, he has a great personality because he is tall and well-built and very stately--a perfect image of a Dean! Next, he has a beautiful voice and our Passion was sung throughout. Fr Andrew who played the role of Jesus did it just right! As for his homily, well, after spending six months whingeing about the pathetic nature of the homilies I have been subjected to here in Bombay, this one was brilliant. Fr. Andrew is a great speaker and his message was thought-provoking and moving. I loved every second of it. Overall, the service was splendid. It was very well attended with the open air service seeing a lot of ladies frantically waving their Spanish fans in the sauna-like heat of an April evening in Bombay. I was ever so grateful for my little electronic fan that allowed me to have cool breezes right on my face through most of the service! I am only surviving in the Bombay heat with this contraption--so you can imagine how thrilled I was to have found these fans on my hunt in Lajpat Rai Market in Delhi!
     After the service, I spent some time chatting with Dad and Russel at their place before it was time for them to have dinner. Since I was fasting, I had just a small bowl of muesli with yogurt and was relieved to find that my TV and my internet are working again. I had lost network connection for several frustrating hours in the afternoon.
     So here I am again...watching Hinterland but falling fast asleep while I was in the midst of it. This left me only enough time for a call to Llew and a brushing of my teeth before I called it a day.
     Until tomorrow...