A Routine Day Apart from Lunch with Marianel

Friday, June 21, 2019
Bombay

A Routine Day Apart from Lunch with Marianel

     Namaste from Bombay!
     It feels grand to get back to routine again and I am savoring it. I will never ever complain that routine is stagnating or boring. I have discovered that it is what keeps us sane!
     I awoke at 6.30 am and did all the things I do before even getting out of bed: reading my Twitter feed, reading the Times of London after I have downloaded the day's issue on my Ipad and hammering out a new blog post. Then I washed and had my breakfast of muesli and coffee as I also looked at extracts on You Tube of my favorite TV show of all time, As Time Goes By. Sadly, there was not much. I was looking for TV interviews that the cast might have given in their show's heydey.
     After taking care of email, re-doing my Dedication page (after giving it much thought), I was ready to email it to my publisher. Since my memoir is about the year I spent in London, ten years ago, I thought it was only right that I should dedicate it to the folks who have, through the years, opened their doors to me in the UK. On further thought, I decided that it would the women in those homes--as they are the ones who run them and keep them warm and comfortable. So the Dedication is to six women who are also my closest friends in Britain (One of them has returned to live in the US--the rest continue to remain in the UK). It is getting exciting now--soon I will have another published book in my hands. It is to be titled, The Year The World Was Mine: An Anglophile Hits Half-Century (And just wait till you see the cover)!
      I then sat down to transcribe another interview and it took me the rest of the morning. That done, I hopped into the bathroom for a shower and shampoo and left immediately for my Dad's place where my friend Marianel had arrived to see Russel. She lives in Girgaum but had told me yesterday that she would be in Bandra for a haircut and wondered if it would be okay to go and see Russel at his place when she was done. Knowing that she would be very welcome, we decided to meet at my Dad's after which I would treat her to lunch at Bandra Gymkhana. She loved the idea and so it was finalized.
     Marianel is one of my closest and oldest friends in Bombay. We were classmates at St. Agnes' High School in Byculla and got to know each other in Grade 8. We have never lost touch as she has never moved out of the sprawling East Indian heritage bungalow that her eminent East Indian family owns in the heart of Bombay city in the village known as Khotachiwadi in Girgaum. A close relative on her father's side, Kaka Baptista, was a very prominent freedom fighter and a beacon of the community. Marianel, for her part, is an ace chef and has made quite a name for herself in Bombay for her preserves and pickles (available only to select customers). At one time, she used to cater Afternoon teas for cruise-passengers who would enjoy a grand meal at the end of one of the heritage walks that would be organized for them as part of their Bombay city experience. Alas, that opportunity seems to have dried up as the approach to her home is now badly disrupted by the digging that is going on all over Bombay to lay down the forthcoming metro system.
     Marianel was her lovely bubbly self at Russel's bedside when I did hook up with her.  She brought them home made lamb chops and store bought chocolate cookies. Like Ashley did yesterday, she too told me how much she had enjoyed her conversation with Russel who gave her abundant news about Bombay's priestly community--all derived from his close reading of The Examiner, the Bombay Catholic weekly. We sat together for a while and then at 1.15 pm, we took a rick to get to the dining room at the Gym.
    Lunch was Lasagne Verdure (Vegetarian with spinach and tomato). It was very good although there was not a squeak of mozarella cheese in it. I could taste Amul cheese though! We also had Garlic-Pepper Prawns and a Greek Salad and as Marianel passed on dessert, I had a bowl of chocolate ice-cream. We lingered long over lunch and caught up with a whole lot of news about people we have known for at least four decades. It is always fun and heartwarming--being with Marianel--who has the largest heart and a wacky sense of humor. She gifted me a jar of her mango jam and a jar of her sweet and hot mango chutney. Suffice it to say that we had a great time together.
     I got back home and had a short lie-down--a nap of no more than 20 minutes. I spent the rest of the evening literally just faffing around in my tiny studio. I could have transcribed another interview, but instead I spent a while reading Origins by Dan Brown. At about 5.00 pm, I had a cup of tea with a slice of cake and then dressed and walked off to Dad's to spend some time with him and Russel before Mass. Russel had a visitor--a parishioner named Hazel who has a special fondness for Russel and comes to see him often. Then just as she, Dad and I were getting ready to go to Mass, a neighbor, Yvette, who is also a close friend of Russel and is especially fond of him, came over to see him. We left her with him and went off to church.
     When Mass was done, I remembered that I had not taken pictures of the bathroom at Dad's house which my friend Nafisa, who is an interior designer, needed, so that we can get the step in it removed and the floor tiling re-done. This is my idea and I am happy to say that Dad is running with it. Russel has been so traumatized by his fall which has fractured his leg that he refuses to go back into the bathroom again for fear that he will fall at the step that one takes to get into it. Nafisa's mason will now come along to break down the step and retile the floor so that Russel does not have to lift his feet or lower them to use the bathroom. Let us hope that this will work and that he will feel less psychologically stressed or physically intimidated.
     I then got back home to my studio and decided to eat the ribbon sandwiches that Dad had given me--these were brought to his place by another one of his neighbors (who are now pouring into the house to see Russel--thankfully they are staggering their visits so that Dad is not overwhelmed by them). I also had a cup of soup while watching an Irish movie called Bad Day for the Cut. Boy, was the movie gripping! In fact, I thought it was so brilliantly written that I am amazed it is not better known. I am having quite a good time actually after having typed 'British Movies' in my Netflix search window. Highly recommended but I have to warn you, this is about the Irish Mafia, and there is a lot of blood and gore in it. Still, completely worth seeing.
     But then somehow (probably after seeing such a violent movie), I simply could not get to sleep and I remained wide awake for simply hours as I tried reading, watching more TV and eventually downloading a film on Hoopla called The Song of Lunch with Emma Thompson and Alan Rickman dramatizing a simply brilliant poem by Christopher Reid.  Not only is the poem superbly crafted and written, but, more importantly, it is so beautifully read by Rickman with just the right pauses and continuities, just the right modulation of voice and tone and volume and just the right speed. What a visual and aural delight--all enjoyed at 2.30 am while the rest of the world enjoyed the longest day of the year --the Summer Solstice.
     Until tomorrow...