Last Backlog Interview Transcribed and First Phone Interview Done

Tuesday, June 25, 2019
Bombay

Last Backlog Interview Transcribed and First Phone Interview Done

     Namaste from Bombay!
     I am back in the swing and working like I used to--before our Latin-American vacation and Russel's second bout of hospitalization came in the way of my momentum. Anyway, my day was fruitful and productive and still left me enough time to stare at my TV screen through my Martin School Webcam in Oxford to watch preparations outside the Sheldonian Theater for tomorrow's Encaenia ceremony (more about it below).
     So I was up at 6.30 and raced through my morning set of To-Dos: Twitter, email, reading newspaper and book, drafting blog post. I have lost interest in Dan Brown's Origins and decided to look for a more compelling novel. I downloaded The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith which sounded like a wonderful murder mystery and only discovered, after I'd done so, that the author is actually JK Rowling who wrote the book under a pseudonym and is currently suing her lawyers for disclosing her identity--or something like that. I have started it and it is holding my interest--well begun is half done, as my late Mum used to say...
     Then it was time for breakfast and I grated an apple and added it to my cereal bowl with chia seeds and honey and almond milk and yoghurt and a nice helping of the Fruit, Nuts and Seeds Muesli that I bought from Sainsburys in London--and I was instantly transported to my flat in Holborn when I ate this breakfast with relish almost every day, ten years ago. So come to think of it, I have been eating muesli with honey yoghurt for at least a decade! I am nothing if not a creature of habit!     
     It was then that I sat down to transcribe the last of the interviews I had done prior to my computer crash. Slowly but surely, over the past couple of months, I have painfully re-transcribed the interviews I lost when I erased my Documents in error. All forty of them have been re-done now. I saved the toughest one for last--an interview with the overly-voluble Associate Director of the Symphony Orchestra of India, Zane, who read Medieval History at Oxford and lets slips dates effortlessly off his tongue while pontificating on contemporary Indo-Parsi relations! Anyway, I finished transcribing the interview by 12. 30 and had about a half hour to get myself a snack because I had a phone interview scheduled for 1.00 pm with my cousin's daughter Tanya who sings with the Paranjoti Choir.
     A cup of chicken leek soup with two crackers spread with Amul's incredibly good herb and garlic butter did the trick and provided the snack fuel I needed before going on to my next assignment. Meanwhile, I flipped through You Tube and found a most heartwarming aerial tour of Oxford that did two huge things for me: it took me to one of my favorite places in the world and it showed it to me from a height of about 8,000-12,000 feet: everyone knows by now that I love to look at our world from a lofty perspective when I am airborne. But this, I believe, is the perfect height. You can survey everything from that perch while still being able to pick out details that are truly breathtaking. I will be sure to watch this video again and again--because, thankfully, it is also expertly filmed and there is not a shake of a camera or a blurring of images to irritate or frustrate. And it has a wonderful classical music soundtrack in the background--so what's not to love? Wonderful!
     Tanya and I were on the phone for almost an hour as she told me about her background in musical education and the current schedule of rehearsals that she follows for year-round choir assignments. Having interviewed the Director-conductor of this choir, several months ago, Coomi Wadia, I received a lot of insightful details about the choir from one of its members. It made me want to talk to a few more choristers and, no doubt, I will be doing that soon.
     My actual lunch followed: a delectable chicken mayo roll from Sassanian and Co. which I had picked up on my last heritage walk with delicious Dusseri mango for dessert. Then followed a spot of reading of my new mystery novel and my short twenty minute nap.
     I awoke to begin transcribing my interview with Tanya and while I did so, my TV was turned on to the Martin School Webcam in Oxford on You Tube. At the same time, I learned from Twitter that the Oxford Encaenia Ceremony will take place tomorrow--it usually takes place on the ninth Wednesday of Trinity Term (which usually falls in June). This is the graduation ceremony that occurs at the Sheldonian Theater, that magnificent cupola-ed building that was designed by Sir Christopher Wren and which resembles an amphitheater inside. Today it is used for musical concerts (apart from official university events). It plays a big role in the Morse episode Twilight of the Gods about a famous opera singer who is to be awarded an honorary doctorate and who is killed as the procession, led by the University's Vice-Chancellor, played superbly by the one and only Sir John Gielgud, makes its way into the Clarendon Building courtyard.
     Believe me, ever since I got hooked on to this webcam, I kept hoping that I would catch a glimpse of this ceremony as, in the Morse episode, the procession winds its way along Broad Street past the White Horse Tavern and Blackwell's Bookstore. If it followed the same route, I would see much of it on the webcam tomorrow. I also needed to know what time it is scheduled to go past before entering the Sheldonian as I would need to adjust local Greenwich mean time with Bombay time!
     I tried looking for this information on Google but I did not find any mention of time and the route (and the program) seem to be different each year. So I emailed my friend Sue who lives in Oxford and whose partner Tony is a retired Oxford don. If anyone knows, it would be him. Sue came back really quickly with a link to the same page at which I had been looking--there was mention of the procession going from Exeter College to the Sheldonian...and if this is true, then I would see a very weighty chunk of it--unless they took the route along Brasenose Lane instead of The Broad. I am so excited. Sue also told me that in terms of timing, all she knows is that it is before lunch--so let's say it begins at 10.00 am in Oxford, that would be 2.30 pm in Bombay. I had better be ready right after my own lunch time! Fingers crossed!
     Transcription done, I sat down to have my tea with a biscuit and a slice of Nahoum's fruit cake and through it all, I noticed that a vast crowd had collected outside the Weston Library. It grew steadily from 5.00 till 5.30 pm as well-togged out patrons crowded the pavement outside and kept swelling in size. Meanwhile, across the street, a huge van stopped and all sorts of furniture was being unloaded (mainly folding tables) and taken into the Sheldonian--no doubt part of tomorrow's ceremonies. At 5.30, someone opened the gates of the Weston Library and the crowd poured in. I suspect it was some sort of cocktail party or celebration associated with graduation. No doubt, for the next couple of days, I shall see a lot of gowned students milling around The Broad.
     It was time for me to get dressed and go over to Dad's to see Russel and spend some time chatting before Dad and I left for Mass. Dad sent me off with a lot of goodies that he has been receiving from visitors coming to see Russel--an assortment of lamb chops, Italian Casserole, chicken patty and cheesecake came home with me--although I keep refusing, he keeps insisting that I take these home with me! Nothing if not generous, my Da!
     Back home, I watched the second episode of the new McCallum series I am watching with the dishy John Hannah (to whom I first became introduced in Four Weddings and A Funeral) playing a pathologist attached to a crime unit in London. Good stuff and it keeps me enthralled!
     I had a short chat with Llew whose whatsapp account seems to be hacked before I called it a night.
     Until tomorrow...