Sunday, July 21, 2019
Bombay
An Extraordinarily Busy...but Quite Lovely Sunday in Bandra
Namaste from Bombay!
I rarely have the kind of Sunday I had today. In fact, it was so packed with very pleasurable activity that I could only really find the time to shower at the end of the day!
Commentary at Sunday Mass:
I had another unusual night--waking up in the dead of night at 2.30 am and then staying wide awake till 4. 30 am! As a result, I only awoke finally at 7.00 am, then hurried through downloading of The Sunday Times and a quick look at Twitter before I had my breakfast (muesli with coffee) and left for the 9.15 am Mass where I was the Commentator. My role involved reading a short Introduction to the theme of the Mass, Prayers of the Faithful and then the Notices for the Week. Right after Mass, I picked up a batata vada for Russel and hurried off to Dad's to hand it over to him.
A Visit to Dad's:
Dad had just returned from attending the first death anniversary Mass for his sister, my Aunt Ella, who passed away last year. I had told him to refrain from attending as he looked much too weak last night. But would my advise be heeded? Of course not! Dad took a rick there and told me that he was so weak, he had to sit throughout the Mass and during the prayers at the grave (a chair was especially provided for him at the site). My cousin Meera then gave him a ride back home. I would have accompanied Dad, of course, but my own Commentator's assignment clashed with the timing of this Mass and I had to bow out.
When I met him, he had not changed yet. He was sitting and reading the Sunday papers and looked so worn out, it was pitiful. I immediately told Rohit to get him some hot porridge which he enjoyed. We discussed the possibility of his coming with me to the lunch appointment we had. He came to the sad conclusion that much as he would have liked to be there, he was simply unable to do it. Besides, getting to our friends Jerry and Felcy Rodrigues' place involved climbing three floors to their apartment as their building does not have a lift. It was out of the question for Dad to undertake such an endeavor--so I was glad he opted out. I visited with Russel for a brief time and then took my leave of them.
Stopping at Candies for Patties:
Straight from Dad's, I walked to Candies, the restaurant that does wonderful baked goods and take-away prepared foods. It was buzzing on a Sunday morning as folks poured in, right after their respective Masses, to enjoy brunch. The interior smelled incredible as fresh hot croissants, patties, cakes, etc, emerged from the kitchen. I ordered half a dozen mutton patties for my hosts and had them boxed. Then, since I could not resist it, I wandered towards the Salad Bar and could not help myself--I simply had to get one of their take-out containers. I had to wait for the Hawaiian Chicken Salad and the Mexican Chicken Salad to be added to the vast salads already on display. But I ended up filling my container with them plus Waldorf Salad, Russian Salad and Thai Papaya Salad. Yummmmmmiiiieeeee! I have such treats in store.
Taking my goodies home, I just had the time to read my email before I had to set off for my lunch appointment.
Dad is a good friend of Jerry and Felcy who are closely connected with our church. Over the past year, I have become quite friendly with them too and they invited Dad and me to their place for lunch. I was happy to go but sorry that Dad could not join us. Dad told me to be there by 12 noon, but I reached at 12. 15 and then I had to wait until about 1.00 pm for their other guests to arrive--Bernie (Bernard), his wife Sandy and their daughter Cassandra (they are all active in our church too and Bernie brings Communion home to Russel every Sunday).
Lunch at Jerry and Felcy's:
Nothing was more welcome on the frightfully humid Sunday afternoon (and after I climbed three floors) than the tall and lovely gin and tonic Jerry fixed for me, tinkling lavishly with ice cubes. Banana chips and chaklis were passed around as nibbles as we chatted about all sorts of things. I could not believe it but Felcy was actually in the kitchen making fresh hot appams right off the griddle. Appams are the flat breads with the lacy frilly edge that are a signature cuisine element of Kerala. Because they are traditionally eaten with stew, she made Chicken Stew with Coconut Milk (delicious). I remembered my Aunt Anne who used to make the best appams and mutton strew (which she learned from her Keralite husband, my Uncle Alex). Felcy also brought out a divine Pork Curry, incredible fish cakes (crisp on the outside, fluffy within), Sweet Pullao (studded with fried onions, raisins and cashew nuts), Salad with beetroot, cucumber and tomatoes and a most unusual sweet-hot chutney in vivid green made with coriander leaves, banana and raisins for sweetness! Needless to say, her meal was just fabulous and we feasted unabashedly. So so good! For dessert, little cups of Walls ice-cream were brought out--such a cool convenient dessert! There was a heartfelt Grace, said by Sandy, that preceded our meal (she is a fervent Charismatic and, honestly, no one can pray aloud like the folks in the Charismatic Renewal Movement). I left reluctantly at about 3.00 pm as I had to hurry off to my next appointment.
But Felcy would not let me leave without taking some food home for Dad and Russel. So she rustled up about six appams and packed them up together with some of the incredible pork curry. I walked swiftly to Dad's, about five minutes away. They were just awaking from their afternoon siesta but I was able to chat with them for a few minutes, then lie down for about 15 minutes for a quick shut-eye myself before I texted my friend Maria who would be joining me for the 4.00 pm show of the play to which I had invited her. Maria has been repatriated to Bombay from Washington DC after serving for 7 tears with a subsidiary of the World Bank. She had told me that if I had plans to go for any plays, lectures, etc. I should include her as she so wants to enhance her own cultural life in my company.
Maria lives another three minutes away from Dad's by foot and was waiting at the gate of her building for me. We found a rick and got to St. Andrew's Auditorium less than ten minutes later. It is amazing to me how quickly these places can be reached when one confines one's movements to Bandra alone. It really is a self-sufficient little hamlet that has everything one could possibly want for quality living. No wonder it was named as one of the World's 50 Best Suburbs in which to live. Scores of the performing artists I have interviewed in the course of my one year here in Bombay have referred to the fact that we are so fortunate to have this state-of-the-art theater in our own backyard to which quality cultural material can be brought. I had not been to see a show here for the entire year that I have been here (although I have seen various performances in this space in years gone by).
The foyer of the theater was simply packed as people tried to get beverages before curtain call. As it happened, the complimentary tickets I was given were simply grand--on the third row! We were there to see Aaron Sorkin's A Few Good Men which was a major motion picture about twenty years ago. The theater was packed to capacity and it felt good to have snagged tickets.
And what can one say about a really brilliant production? It had a large cast but every single one of them did their bit to make it memorable. I remember seeing Rajit Kapur in his much younger (and slimmer days) when he was first making inroads into the world of theater. He played Colonel Jessup. Neil Bhoopalan played the defence lawyer Daniel Kaffee and Ira Dubey played Joanne Galloway, his assistant--roles played in the film by Jack Nicholson, Tom Cruise and Demi Moore respectively. You'd think that class act would be hard to follow, right? And you would be correct. They did not come anywhere as close to the perfection of the film...but since this was a staged version, I would say that they came as close, in dramatic terms, as one could possibly expect to come on stage. I also thought that Ashwin Mushran as the prosecutor Jack Ross was memorable.The production and the performances were riveting.There is so much that Aadyam (the production outfit fronted by the Birla Group) is doing to enhance the cultural life of Bombay and Delhi and there is so much for me to write about and focus on in the writing of the chapters of my book when I begin.
Maria and I made a real outing of it. We posed for (free) pictures taken against the backdrop of the play's poster, we bought roast beef sandwiches after it ended (alas the mini chocolate cupcakes were gone by the time I got there), we made sure we got copies of the program for ourselves, we entered a competition for guessing the name of the next play Aadhyam will be doing (and which I hope to see on a later visit to Bombay) and we spent time chatting with Brian, who had organized the tickets for me. What a wonderful time we had at the theater!
Ad just when I thought the evening could not possible get better, we found my friend Fr. Austin Norris waiting with his best friend Fr. Annicetto Pereira to get into the theater for the 8.00 pm show--because, yes, there was a performance following hard on the heels of ours! We chatted for a bit outside the theater and then Maria and I hailed a rick. She dropped me off at my building and carried on home. It was such a lovely afternoon at the theater! What quality productions are available right here in the city of Bombay--they completely floor me with their world-class spit and polish.
Back home, I switched on the AC, called Dad to find out how he was doing (thankfully, much better) and then went in for a shower. Freshly rejuvenated, I decided to spend the evening reading (I listened to my audio book The Silkworm for an hour) and watching a movie. I chose The International, a thriller starring Clive Owen and Naomi Watts whose plot was so complicated that I barely understood anything of it. Still, it was one of those action thrillers that keep you riveted because the film-making is so fascinating. I loved the film for two reasons: A really long (nearly 15 minutes) and quite extraordinary shoot-out sequence shot, of all places, in Frank Lloyd Wright's Guggenheim Museum in New York City!!!! And two, the final scenes set in Istanbul, Turkey, in which every single one of the city's amazing tourist landmarks were featured--from the Blue Mosque, to Topkapi Palace, from the Basilica Cistern to the Grand Bazaar! What a splendid way to recall the incredible few days that Llew and I had spent scouring Istanbul on foot during one of our more memorable holidays! And there were other international hotspots that thrilled me as well--such as Milan's Central Railway Station and Galleria and Berlin's too! So for all these reasons, I stayed wide awake throughout the film and fell asleep at midnight after brushing and flossing my teeth.
Phew! What a Sunday!
Until tomorrow...
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