Wednesday, June 26, 2019
Bombay
A Rainy Morning of Errands and An Afternoon Watching Oxford's Encaenia
Namaste from Bombay!
As if on cue, so as not to make local meteorologists feel like sorry sods, the heavens opened at exactly 5.00 am today to officially bring in Bombay's Monsoon of 2019. I know because I was awake at that unearthly hour. It seems that the showers we experienced, two weeks ago, were merely a throwback from a cyclone that hit the Gujarat coast. This is the real McCoy! This is the sort of weather that shall keep us cool and indoors (as much as we can help it) for the next four months. I listened to the downpour drumming on outside and I felt transported to my childhood when it had rained with such might, accompanied by thunderous claps and streaks of lightning and it was declared a holiday, the next day, much to our delight, as the colony in which I lived (Reserve Bank) flooded copiously with knee-deep water. Such lovely memories of the beloved city of my birth are associated with the Monsoons. I love Bombay!
Up, as I mentioned, at 5.00am, I did a fair bit of reading (The Cuckoo's Calling), drafted my blog post and downloaded the Times of London. I also had a phone chat with my friend Shahnaz, just back from Delhi where she attended her daughter's graduation from Ashoka University with a Bachelor's in the Humanities. I was hoping that she would have the time to fit in a phone interview with me (on her acting career in Bombay, two decades ago), but she is swamped.
It was on to breakfast then as I ate a chappati with mango jam and marmalade (I need to finish the stock pile of chapattis in my fridge!). While eating, I watched House Hunters International after a very long time and was transported to Lisbon, Portugal. I then did a bit of tidying up and noticing that the rain had subsided somewhat (although it kept up a steady drizzle), I decided to finish up a couple of pending errands I had to run for Dad.
So I called him and told him I was heading out into freshly rain-washed Bandra to pick up Russel's culture reports from Hinduja Hospital. I called first, of course, to confirm that they were ready and then I was off. It was painless and very quick as the reports were ready and waiting to be handed over to me by the super-efficient receptionist who mans the desk Once again, I was struck by the cool professionalism of this institution--long may it thrive! That task done, I got into a rick and headed to Dad's. I called to tell him to keep his Man Friday Rohit ready as I would be picking him up and taking him to the Police Station for registration.
However, Rohit is very busy in the mornings with his list of chores and he was not ready by the time I reached Dad's. I handed over the culture reports to Dad (all clear!) and chatted with him as Rohit got ready. I then called my photocopy man, Jay, and told him that we were heading to his shop. He suggested I whatsapp Rohit's documents to him--Rohit had received them from his folks in Chattisgarh from which state he hails.
Ten minutes later, we were heading to Jay's where the documents were duly printed out and kept ready for me. We found a rick and headed to Hill Road to the Bandra Police Station. It is customary to register newly-employed domestic helpers in Bombay now with the local police station as thefts, extortion, kidnapping and even murders are often known to be the doings of domestic help--who do the deed and then abscond to their native places never to be heard from or seen again, As a way of combating this kind of domestic crime, the Bombay Police have set up a Registry service. You bring the new hire to the police station where he/she is finger-printed and photographed. Copies of their national ID cards are made together with documents from the place that they claim is their home town (as so many of these folks come from the rural hinterland of India to the metropolitan cities seeking work). Their details are then entered into a computer and become part of the data base. God forbid there is a crime reported, their whereabouts are traced through their family members in their villages. Hence, utility bills and voter registration cards of their parents are considered valid documents for keeping on record. Rohit produced the electricity bill of his parents' home in Chattisgarh and his mother's voting card which has her home address on it.
Inspector Yadav at the Bandra Police station, who knows me by sight by now as I have been there three times already, inspected the documents, ascertained that there were all in order and assured me that they would be entered into the computer. It took all of five minutes and then we were off. We found a rick and I dropped Rohit back home to my Dad's place before I carried on in the same vehicle to my bank where I needed to deposit some money to swell my account balance. For the first time in ages, I noticed that there was practically no one at the counter--the rain kept all patrons at bay--and I managed to get my work done with no trouble at all.
I then walked out into the slight drizzle and got home for a nice hot shower. That done, I sat down to check my email and do some reading before it was time for lunch. I fixed myself a plate with meatball curry, stewed green gourd, sambhar and a chappati with some really wonderful Rajapuri mango for dessert.
By this time, I had my TV on to the You Tube station that live streams from the Martin School Webcam at Oxford University. I was aware that it was the day of the Encaenia (Graduation) Ceremony--a red-letter day on Oxford's calendar. In the days when Town and Gown co-existed compatibly together, a procession led by the University's Chancellor, Vice-Chancellor, Provost and other big wigs, wound its way through the streets (they often came along Broad Street) before entering the Sheldonian Theater where the graduation ceremony is held. I understand that things have changed and that Oxford City Council had some sort of row with the university which no longer allows roads to be closed and traffic stopped to make room for the pomp and pageantry. Nowadays, the procession starts from a college close to the Sheldonian and weaves its way through a few university lanes only. Hence, the crowds of people lining Broad Street that I had seen in the Inspector Morse episode entitled The Twilight of the Gods is a thing of the past--sadly!
All I could see (as my camera only provides views down Broad Street) was clumps of graduates, gowned either in all-black, black and pink or black and red gowns grow steadily after 10.00 am local time. Some were individually seen as they hurried in and out of the Weston Library--where I think the registration and ticket distribution for the ceremony took place. I spent a long while watching the growing spectacle of graduates, their mentors and professors swell in number outside the main gates of the Sheldonian Theater. At 11.30, they were allowed inside, in a orderly queue. Lucky tourists who still took the Hop On Hop Off bus tours today as they had the rare sight of newly-minted graduates take over the town. At exactly 1.00 pm, i.e. 90 minutes later, the graduates trooped out of the Sheldonian and disappeared down both sides of the Broad--no doubt off to a celebratory lunch somewhere. I felt absurdly pleased to be a part of this ceremony, albeit vicariously and albeit half a world away--but it was fun and it brought back for me so many happy memories of my days in that town over the last 35 years.
I took a short nap in-between and then began drafting my May-June newsletter which will be a joint one this time as I did not send out a letter at the end of May as Llew and I were traveling in South America. I had fun remembering our times together.
Then it was time for tea and I helped myself to the goodies Dad had given me yesterday--a chicken patty and a small piece of cheesecake with a pot of tea--they were both good and I felt fairly stuffed by the time I dressed and left my studio to go to Dad's. I visited with Russel for a bit and then then Dad and I left for the Novena and Mass.
Dad is having endless trouble with his landline where irritating and very loud static disturbance makes it almost impossible for him to carry out a conversation. He requested me to return to his place so that I could place yet another complaint with the phone service and tomorrow morning, we shall probably be going in person to catch hold of the linesmen before they disperse to do the various jobs that have been allotted to them.
I got home for my own dinner--I had a cup of pea and mint soup with crackers and some pasta and more mango for desert while I watched another wonderful episode of McCallum. It was about 10.30 pm when I went off to sleep.
Until tomorrow.
Showing posts with label Encaenia Ceremony in Oxford. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Encaenia Ceremony in Oxford. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 26, 2019
Tuesday, June 25, 2019
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...
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...
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