Twenty- five Seven

Bring on the Band Baja –

December 6, 2011

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Last week I had to hunt around for musicians to play at Anna Shetty’s wedding. Most Indian weddings have a live band escorting the groom’s party to the wedding venue and several early mornings have been disturbed by loud film music played very enthusiastically by outfits derogatorily referred to as the “Nankhatai Band”. Dressed in gaudy red coats trimmed with gold, wearing ill fitting hats and almost always quite drunk,these poor musicians have to be on duty at early hours of the morning after having been let off pretty late the night before.

But even if bands are not de-rigor at a wedding ,we felt that it may be a good touch to have some live performers playing the shehnai. So it was that I went looking for a suitable band. At a wedding last year I had picked up a card of the band of musicians playing the Shehnai and called them for a quote. I was shocked when I was told that they charged Rs 17,000 for one performance! Although the band was travelling from Pune, this figure was really too much . So I began hunting for local talent in earnest and was thrilled when Sonu the priest at the Shankarshett temple told me about another shehnaiwallah in Mulund who charged all of Rs.5000. With this more realistic figure, live music at the wedding function seemed more affordable and I realised that there would be some performers closer to home.

After scouting around, I came upon a whole host of them clustered in the area at Girgaon‘s Tatya Gharpure Road off the main VP Road near the Amboli Church crossing . They enthusiastically brought out photo albums of their past performances while I eyed their cupboards filled with stacks of different outfits. Thoroughly impressed by their professionalism I took their visiting cards to make the final deals from home after discussing with the rest of the family.

In conversation :

“Hello, is that XXXX Bandwallah?”
“Yes, it is”
“What do you charge for playing the shehnai at a wedding?”
“Well we charge per hour Rs. XXX for a two hour slot”
“Does this include the cost of transportation?”
“Yes it does”
“Any other hidden costs like tips?”
“No, but we charge more if you want us to play with clothes on.”
“What!!! you mean to say you play without any clothes?”
“No of course we play with clothes but not special clothes unless you pay extra”
“Oh I see”

I still have to get over the fright I got when I imagined the shenhaiwallas playing stark naked at Anna Shetty’s wedding!
Mumbai in December

December 1, 2011

Several years ago when I was visiting Poland in June, the chambermaid cleaning our room was amazed to see me wearing a wind cheater while she wore a sleeveless top and shorts. She looked aghast and asked where I came from as this was a really warm day in Warsaw. I told her that where I came from it was the coldest day I’d experienced and she couldn’t believe it.

These days with global warming it is even more true. Gone are the days when a Mumbai December meant mild sunshine and nippy mornings. Alas, we’ve been having hot humid days reminiscent of summer and last week’s brilliant skies were clear and bright like our pre-monsoon skies. So I’ve captured these skies to share with all of you this week . I hope they bring you as much joy as they did me.

A city waking up

In keeping with our new tradition of seeing a movie a week, Anna Shetty and I decided to see “The Help” currently playing in our Mumbai multi plexes. Surprisingly for an English movie morning show this show had a sizeable audience of 30 people and what was more suprising was that the audience was predominantly female. Of course considering the subject a topic dear to our hearts : domestics and the problems of getting them, this movie was a scary reminder of how close we are to losing this oft taken for granted luxury.

Marine Drive under a blue sky

One of the major topics of discussion in Indian households is criticism of the house help. Both of us were engrossed by the movie. We loved the story line and even though the story line was predictable, the performances were engaging . I can see this movie getting an Oscar nomination.

Good morning Mumbai!

Definitely a movie not worth missing.

Reflections in granite
11-11-11

November 11, 2011

This week was very busy so I am pulling up a picture from last year where the orange pink sunrise is any day more cheery than the haze outside my balconey.

1-1-11,
11-1-11
1-11-11
11-11-11

These four “mystical ” dates have driven several people to a frenzy with the significance of these numbers. At the beginning of the year there was an SMS and email doing the rounds saying that if you added the last two digits of the year of your birth to the age you will be this year ( 2011), the sum will equal 111.

Several magical things were supposed to happen on these dates – obviously nothing magical happened to me but today, the last number in the series may herald the birth of Aishwarya Rai Bacchan’s first born if the newspapers are to be believed.

Apparently like all magical numbers, this date too has several babies lined up for Caeserian section births to avail of the benefits of being born on such lucky dates. But unlike the millions of unknown mothers, this time we have a celebrity mother already in Seven Hills Hospital waiting for her first born.

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