Saroj D’Villa – Life after Death!

He was always a happy, jovial kind, cracking away with his characteristic kutchhi sense of humour! Sarojbhai was our family priest at Bhuj, one of the many belonging to nagar-brahmin samaj, the community. 

Conducting thread ceremonies, marriages et al constituted Sarojbhai’s livelihood. He lived a very simple, austere life. However, there was a touch of idiosyncrasy in him; charging rickshaw return fare apart from his regular fee  – so much so, that even if we give him a to-n’-fro lift out of sheer reverence for our priest, he would still ask for that ‘rickshaw fare’. I remember my late brother getting into an argument with him once; surely, quite a few others must have fought this rather irritating habit of a priest.

In his last days in 2015-16, Sarojbhai used to plonk himself on a bed outside his large, one-room abode on the ground floor, ostensibly not allowing anyone to enter his home; good Samaritans would pass by to greet, even give him some money. The good man’s austere life ended soon; his wife had already preceded him; and, he had no children, and no relatives – at least in Bhuj.

In October 2017, I was invited for a wedding and accommodated in a beautiful ground + one uttara or guest house that pleasantly surprised me; it had great interiors, fully loaded rooms and a dorm, all air-conditioned, chilled RO water machines, solar heated water supply and clean modern toilets; there was a manager and a cleaner too, with round the clock service. Impressive.

As I slowly craned my neck up towards the top of the entry façade, I saw the sign embossed in concrete: ‘Saroj D’Villa’!

And the surprise turned to shock! WHAT? Good old Sarojbhai? Our kindly, laugh-a-minute, austere priest??

And the story unfolded; his livelihood (including the xtra rickshaw charges over a life-time!) had yielded nearly Rs. 20 lacs, all cash; intriguingly, the cash was discovered right there in his one-room house, stored in various nook and corners, utensils and even a disused commode; it was a wonderful gesture of his community – to take charge of the money and construct a beautiful guest house in his memory, and even manage the same with token charges and some more donations.

For us all now, ‘Saroj D’Villa’ is meant to enjoy even as Sarojbhai must be laughing away to glory in the heavens and mocking a blow to our collective chin, “Cribbing about my charges eh,?? Take that!”

-yash7Nov17

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Gokarna - Monsoon Destination of Another Kind

It is mid-month afternoon in June 2017, cloudy but cool. As the train that brought me to Gokarna Road station from Bangaluru slowly chugged out and away towards Karwar, we were just a few souls left with an eerie silence. The railway station is small, humble, with no human population around. The IMD had earlier forecast a delayed monsoon over north Karnataka and I was hoping for a warm drenching anytime.

The rickshaw drove 13 kms west and climbed a steep gradient to drop me at Zostel where I was one of the six backpackers sharing an air-conditioned, self-contained dorm. The young backpackers were fun loving and some of them were bikers out to have a quiet weekend. We struck friendship immediately.

Just as I was about to enter the room, the exclusivity and the ambiance of the accommodation suddenly hit me without a warning. I could not believe that we were at a height looking down at Gokarna beach lined with continuously rolling, crashing white waves for as long as the eyes could see; overhead, there were layers upon layers of thick, black clouds about to burst; the scene was capped by the hills in the background. And the pleasure was compounded as it began pouring with stiff winds; at last, God bless, the heavens opened up!

For those religiously inclined, the etymology informs us that Lord Shiva emerged from the ear of a cow (Prithvi, the Mother Earth) here at Gokarna which is situated at the ear-shaped confluence of two rivers Gangavali and Aghanashini. Gokarna is mentioned in the Shrimad Bhagwata Purana as being the home of the brothers Gokarna and Dhundhakari.

To my well traveled mind, Gokarna stands out as a distinctly conspicuous place with the plains of palm fringed Goa to the north and with a similar landscape of the Mangalore-Udupi region to the south. Here though, there are hills covered with evergreen forests all over with a few coconut palms here and there; and the forested hills go down to the beach fronts, sometimes quite sharply; often, the forests overhang the beach! 

The local authorities have done well to provide stepping stones going down to a beach. There are plenty of watering holes, cafeteria shacks and some villas on all beaches. And there are no high rises.

They have paved concrete paths and roads throughout the small town and outgoing stretches. After all, Gokarna is famous for its religious tourism; among the several temples, I visited two showcasing heritage values; the Mahabaleshwar depicting Lord Shiva, and the Mahaganapati temple. They have been preserved well and rich in its wooden architecture and atmospherics. On any typical day, carloads of pilgrims descend on Gokarna. But it is on Mahashivratri day that about 5 lakh pilgrims crowd the small, two-street town. This was monsoon however, a lean season and thankfully, I was lucky to be just one of the few ‘pilgrims’!

I rued the short stay of two nights; of the many beaches (they are never the same and each has a distinct character) that I could visit were Kudle beach and Om beach, the second time on a bike in driving rain!  Kudle, unfortunately, had a lot of solid waste flotsam, the accepted bad habit of the visiting masses! Om beach was beautiful, shaped like a ‘Om’ if viewed from a hill top.

With Gokarna not yet commercialised (but about to it seems), it is being labelled as a ‘poor man’s Goa’; things are much cheaper for a tourist town. One can walk down the concrete path with an umbrella to the town and have a drink or a meal. However and except at Zostel, non-veg meals are not known here.

As I relaxed on the porch gazing away at night, exhausted after walking around and trekking the beaches (and pillion riding), it was still raining. Those sounds on the tarpaulin shelter was mixed with nature’s orchestra played out by the waves down below; add to this the uninhibited view of the forested dropping hill and one gets a perspective of the beautiful, surreal ambiance that one can experience only at this beautiful accommodation!

Enough trips to Goa; but one never knows! Next time, once again, and surely in monsoon, it has to be Gokarna, a  destination with a character! 

CHEERS!!

Note: All photographs by the Author under copyright.

Fact File

Gokarna is about 238 km north of Mangalore 483 km from Bengaluru and about 59 km. from Karwar. 

Gokarna can be reached by buses and maxicabs from Kumta (30 km) on National Highway 17.

Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) runs long-journey buses from cities like Panaji, Bengaluru and Mangalore.

It can be reached by train on the Mumbai to Mangalore route or Goa to Mangalore route. The railway station (called Gokarna Road) is 6 km from the town. From Ahmedabad, Bikaner Express is one of the few weekly long-distance trains that halts at Kumta (22 hrs).

Both, Goa International Airport at Dabolim and the Mangalore International Airport at Bajpe, Karnataka are the nearest air terminals for reaching at Gokarna.

Zostel (Trade Marked) can be browsed on the web.

Chikkis… by an Arab!

Chikkis… by an Arab!

Those were the days, when we as kids, used to gather on our street in Tanzania, Africa.  He should be coming, we would whisper among ourselves, mouth watering incessantly, eyes pointing to the end of the street with great expectations. After all, it will soon be 4pm.

We now hear the distant sounds in a characteristic rhythm - jhum, jhum… jhum jhum. There! The volume, as he nears, increases. The tinkling sounds emanate from the ghoonghroos on his ankles, heavily laden with them; and he walks fast with his body swaying rhythmically from side to side as if in a trance.

He is turbaned, with a typical, printed loin cloth wrapped around his waist up to knees; he has that golden hued, pale brown Aryan face, wrinkled with age and bearded – and yet gentle. As he walks fast, he is pushing a wooden cart full of freshly made goodies for sale.

He is not shouting, no sales pitch, no catch phrases, not a word uttered. But his very personality, the rhythmic gait, and his USP (unique selling proposition) – the sounds of ghoonghroos – has a mesmerizing appeal to our young, craving senses. Soon, we start actually ‘smelling’ the hot, molten jaggery (brown sugar)!

Yes, it is 4pm and time for hot, fresh chikkis!

His til sankli (sesame chunks) was the best-selling item – big, thick chunks of ‘em. The next best of course was the chikki made from huge peanuts – jugu chikki.

The kids, running out of patience by now, would jostle around the two-wheeled cart; there will be a noisy clamour to climb over its metal frame to try to open the wooden lid, if only to have a quick look at the goodies. They would not succeed as the owner politely pushes them off the cart! This day, some with 50 cents would purchase a few chunks and gobble them up; the others would sheepishly look on, fingers in the mouth, in a desperate attempt to stem the flow of saliva!

Today, as I fondly relive this uniquely flavored childhood memory, I can visualize it too – even smell it!  

He was our version of kabuliwalla, not the Pashtun migrant-merchant from Kabul immortalized by Tagore in his short story, but a real skin-and-blood Arab, one who sold chikkis!!

Reliving Mughal-e-Azam

       From Cinema to Theatre – Reliving Mughal-e-Azam 

Anarkali, the courtesan, is in defiance of the angry Emperor; she wants him to accept the unacceptable - come to terms with her love for his son Prince Salim, the future Shahenshah, even as she sings the eternal lyric ‘Pyaar kiya to darna kya’. The dancers twirl around, almost like dervishes, singing while in rhythmic kathak steps under the reflected, twinkling lights of a resplendent aaina mahal! 

For a while, the enchanted audience is magically transported back in memory to the legendary K. Asif’s historical magnum opus ‘Mughal-e-Azam’ of 1960 in all its glory.

Except, that that January evening, we were glued to our seats, watching the musical play, circa 2017, at the Jamshedjee Bhabha Auditorium of the NCPA, Mumbai. Amazed at the transformation of the melody in the film, to one on stage, the audience broke into a feverish applause as the song concluded with a climax akin to a musical explosion!

The background score continues even as the aaina mahal slowly dissolves into darkness; the sculptor of Anarkali reminisces to the audience as a sutradhar; the walls of a Mughal Fort slide in from the wings. Exquisitely carved pillars come down from the top. Steps to the high throne move in somewhere in the back – all set to continue to the next act, next scene!

And therein lays the magic of the two-hour musical play, the hard work that they have all put in to be in sync with the film. The near-perfect dancing and singing live – simultaneously - was a treat to watch! 

The sound track, inspired by the Indian classical music, comprises many of the original 12 songs, with freshly composed music and background score in Dolby stereo. The old-timers would remember the ‘100-piece orchestra’ meaning violins en-mass for any song those days; alas, they are no more in vogue now! This musical surprisingly, uses violins, making one feel all the more nostalgic.

The beautiful sets match scene for scene each time - the drama around the royal confrontation, the simmering mystique of unrequited love, and the insidiousness of treachery within the palace.

Interspersed with beautiful dance numbers, the songs, sung live (with the background track) by ‘Anarkali’ and ‘Bahar’ are absolute sizzlers! Thinking of few, mohe panaghat pe nand lal ched gayo re, mohabbat ki juthi kahani pe roye, jab raat hai aisi matwali fir subaha ka alam kya hoga, be kashke karam kijiye, and zindabad zindabad are enchantingly sung and choreographed in Kathak style. The most entertaining of them all is the quawwali number - teri mehfil me kismat aazma kar hum bhi dekhenge; the two competing lovers vie for the attention of Salim, who is reclining up front on stage with his back to the audience – imaginative stage adaptation and technique, really!

The challenges and constraints of adapting a timeless epic, and one that had a huge, multi-dimensional canvass, to a fixed, limited square of a revolving stage, without compromising the story, dialogues (in chaste Urdu), the original musical score and lyrics, has been a monumental effort, no doubt about that. Director Feroz Abbas Khan must be complimented for the sheer ingenuity in laboriously converting a famous epic into a stage production. The event is a milestone for the show business industry in India. Technology and stage craft have been superbly amalgamated.. 

To be sure, most of the 60+ star cast including actors playing Anarkali, Bahar, Akbar, Salim, Jodhabai, and Mansingh were not even born in 1960, and therefore not exposed continuously to the crazy popularity of dialogues and musical classics of the film that the old-timers swoon over even today. To achieve the atmospherics and pathos of the original, tragic, immortal love saga of the Mughal era by the modern-day actors and technicians must have been a herculean task. 

The credits include, among others, the art direction team, video projection team, choreography team, music team and stage management team.

For all of us on the wrong side of 65, Mughal-e-Azam, the Musical Play gave us a rare moment to cherish, one that should not be missed next time!

Looking back, there have been many comparable once-in-life-time and rare entertainment events, all in Mumbai, and over a period of past 50+years. To remember a few:

- Watching live at Tata Theatre, the New York Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Zubin Mehta - in India to perform for the first time ….

- Then, we were in a special audience (with Dilip Kumar, Gopi Krishna) of just 50 people invited to a baithak with Ghazal Maestro Ghulam Ali in Mumbai, again performing for the first time in India!

- Evita’, the musical play led by gutsy Sharon Prabhakar under the Direction of none other than inimitable Alyque Padamsee ….. at the Sophia College Hall, a blast of  entertainment…

- ‘Jashma Oden’ a play in Gujarati directed by Shanta Gandhi with Naseerudin Shah and Ratna Pathak in lead roles..

- In 2016, witnessed the unfolding 3-hr, 3-D dance and music spectacle,  ‘Treasures of Archipelago’ at Nusa Dua Theatre, Bali…

Can life be any better??