Everybody's Meenaka

he couldn't live without her (or was it the other way round?)...with him gone, what reason did she have to hang on?...how quietly she went and so suddenly... without even saying bye...

...while I wait for the phone to ring at 8.30 in the morning. May you live happily ever after...

From Ovid...there was a god who wandered disguised on earth with the intention of learning about his creation. One cool spring by the sea, he comes to a farm on the edge of the village, occupied by an elderly farmer and his wife. They invite him to supper and a night's lodging. The next morning the god continues on his journey after the couple has been allowed to make one wish: they do not want death to separate them. The god responds to their wish and turns them into a huge tree to shade the farm.

In their cool shade, if I can be even 1% of the person she was, I'll be a better human being :) 

my appa

1921-2011

may his soul rest in peace

62years later :)

shine on you crazy patrook!

the worst news in the recent past came this afternoon in the form of a brief email - my cousin, patrick passed on suddenly in london. past 60, he was to have an angio done next month...but i guess there's no need for that now...that bolt from the blue couldn't have struck harder n deeper...he was afterall the guy who introduced me to tull, floyd, salif keita, stevie wonder, mj, etc...painstakingly he'd make tape-to-tape recordings n airmail them to me in these bubblepack brownpaper envelopes...i'd squeal with joy n hug the postman whenever he'd deliver one of those packets...each one labeled on tdk d90s...he'd record live concerts off-air on vhs n send me...and films...derek jarman, one world one voice, peter gabriel...i'd see them so often that the tape wore out n he'd have to make me a new recording...this is before cd's n dvd's...tape.....analog!...and i'd sync the vhs video of peter gabriel's secret world live tour with the cd when i finally got one...and we'd dance to it, blast it...
he died alone n i don't even know how...in a sparse cold state-provided home outside london...on my first trip abroad, he was was the first one to greet me with his huge bear hug n his chinky smile when i got off enroute to miami...he took me home to a hearty meal n we talked our heads off n i nearly missed my connecting flight...
he dreamed of coming back home to goa to his ancestral property in colvale, of having a family...but that was not to be...he came often while things were still good when he had a job n the economy was booming...the proverbial santaclaus!...he even gave me his walkman once before leaving...we were his family he used to say n i now feel we weren't around when he needed us most.
he'd end his letters with love and xxx's - bamboo...how much we wrote each other...almost every week for years...until email came...i'd write less n less to him n started this blog primarily for him to know what i was up to...he'd check EVERYDAY...and i wouldn't have written...
he was the first person i interviewed for my goa pedophila film when he had an organisation 'people against pedophiles abroad' papa...i better stop...fuck , am going to miss him so much...i don't think i've come across a person who gave more n expected so little...

50 years ago (pt2)

let's do mass here, she said...only us familyfor it was here they got married - don bosco matunga...moments before mass...such happiness!we later settled in to a cozy quiet chinese joint that anil m had taken mira to over 25yrs ago!over dinner, we got her to recount for us that day, 50yrs ago!...for the first time :) slowly n very reluctantly...

finally!...

...2years after we won back some family property n lots of family pride...and 6months after we had celebrated the win, anil n his family moves into the spacious chembur apartment today. such a momentous moment (!)...anil had been pivotal in this n it is just right that he's going to be staying there now...one guy up there is gonna be smiling so widely :)

50 years ago

anju's farm@dahanu

end-may june is that time of the year when the family goes out for it's annual overnight picnic...last year, we'd had a fabulous time at gupte's farm at amba ghat...this year, the picnic almost didn't happen...as the years go on, it seems harder to get all 12 members free at the same time esp when the kids have grown beyond school...after much juggling we settled on last weekend at dahanu. anju's farm 120km from bombay seemed next door...ac rooms with food in a sprawling 12acre chickoo n coconut plantation.da car just back from servicing, purr-ed down nh8 with half the family...mum stayed back n so did ro n s. somehow, this year felt differentmaybe, just in my head...next year, baba won't be there :( but we're all excited about his year ahead in amrika!pooja finishes with srishti this year-end as an editor!...while ro hopes to finish his be-it...mira pondering...jim n anil celebrate winning pictionary - the family's official game!!the next morning, dahanu beach beckoned...dirty black sand, brown churny waters n a garbaged beach ensured the fat lazy noronha clan got no walk at all!

mama noronha unwinding!

it must've been a tough trip for her...one sunday morning after mass, we just decided to juts chilllll!...florentine's @sailgao is such a safe bet...

the cheera collection

cheera or cheerai are these laterite blocks used for construction in the konkan region...nice backdrop they make huh?! that's gaurav-mynephew, karen-my niece, lina-my sis in law :)

contento mucho contento!

mama noronha shares her joy with the rest of us as we decide that anil lina baba will go stay in the recently won chembur flat this may!

BluD on the beach!

just back from goa...a quickie 'twas...to take my uncle (dad's brother) to verna to see "the plot". reverand father gregory noronha, is how he'd have answered the phone, but we kids always knew him as blue-dada...apparently after a blue bus he used to drive around in nagpore! like all good migratory nri's he comes in once a year around winter to remember "the good ol times"...besides work.

at 82, he's amazingly active...getting slower n lonelier...not much of his family left n whatever lil is left he don't seem to enjoy. so i'd walk with him down the crowded calangute beach as he let the once-golden sands massage his aching right foot...and we'd sit n watch the sun go down...right down today since there was no mist on the horizon...and he'd tell me things "just between you n me"...dreams, disappointments n hopes...

kept thinking of meeka n appa n my slow interrupted walks with them in the cold winter sun of delhi...much the same...they'd talk i'd listen...makes me think about how little they need now n yet how little we seem to be giving them...

one year later...

...my sister, she surrounds herself with memories!...and friends n family!

of nephews n nieces!

that is gaurav (aka baba), karen, rohit, pooja - our very own gen next! need to keep checking myself from calling them kids anymore!! for them, i'll remain ajoo...they'd spend at least a week with me during their summer vacations...and we'd go to the science centre n the beach or i'd show them "children's" films like bicycle thieves n lord of the flies which would upset them so much that they'd do katti with me :)
pooja's bit the bug n is doing film at shristi in b'lore. baba wants to be a writer tho his mum wants him to be a travel writer ;) rohit wanted to be an inventor and karen - she doesn't know!