16.03.30

Nikita has left to return to her handicrafts book project in Gujarat.  Rod and I are again alone in
the big city of Bombay/Mumbai.  An election is coming soon, one party (currently in power) is
headed by Hindu nationalists, the second (more liberal) is being lead by Sonia Gandhi,
the Italian-born wife of Rajiv Gandhi.  Her foreign origin is a contentious issue for her party.

Yesterday Nikita introduced us to an arts columnist for the newspaper Indian Express.  We met on
the outskirts of the city in an Asian fusion restaurant and talked about identity.  Her father is Filipino
but she has grown up in India.  She produced a short film entitled “Urban Nomads” which was
a sequence of her packing and unpacking her bags, an excellent metaphor for these times I think.
She also brought up the issue of foreigners coming to India to see women in saris because that’s
their stereotyped image of the country, whereas she is interested in the urban art scene quite apart
from those images of traditional, conservative India.  She also said something which I thought
was brilliant in reference to the costume of women and that is that, everywhere, women are
the bearers of culture.  Unfortunately we only had time for a brief lunch with her before
she was called on her cellphone back to the newsroom.

So we spent the past 3 days with Nikita-chan.  We met her through Jenni while she was
working for Amnesty International in Tokyo back in 2001.  What good fortune that we could
reconnect in her home city of Bombay! She has shown us around the city, bringing us to some
funky cafes and restaurants.  Bombay’s population is over 15 million people, but it doesn’t feel
as crowded as Tokyo, although there is the feeling that the city has no borders and just goes on
endlessly from the centre, much as Tokyo does.  The culture scene here is vibrant, especially around
the Kalagoda district which features a number of free exhibits, mostly displaying the works of
modern Indian artists. The Jehangir Gallery was particularly noteworthy.  Super spaces in converted
colonial-era buildings.

 

The first day we met up with Nikita and her friend Arti, for the Coho tour, going by bus from
one creative venue to another in the city with an ever-expanding group growing more drunk on
the complimentary wine being offered to us at each stop.  We took in paintings, poetry readings
by Indian as well as ex-pat writers, drama and musical performances.  It brought enormous life
to the art-sampling experience.  That night, unwilling to let the celebration end, we met up to go
to Polly Esther’s, a dance club for Bombay’s young playthings.

Late into the night, over enormous slices of chocolate decadence and middle-eastern coffee at Mocha,
we hatched our plan to meet all together yet again for LeTour 2005 on North American soil this time.
Although it’s sad to part ways and head so far from wonderful friends like Nikita, we consider ourselves
most fortunate to have the opportunities to meet again (hopefully many times) in other parts of the world.

And this finishes my writing from India.  It has been almost a month since our return and as always,
following a trip, things have been busy in Japan.  Particularly so this time as we are beginning
the process of saying goodbye to this part of our lives.   In a few months we will return to Canada,
three years older, having seen a dozen countries and lived with all the ups and downs of being a “gaijin”
in Japan.  While the cultural details will surely fade from our minds as Canada’s arduous climate,
heavy foods and familiar faces and places come back to us, we will always remember the special
people we have grown so close to here.  Friendship speaks a language of its own.

transcribed:  April 27, 2004.
                       [ 16.04.27 ]