My Continuing Holiday Mood...

With Chennai I seem to have left the hustle and bustle behind me. It is obvious that being a link in a chain whirring daily onwards to greater economical gains, the temptation to return to Pune as a tourist and not another chain in a smaller but whirring chain, was always strong. I am glad that holiday mood continues, for I do walk around in Koregaon Park and Bund Garden feeling as much a tourist as I used to do in 1970s.

Had a lunch date with a jazz-loving friend who sits lording over an empire of business, sharpening her skills and yet not letting her soft feelings for people take backseat ever. A compassionate heart is rather rare to find these days, and she is one for sure. Due to some unforeseen work, she had to postpone the meeting at Shisha Cafe, one of my favourite haunts at the ABC Farms complex where a lot of jazz live shows are taking place these days, by one and half hours.

Thus I decided to take a bus to Bund Garden, since my car has died completely, and take a leisurely walk through Mangaldas Road onwards to Koregaon Park. Others had reached early too, so on receiving a desperate sms from my daughter I had abandon my last leg of this long and leisurely walk to reach earlier. Shisha Cafe looks bewitchingly unreal at night. The day somehow lends a duller touch due to one's ability to see things outside. All my guests who ever visited this high on stilts, wooden masterpiece with its Iranian decor and glass-moulded hookahs that are called Shishas in Persian, have always commented on the ambience.

Two weeks back we had a lovely time with Julien Derek, an ageing Rocker on electric guitars, very ably accompanied by a younger set on drums and electric bass, and on a keyboard. I had my own doubts about a rockstar switching over to jazz, but Julien did that with consummate ease. His jazzy renditions of Summertime and Autum Leaves went down very well with Mimi, my daughter who is barely 15, with a decidedly pronounced inclination for jazz. Mehdi Noormand, the almost fully bald pinkfaced Iranian with thick glasses, had met me earlier at his other restaurant Sunrise Cafe in the Deccan Gymkhana area and asked me to show up with friends. I did, and nearly ten guys showed up, enthralling Mehdi. Though I guess, Mimi enjoyed the music, perhaps she did that all the more in mid September when Pune Jazz Club celebrated its fifth birth anniversary. We had four live bands, and she did have a gang of cousins with her to enjoy the music with. Will write about that experience in a separate post.

Cheerio!