BENGALURU: When singer Bruno Mars soulfully crooned, ‘At night, when the stars light up my room, I sit by myself talking to the moon’, I played this song over and over again, remembering my father and his myriad contributions to our country. Why did this man give so much and take back so little? Because he was part of a wave that just wanted to rebuild his country with like-minded patriots and get going with the best.
My half-French half-Pathan mom and my Bengali Brahmin dad shunned the violence, the outcry and the bigotry to love one another, and bring up three kids in a totally nuclear set-up. Robin, Rita and Rubi, we didn’t belong to any sect, caste creed or religion. We were and are Indians.
My father, a Brigadier in the Indian Army was a visionary, with an intelligence quotient that bordered on the formidable! In fact, even as a child, I was quite convinced he was an alien! He inculcated in me an interest in the extra-terrestrial, by gifting me hordes of books by Erich von Däniken who wrote the Chariots of Gods. I was the youngest and he was already a well-established leader and visionary when I was born.
But what became an emotional legacy was LRDE (electronics and radar development establishment). He was the founder/director and the man who brought ‘electronics’ into South India. They laid the seed of many great scientific inventions and pioneered the research for radars, telecommunication equipment and even drones! Different research and development establishments then aligned and became the massive ‘think-tank’, DRDO which ultimately conjoined with ISRO and laid the foundation for our space program. I missed my dad, Dr Bhagwantam, Dr Abdul Kalam and Krishna Menon yesterday.
All these super minds came home, confabulated at the office and I grew up thinking it was the most normal thing to have defense ministers and prime ministers and super-minds hanging around! Because ‘dad’ was always available and he never gave us any room for remonstrance. I spoke to the moon last night and I hoped he was listening…
Though I was still nursing a sore leg, my sense of adventure kicked in. I was dying to wear my evening togs and get a first-hand ‘dekko’ at our very ‘exclusive’ Bangalore Wine Club event which apparently sold out in 15 minutes. The Leela Palace is a favourite hot spot for the bold and beautiful of our ooru.
The ultra-swank new speakeasy bar (where the adventure began), had a secret password to gain entry. The members with their haute-couture got into the spirit of things as the band played popular jazz and blues numbers. The GM Madhav Sehgal led us to the famed Le Cirque for an excellent French dinner and later to the ‘Cigar-Room’ for brandy and petit-fours! Now if this doesn’t cause a little ‘FOMO-furour’ with the precluded I don’t know what will.
Marco Pierre-White, the three-time Michelin star awardee and celebrity chef was in town. We have met before and other ‘chefs’ should take a leaf out of his book. Humble, down to earth and brilliant! We spent a glorious afternoon with him, tasting his food, singing with the band and dancing. He was the epitome of grace as he posed for pictures and signed autographs. It must be the moon madness!