"Mapusa - Spice Jar + Port Wine jug". This means that I went with Ute to the market in Mapusa. I can't remember if we went in the new Ambassador/Premier or not. I cannot remember very much at all. It was busy and Ute did her shopping and we did some browsing. There was no hassle here. The things for sale were ordinary things. It wasn't touristic at all. Outside the shops there were informal market pitches where people sat on the ground with a few items for sale. Some of them were pretty sad. Some of them were like Shadwell's collection - I think he had three things but the last two were a comb and and biro. Still, there is a buyer somewhere for anything so they spread these things out and look hopeful. They might get a few rupees and a few rupees, say 20 or 50p, amounted to a day's pay for some people. It's impossible to know but 20 rupees per day might have been good wages. So they sat there and did their best to convert what they had into cash.
All kinds of items were for sale including a pair of ceramic spice jars and a ceramic bottle which I was told was used to hold port. This was very possibly true given that the state was once administered by the Portuguese. Apparently, the ceramic jars originally contained ginger sent by ship from China. I don't know if this was true nor whether the items were all that old. They were not particularly fine but I liked their shape and the glaze. I bought them, they probably cost me no more than a couple of pounds. The port wine bottle is light blue in colour with a handpainted dark blue dragon design. Again, it might not have been very old but I liked it as a possible souvenir ornament. The things, or most of them are 20 years older now. One of the two spice jars made it to inspection by Customs in the UK. Regrettably, the very busy customs officers failed to rewrap it before sending it on so it arrived here in smitherines.
... That's it. It would seem nothing else happened from then on until Sunday afternoon where it is noted: "Ute's Cake Party - Ice Cream mountain". I vaguely recollect being in Ute's kitchen where she had made some sort of ice cream and cake creation. I think it was nice but I didn't make a note.
I must have done something for three days and nights but I was clearly getting so used to whatever I was doing I wasn't making any notes. Stuff that was worth noting happened over the next few days. One thing that I do remember doing which is not noted but I definitely did was go to the cinema in Calangute with the "house boy" Suraj. We went by bike and I gave him a lift. He sat on the luggage rack over the back wheel.
It would make sense that this happened on the Saturday night. The film we went to see was "Chandni", a wholesome Bollywood all singing, all dancing, action, thriller, musical, comedy, romance blockbuster shot on location in Bombay and Switzerland. I remember that I wrote my mate Steve a long letter in which I spelt out the plot of the movie. I can't remember the details now but it was part of the genre of films involving a wealthy well bred young man who falls in love with a happy, pretty but not very rich girl who knows her place, in this case, Chandni (which translates as Moonlight"). His mother doesn't approve of Chandni, I think there is another snooty girl she prefers for her son but he is obsessed by Chandni. There is one scene where to demonstrate his love he reveals to her a whole gallery of photographs he has secretly taken of her. This would probably have scared any normal person off. That's the kind of thing that should sound an alarm that perhaps he might be a murderer. Nevertheless, despite all the obstacles the young successful eligible bachelor and Chandni find love and enjoy a very romantic courtship.
The film was in Hindi and Suraj would tell me what was going on from time to time. What he told me was usually apparent from the screen (see below). At one point for no discernible reason that I could understand from the action (and with no explanation from Suraj) our hero sweeps Chandni off to Switzerland. All of a sudden from running around singing and dancing in India they were singing and dancing while running hand in hand through lush green meadows full of flowers. It was quite surreal. I have a theory about the Swiss location (see below).
I really couldn't follow the story very closely but it was a lavish production. I have relied on my own memories of the night but there a tens, if not hundreds of thousands of web pages out there about it. Where information about the movie is not from my own memory I will own up. An example of Suraj's commentary on the film comes in a memorable scene where our hero is going absurdly over the top in his demonstrations of love for Chandni. In the scene he flies over her house in a helicopter and showers her with rose petals. The helicopter then disappears from view and there is sudden tension, there is a telephone call and Chandni receives shocking news. Suraj says, head wobbling agreeably "He has met with an accident!".
Our hero is paralysed and severely depressed as a result and although Chandni tries to help him he rejects her because he can never be what she deserves because he is now disabled. He even whitewashes over the gallery of photographs. He is in a bad way.
Come to think of it, there might have been a third person in the story. I think Chandni may have always been adored from a respectable distance by a much less flashy and more dependable man. I think Chandni has to make some difficult choices between the two suitors. I really didn't remember how the story ends but I think in an emotional scene the crippled playboy insists that the saintly Chandni accept the advances of the other man whom she really loved anyway.
That's how I remember it but I am wrong. What happens is that rejected by the hero, Rohit, Chandni relocates to Bombay. There she rekindles love in the heart of the other man who is her employer. His heart had previously been broken when the love of his life (up until that point) died. She gets engaged to this guy. This man, Lalit who runs a travel agency, meets Rohit in Switzerland where he is having surgery and they become great firends. Blow me down, but Rohit's operation is a complete success and he is restored to perfect health and mobility. Lalit invites Rohit to his wedding and he turns up in Bombay to discover that Lalit is engaged to Chandni! They pretend to be strangers.
The wedding is all set. From my memory there is a big scene in the tropical rain and Chandni sings about the dilemma she faces. She is a good girl. She is promised to this other bloke and she cannot let him down.
Rohit hits the bottle (another good sign that perhaps, although immensely rich, he is not an ideal choice for a life partner, but it doesn't occur to anyone else but me). At the wedding he gets pissed and falls down some stairs. Chandni screams for him to be saved and Lalit realises that she belongs to Rohit.
The web tells me now that the film was a big success in 1989/90 and starred Sridevi, Rishi Kapoor and Vinod Khanna. It had been released for about a year before it reached Calangute. By that time Sridevi and Rishi Kapoor had been nominated for the Best Actress and Best Actor awards in the 1990 Filmfare Awards for their performances as Chandni and rohit. The film had a lot of other nominations but won only the Best Cinematography award.
It was great fun to watch and everyone enjoyed it. I wonder if my experience of the Raj Mandir in Jaipur might have been better had something like Chandni been on.
On the way home in the dark Suraj fell off the back of the bicycle but suffered only grazes and bruises.
My theory about the scenes shot in Switzerland relate to the fact that at that time the Indian rupee was not internationally traded and I reckon that the scenes shot there were contrived so that the principal cast members and the Director and Producers could check on their Swiss Bank accounts and deposit money smuggled out of India.
