10 on 10: Musings on memorable mentors

Sometimes you donrsquot recognise a mentor right by your side every day says one Another has never met his mentor but is proud to craft work using his mentorrsquos tools Yet another feels his guiding presence around her as she writes They all agree with feminist writer CS Lakshmi ldquoA mentor isnrsquot necessarily someone who moulds you rather a person who trusts whatever you dordquo Meet the original influencerslsquoHe taught me about the worldrsquoSooni Taraporevala Screenwriter filmmaker amp photographerSooni TaraporevalaManeck Kaka was my grandfatherrsquos younger unmarried brother Extremely well read thanks to his brothersrsquo libraries he lived a spartan life with their unmarried sister in a flat by the Grant Road railway tracks Since I was a baby hersquod walk from his house to ours at Gowalia Tank He came at 5pm and left at 8pm You could set your clock by his arrivals and departures When I was little a perennial game used to be me trying to make him stay past 8After tea with my grandparents wersquod all sit out on our balcony and he and I would discuss literature history politics He taught me about the world Wersquod joke tease each other he knew me inside out He passed in 1982 leaving me devastated Since then Irsquove written all my scripts in his room to the sounds of the passing trains His spirit hovers over me Sometimes we even talklsquoHe never saw my successrsquoEhsaan Noorani Composer amp guitaristMunawar and Parvana Noorani with young EhsaanMy mentor would definitely be my late uncle Munawar Noorani I was already playing in a band in college totally and passionately into music Everyone goes through some confusion when it comes to choosing the path of education which will become onersquos profession I changed my mind many times wanting to study graphic art total design architecture and of course business management Munawar sat me down one day and said ldquoLetrsquos talk about your future I think you should study musicrdquo I asked ldquoWill there be security in thatrdquo His answer was ldquoTherersquos no security in anything you do you cannot predict what will work for you or not This is your passion Follow it and make it work for yourdquoEhsaan NooraniThatrsquos all I needed to hear Two years later I had to complete my BCom because Munawar said ldquoOnce you start something complete itrdquo I went to the Musicians Institute in Hollywood California The rest is history Unfortunately he passed away in 1999 and never saw my success But itrsquos all thanks to himlsquoShe led she pushed she opened doorsrsquoRatna Pathak Shah Theatre amp film actorShanta GandhiIn the 1930s a young Gujarati girl resisted an early marriage had her father disown her so that she could study medicine in London got involved in politics dance and theatre there returned during the Independence struggle and continued to fight for a better India all her life That was my aunt Shanta Gandhi ndash educationist storyteller playwright director provocateur Director of Bal Bhavan ndash my first mentorRatna Pathak ShahFrom her I learnt to perceive beauty everywhere in blue Persian tiles on a tomb the way the border of a sari meets the rest of it the appreciation of folk songs the relative merits of Bharat Munirsquos Natyashastra and Aristotlersquos Poeticshellip Very iconoclastic she led she pushed she opened doors She forced me into doing what I never thought I could And then she set me freelsquoShe read all my stories till she passed awayrsquoCS Lakshmi ldquoAmbairdquo Writer amp founder of SPARROW Sound and Picture Archives for Research on WomenCV AlameluAlamelu taught me music early in life When I was 11 she put me in a dance class much against everyone in the extended family saying ldquoShe is dark not at all suited for dancingrdquo When I woke up early to study for exams she was there making dosa or uthappam for me She read stories I wrote as a teenager appreciated them even copied them out for meCS LakshmiWhen I decided to study in a different city against my fatherrsquos wishes she pawned her jewels took a gold loan from the bank and admitted me in the college of my choice When I wanted to be a school teacher in a small town she set up my house there When I went to Delhi for my PhD she put me on the train and told me everything was going to be fineWhen I married someone from another community she prepared sweets to distribute to relatives who came criticising She read all my stories till she passed away She was always there for me At the age of 80 now I wake up sometimes in the morning talking to her Alamelu was my motherlsquoHe influenced my view of developmentrsquoTara Sabavala Social development professionalIt was 1996 I entered for the first time the doors of the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust with both excitement and trepidation Trepidation because my predecessor was Suresh Suratwala a quiet understated Gandhian with 35 years of rural work experience at the grassroots and a wellknown name in development circles Impossible shoes to fillSuresh Suratwala and Tara SabavalaDuring our threemonth handover I found a mentor who significantly influenced my view of development He saw it from the lens of quality of life and fraternity not necessarily from the lens of enhanced income which is the common practice In the words of his book ndash The Paradox of Rural Development in India The Devapur Experience ndash his belief was ldquoFundamental inequalities in the social structure are the real issue not poverty which is only a consequence of the formerrdquoSuresh Suratwala is no longer with us But his reflective sensitive approach to social development will make many of us who worked under his leadership at least ask the right question on ldquo hellipwhere we are going and where we should go before we lose our swarajrdquo as he quoted Dr Ambedkar cautioning us many decades agolsquoTwo Davids kick into my consciousnessrsquoRahul daCunha Playwright amp filmmakerI have two mentors two great influences in two parallel passions mdash theatre and cinema Specifically playwriting and screenplays David Mamet and David Fincher They are inspirations with their work their wizardry over their respective skill sets The former is the playwright of such classics as Glengarry Glen Ross and Speed the Plow the latter the director of Se7en and Fight ClubDavid Mamet an extraordinary dramatist creates claustrophobia with his words Irsquove always tried to create characters speaking with the same kind of streetsmart edge where dialogues are weapons seeking to poke prod pierceRahul daCunha PICASHISH RAJEDavid Fincherrsquos Se7en is my alltime top film With Darius Khondjirsquos grim and grungy lighting which adds to Brad Pitt and Morgan Freemanrsquos performances Fincher inhabits the worlds of the lonely the broken His city life is dark grey Once again my attempts at scene creation and mood in moviemaking are influenced heavily by his sense of styleEither way when I embark on writing a play the dialogue specifically or the scenes in a screenplay the two Davids kick into my consciousness mdash the snappiness of Mametrsquos dialogue laden with subtext and Fincherrsquos dark worlds where glamour meets grimelsquoHe worked with every possible materialrsquoArzan Khambatta Modernist sculptorI never met my mentor Having heard Adi Davierwallarsquos name through my architect father Rusi Khambatta and architectcollector uncle Dara Mistry I was intrigued by a catalogue of his works for a retrospective in the rsquo70s At my unclersquos home I loved his abstract pieces especially the bronze called ldquoManyheaded Hydrardquo He worked with every possible material carved wood assembled wood cast bronze welded iron and welded scrap ndash which is how I got the idea to work in this last mediumAdi DavierwallaOn finishing school I attended Anand Mohan Naikrsquos summer art classes He took us to the first floor of a place in Dadar It happened to be the studio of Adi Davierwalla Hersquod passed away But his space was magical with welded metal halffinished sculptures a welding machine wood carving tools on a table with leftover shavings his reading chair with a light and a semiopen book beside it a board with white chalk sketches and written jottings The smell of wood and metal everywhere my eyes and mind were too It felt as if I was required to pick up from there something left incomplete That day itself I decided this is what I want to doArzan KhambattaGoing to Mahim to one of those rolling shutterwalas I learnt welding created things progressed slowly Till the day Dara Mistry said ldquoI have Adirsquos tools his work table chair his books I want you to have themrdquo I do large pieces multiple pieces with workers He fashioned everything with his own hands Few artists do this today some donrsquot even touch their work Pilloo Pochkhanawala told me she definitely saw his influence in my work My main work desk is Adi Davierwallarsquos My chisels are his so are some tongs and other brilliant tools They stay in my cabin theyrsquore that beautiful And have the most meaning because he worked with theselsquoShe was a true visionaryrsquoSonali Gandhi Principal Jamnabai Narsee SchoolDolat Doongaji with Sonali Gandhi on her last school assembly day March 1991My beloved mentor was a true visionary In an age without the Internet Dolat Doongaji ndash Founder Principal of New Activity School Activity High School and Activity Infant School ndash broadened studentsrsquo horizons by teaching what she called ldquocultural historyrdquo Her infectious enthusiasm and fascination with all things literary determined my life decisionsSonali GandhiWisdom patience and passion are exemplary lessons she taught creating in us a chronic thirst for knowledge and experience She facilitated grand theatrical productions with attention to the smallest details My love for reviewing films and books stems from the review competitions she encouraged I remain grateful for the undeniable role she played in my growth into an educationist The determined constant potter at the wheel is remembered with reverence The indelible impact she left on generations forms a rich legacy Hers was not a death 13 years ago It is immortalitylsquoHis voice guides my scalpelrsquoMazda Turel Consultant neurosurgeonDr Ari Chacko left and Dr Mazda Turel conferencing in Goa in MarchBesides my father Irsquove had many teachers in surgery but Dr Ari Chacko remains the one who moulded me most He could turn the chaos of an operating room into a rock song with a joke tucked between two lifesaving manoeuvres He taught me that the art of surgery isnrsquot just in cutting but in knowing when not to cut and more importantly what not to cut Surgery with him was steady disciplined uncluttered His forbearance with students his gentle irreverence his absolute loyalty to patients set a standard I still chase If I did something silly hersquod quote his mother ndash ldquoYou have more luck than senserdquo I still hear his voice guiding my scalpellsquoShe was everyonersquos friendrsquoIrfan Pabaney Consultant chefRaihana PabaneyCliched as it sounds my mom Raihana was my real mentor Dad being with the UN we moved from South America to Central America and subsequently the Philippines mdash where I began cooking whenever mom travelled I followed her faithfully into the kitchen making fresh rice to go with curries she prepared before leavingIrfan PabaneyShe was everyonersquos friend All my friends absolutely loved her their ldquogo tordquo with whom they shared stuff they couldnrsquot with anyone else The husband of a close friend saw a photo of mom in her wallet and asked who that was ldquoIrfanrsquos momrdquo she said When he wanted to know why she carried it around my friend said ldquoItrsquos hard to explain You needed to have met her to understand whyrdquoAuthorpublisher Meher Marfatia writes fortnightly on everything that makes her love Mumbai and adore Bombay You can reach her at mehermarfatiamiddaycomwwwmeher marfatiacomThis column will be back after a month