Uma Pocha with accordionist Goody Seervai at one of Adi Marzban's musical revues. Her zesty song Bombay Meri Hain became the city anthem, celebrating everything ordinary to extraordinary. Pic Courtesy/Meher Marfatia

Why do I write what I do? From a hefty heap of answers to the question, I'll stick to: because it makes me a learner for life. I observe keener now: "Little things mean a lot" Kitty Kallen sang. Her 1954 ballad, belted out by the indomitable Uma Pocha, who we just lost, is like a lodestar. Well into mid-life, I observe like never before. Sometimes there are delayed epiphanies. "Bombay meri hain" Uma crooned, her hot beat for the city becoming its heartbeat. Composer Minoo Kavarana (Mina Kava courtesy HMV publicity) was my father's school senior. As he tested his wife Naju's lyrics in our Bandra home on a Sunday morning, my brother and I giggled at the "Bom bom bom bom" chorus staccato. Unaware we were witnessing the start of a smash hit. "You heard my song before I did!" Uma teased decades down when I interviewed her for a book on Parsi theatre — she was Adi Marzban's "queen of song".