I didn’t have the good luck of learning music from her. But she told me a great ghost story. That encounter with Jini Dinshaw — founding force behind the Bombay Chamber Orchestra — had a decidedly unmusical context. I was mapping the history of Prescott Road, Fort, where she lived in Venkatesh Chambers. Born on August 9, 1930 when this was Sorab Mansion, with “a garden scented with roses, mogras and mangoes”, Dinshaw revealed rents were low as the building was rumoured haunted. “My father brought priests to bless our home,” she whispered. “Till then, windows flew open suddenly and the Kiefers living below reported a shadowy Parsi couple seen praying at the building well on the midnight hour.”

(From left) Parvez Doctor of the BP Saloon Orchestra, Jini Dinshaw, conductor Joachim Buehler, cellist George Lester and Freddy Dinshaw (now BCO’s oldest member), backstage at a 1970s performance at the Homi Bhabha Auditorium