‘We are agony aunt and uncle to each other’

Viewing life up close and critical is all in a day’s work for NGO head Viji Venkatesh and photographer Chirodeep Chaudhuri

Viji Venkatesh, 70, Region Head (India & South Asia), The Max Foundation

Chirodeep Chaudhuri, 50, photographer & city chronicler

An immense sensitivity accompanied by lively banter suffuses their interaction. Viji Venkatesh helms the South Asia arm of the cancer mission, The Max Foundation, and is managing trustee for Friends of Max. Ace lensman Chirodeep Chaudhuri collects Gandhi memorabilia, abandoned helmets and masks. They discuss what drives their connection and resonating admiration for each other’s work.   

Viji Venkatesh: At the David Sassoon Library, 20-odd years ago, I was surprised by an exhibition of precious photos: clocks in the city. A diffident young man hanging around them reminded me of my older son. 

Chirodeep Chaudhuri: Somewhere in the mid-2000s, Jerry Pinto formally introduced us at a Crossword book reading—“She’s also from Thane”—suggesting we could travel home together. Chatting, I got involved learning about Viji’s work. I had once documented cancer patients camping on the footpaths around Tata Memorial Hospital.

Viji Venkatesh and Chirodeep Chaudhuri on Marine Drive. Pic/Mohd Azimuddin

VV: His moving photo essay invested so much dignity to their situation. I sought him out to attend a Tata Memorial patient meeting. 

CC: Hanging there with Viji, her husband Venky and Max Foundation friends was an incredible experience. Seeing how much love she attracted and gave back to patients calling her “Amma” and hugging her. The attention transcends social milieu. Her behaviour with a Vasai fisherwoman and with an author friend is no different. She extends the same care, warmth and respect.

VV: I gradually became a member of Chirodeep’s circle. He invited me to his shows. I fell in love with Village in Bengal and The Commuters, on Bombay local train co-passengers. I asked him to shoot me for Unstitched: The Sari Project. This international performance art collaboration portrayed connectivity through universal threads of individual stories. A single 5.5-metre saree passed on to 108 South Asian women located globally. I think I was number 8 on the list. Each described her feeling of continuity and community associated with wearing that black cotton saree. Its borders blended silk weaves like Kanjeevaram, Paithani and other fabrics. Traipsing across town to choose locales, I was very impressed by Chiro’s eagerness to know more about the handloom scene. 

The friends at Flora Fountain. Pic/Rohini Bhowmick

CC: Our geographical proximity helps. Otherwise, the amount of time spent getting between places in Bombay is quite a bummer for maintaining friendship. A group of nine of us, calling ourselves the Thane Gangstas, hang at each other’s homes for post-dinner coffee. Those addas also got us close. 
We’ve discovered common passions making detour stops for chai and toast at Viji’s favourite haunts like American Express Bakery and Taj Mahal Tea House in Bandra, Worli Sea Face or the Gateway of India in the morning, followed by breakfast at Olympia, Colaba. 

VV: Much of Bombay waits to be explored and re-explored. Photographs fascinate me. A camera was my most prized possession before the phone came with eyes attached. When with Chiro, I put away my phone. He photographs so beautifully well, it’s not fair. He spots what I can never. I like his meticulous ways, the thoroughness he displays as a photographer and as a householder. 
We both see life up close—he documents it in print, I in action. I find comfort confiding in Chiro about my stressors. He listens, chastises, advises. He has eyes that see the finest lines and understands what can trip me. 
    
CC: I’m in absolute awe of Viji’s work and am aware of some anxieties about it. She worries about grooming the company’s next level. Just looking at her packed day on Facebook exhausts me. She’s 50 and me 70, I say. I keep telling her to focus on fewer things. But kya karein. Warna woh Viji nahin hoti. She pushes me to exercise and get fitter. 

An exceptional motivator with the ability to multi-task mostly on her own terms, Viji exerts the unique pull of a certain kind of personality. She has a giving nature most of us need to work hard on. I, for one, have become less abrasive being around her. 

VV: He was the first person I met after lockdown lifted. That says a lot, na? We are agony aunt and uncle to each other. You genuinely know where you are with him. And boy, can he laugh. Old-fashioned in demeanour, he’s charmingly gallant. If the need arises, Chiro will stage a Walter Raleigh for me. I told his parents this when I met them while on work in Calcutta. How much they fed me then! Now we meet every time I am there, or they visit Chiro here. 
When Chiro said he was getting married, I wondered, ah and what would that be like?
Trust him to choose wisely. Rohini (founder-proprietor of Spices and Friends) is perfect. Her contribution to the Chai for Cancer initiative has been extraordinary.

CC: Viji has deep reserves of happiness. You cannot do her work without that innate, great capacity to accommodate. Really a beautiful quality. Give people love and you get it back. Viji is rich with a healthy bank balance on that count. It’s unimaginable to visualise an unsmiling Viji. 

VV: My friend has a wonderfully wicked sense of humour. His cuss words have become part of my vocabulary, ha ha. Seriously, Chiro’s generous spirit makes it impossible not to be part of his household, four cats and all. Ours is an empty nest family. The old man has his own relationship with him. I enjoy watching them together. I have always considered the Mahatma my ideal and lo, I find Chiro collects Gandhi memorabilia. Also sharing a fondness for cricket, we adore MS Dhoni and long to go for a CSK match. 
          
CC: Our biggest mutual interest is a fierce love for this city. Others are books, old Hindi film songs, a common abhorrence for the right-wing. 

VV: I firmly believe in the power of Bombay to draw you deep into its vortex without taking away your identity. It lets you be. I think Chiro and I are like that with each other. 

Author-publisher Meher Marfatia writes monthly on city friendships. You can reach her at meher.marfatia@mid-day.com/www.meher marfatia.com

"Exciting news! Mid-day is now on WhatsApp Channels Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest news!" Click here!