MY 9 TOP ROMANTIC MOVIES 1953-70

The decade of ‘50s when I entered and crossed my teens, and the ‘60s, my years of youth, were great years for romantic movies. Here are my top nine.

Before I get on with that, I must mention two exceptional movies from earlier years. The first is ‘Gone With The Wind’, the 1939 film starring Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh, adapted from a novel by Margaret Mitchell. This epic movie, four hours long, won 10 Oscars. After pursuing Scarlett O’Hara (Vivien Leigh) for many years, Rhett Butler (Clark Gable) finally decides she is not for him just when he seems to have won her over. Rhett’s final line in reply to Scarlett inquiring what will become of her is a classic: ‘Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn!’ 

The second one is ‘Casablanca’ released in 1942 with Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman playing lead roles of Rick Blaine and Ilsa Lund respectively. Rick loves Ilsa but sacrifices his love to help her and her husband flee from Casablanca to escape the Germans through a subterfuge. Meriting special mention is a beautiful song, “As Time Goes By’, played in Rick’s Café on a request by Ilsa. The song was Ilsa and Rick’s favourite but Rick cannot bear to hear it as it revives painful memories.

On to my nine. To escape the difficult task of ranking them, I shall list them in chronological order. For those of my generation, I hope this will revive many sweet memories.

We start with ‘Roman Holiday’ with Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn. Audrey plays a Princess who on a visit to Rome wants to secretly venture out alone to see the city incognito. She meets an American reporter played by Gregory Peck who discovers who she really is and wants to make money by stealthily getting her photographed and publishing an interview. A whirlwind tour of Rome follows during which they fall in love but, sadly, have to part. The idea of an interview is shelved and all photographs returned to the Princess. The 1953 film   got Audrey an Oscar for Best Actress and instant fame. The story is believed to be loosely based on British Princess Margaret’s Italian adventures.

The next movie is ‘The Last Time I Saw Paris’ released in 1954. It had Elizabeth Taylor and Van Johnson in the lead roles. The latter, playing an American reporter, chances to meet two sisters during World War II victory celebrations in Paris and falls in love with the younger, Liz Taylor. They get married but an unfounded suspicion on the part of the reporter leads to tragic events. The movie has a haunting song of the same name playing repeatedly. Actually the song which is sung by Odette had already won an Oscar in 1941 in a film called ‘Lady Be Good’ but lends an emotional charm to ‘The Last Time…’

‘Love Is A Many-Splendoured Thing’ is a 1955 movie based on an autobiographical novel by Han Suyin, a Chinese born Eurasian. Jennifer Jones plays Han and Rock Hudson, her love interest Mark Eliot. They meet in Hong Kong and fall in love. This upsets the Chinese community as Han is a widow and Mark, a divorced American, and Han is ostracized by the Chinese. The story is about their love affair in the face of opposition. The theme song by The Four Aces became very popular and also won the Academy Award for the best song in ’55.

We move on to ‘An Affair To Remember’ out in 1957. Cary Grant plays the role of Nickie Ferrante and Deborah Kerr, Terry Mackay. Embarked on an ocean liner, both are with someone else but are attracted to each other. At the end of the cruise, they decide to give themselves space to confirm their true feelings and meet at a time exactly 6 months later on top of the Empire State Building if they still desire each other. Nickie reaches on time but Terry meets with an accident while crossing the road and is unable to make it. Nickie waits till midnight and then gives up thinking Terry does not love him. Terry is permanently wheelchair bound and does not contact Nickie not wanting to tie him up to a handicapped woman. And so the story goes on. The movie also has a beautiful theme song sung by Vic Damone.

In 1961, Audrey Hepburn starred in another all-time hit, ‘Breakfast At Tiffany’s’, which also got her Best Actress Oscar. For a change, this is a comedy ; love is not always a lost cause! It tells the story of a quirky, carefree Manhattan socialite Holly Golightly (Audrey Hepburn) and Paul Varjak (George Peppard), a struggling writer, who after a lot of partying and dating fall for each other. The movie is also special for its music by Henry Mancini who won Oscars for Best Original Score and Best Original Song, ‘Moon River’, specially written for Audrey and sung by her. In those days, I badly wanted to lay my hands on the disc and on a cruise to Singapore, made a beeline to a record shop to buy it. When I played it on the ship, I saw the label which read ‘Made in India’! I didn’t know till then that HMV had started producing English records in our country. 

‘Lovers Must Learn’ or ‘Rome Adventure’ as titled in the US is a 1962 film which may not be on most people’s lists but is my personal favourite. In it, Prudence Bell (Suzanne Pleshette) is an American librarian who after writing a book, ‘Lovers Must Learn’, decides to go to Rome in search of the meaning of love. There she meets an American architect Don Porter (Troy Donahue) and together they tour Rome, Lake Maggiore, the Italian Alps and the Romeo and Juliet balcony in Verona. They fall in love but, of course, there are complications. The outstanding scene in the movie is their visit to a restaurant in Rome in which as soon as they sit, Emilio Pericoli comes on stage and sings the mesmerising song ‘Al Di La’. The couple hold hands, gaze into each others eyes and love is born. The song becomes the theme for the movie and I would include the movie in my romantic list just for the song and the restaurant scene. It must have had a lasting effect on Suzanne and Troy because they actually got married soon after!

Next is ‘Dr. Zhivago’ in 1965 adapted from Boris Pasternak’s book. Pasternak had won the 1958 Nobel Prize for Literature basically for this book which was banned in the USSR and Pasternak could not even accept the Prize. Consequently, the movie had to be filmed in Spain instead of Russia but the scenes are excellent and realistic. The story is a complex one about the love of Dr. Yuri Zhivago (Omar Sharif) and Lara Antipova (Julie Christie). The background is World War I, Russian Revolution and the civil war in Russia. The outstanding music by Maurice Jarre swept all awards and ‘Lara’s Theme’ and the song based on it, ‘Somewhere My Love’, remain haunting to this day. 

Three years later, Franco Zeffirelli directed Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’. The play is, of course, well-known and there had been earlier film versions but where Zeffirelli scored was in using brand new teenage faces, Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey, to fit in with the story and the audience lapped it up. The movie was brilliantly directed and felt like a breath of fresh air. The emotional ‘Love Theme From Romeo And Juliet’ was also notable and had two English versions, ‘What Is Youth’ as sung in the movie and a second one called ‘A Time For Us’.

Rounding off my list is the 1970 film, ‘Love Story’, the mother of all tear jerkers! Erich Segal wrote the screenplay and converted it into a novel which became a bestseller. The story is about a couple in their early 20s who fall deeply in love despite different backgrounds. Jenny Cavilleri (Ali MacGraw) and Oliver Barrett IV (Ryan O’Neal) marry in the face of Oliver’s parents’ objections and struggle to continue their education. In the end, it is more a case of ‘Man proposes, God disposes’ than anything else. Apart from their very creditable performances, Ali looks stunningly beautiful (I had a blowup picture of her in my bachelor cabin!) and Ryan refreshingly handsome. The dialogues are super and Jenny’s line, ‘Love means never having to say you’re sorry’, an all-time great. In fact, it inspired a whole lot of lines with ‘Love means…..’ various things like ‘sharing a toothbrush’!

The emotional music was composed by Francis Lai who was a runaway winner of the Oscar and other major awards for the Best Original Score. The main song, ‘Where Do I Begin’ was a huge hit particularly the version by Andy Williams.

Before I close, I must mention an unforgettable movie in recent times (relatively speaking as 24 years have gone by already!), ‘Titanic’ in 1997. Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet star as two youngsters who fall in love on board the biggest liner of its time which strikes an iceberg and sinks on its maiden voyage in 1912 making it one of the biggest ship disasters. The screenplay is loosely based on real events as pieced together by records and told by a few survivors. The movie swept all awards in 1998 including Best Original Music for James Horner. The song ‘My Heart Will Go On’ by Celine Dion will continue to touch our hearts for all time to come.

Apart from the romantic theme, a common thread in the movies is the brilliant music.

SONGS UNFULFILLED

 

“I haven’t been everywhere but it’s on my list’ – Susan Sontag

I guess I was born with ‘The Happy Wanderer’ spirit.

When I was 5 and we were living in Mathura, Pitaji was called to Bharatpur by the Maharaja to be a High Court Judge. My grandparents were a bit wary as the Maharaja was infamous for hiring and firing at will while the grandpas wanted stability and permanence. So at the time of moving to Bharatpur, when I made an innocent remark, ‘Abhi kya, abhi to aur kahan kahan jayenge, Jaipur Vaipurr’, Mataji shut me up saying, ‘Chup kar, Kulachchne’!

Who could have foretold history, India’s independence and the moves thereafter. 7 years later, my words came true and we were in Jaipur after having been to Udaipur, the ‘Vaipurr’ part of my prophecy! 

The travel bug bit me when I saw both my Mamas joining the Indian Navy and going abroad on cruises. I saw posters saying ‘Join the Navy and see the world’ and my mind was made up: I would join the Navy and I did.

In my schooldays in Jaipur in early 1950s, I chanced upon a weekly travel programme on Radio Ceylon. It used to begin with a song ‘…I must go, rollin’ round the world, looking for the sunshine, I know I’m gonna find someday’ and end with Bing Crosby crooning ‘Those faraway places, with strange sounding names, are calling, calling me’. In between was the travelogue interspersed with songs referring to the tourist spots. That is when I started associating songs with places. 

I have been fortunate enough to see a fair amount of the world from the Norwegian fjords in the north to Milford Sound, New Zealand, in the south, and from San Francisco Bay in the west to Mindanao Sea of the Philippines in the east. I could recall songs relating to a lot of places and, in fact, some songs dictated the choice of destination. But the best and most extensive travellers from Marco Polo to Paul Theroux could not cover many parts of the world and no matter how much one travels, there is so much more remaining. And me, I am only a small time tourist who has not even been able to go to nearby 'Bareilly ke bazaar' to look for the fallen 'jhumka'!

So ‘Come fly with me’ on a musical journey to places I have not seen despite the call of the Muse.

First the near misses. In 2010, Akhila and I went to Spain and visited a number of places but missed two, songs about which were beckoning me. One was Granada, the praises of which have been sung by famous singers like Mario Lanza, Frankie Laine and Caterina Valente. They sang of ‘Falling under your (Granada’s) spell, and if you could speak what a fascinating tale you could tell’. Not too far from Granada is the Rock of Gibraltar, based on which was another hit by Frankie Laine where he sang of a salesman escaping the clutches of women till he finds his true love. Meanwhile,                                                

'That’s why they call me the Rock of Gibraltar,                                                                                      That’s why they say my heart is made of stone,                                                                                    …..because Gibraltar is standing alone’.

We missed Lisbon in spite of the pull of Nelson Riddle’s ‘Lisbon Antigua’. The whole of Portugal too perhaps because the month was wrong; we were in Spain in July while it was in ‘April in Portugal’ when Les Baxter had ‘found my April dream in Portugal with you’.

The closest miss was Argentina. In 2013, we visited the world's largest falls, the Iguazu in Brazil which that country shares with Argentina. Our travel agent drove us to the border thinking we didn’t need a visa but the immigration officials said we did. So we went past the gate into no man’s land and did a U-turn to return to Brazil. So went our chance to get a feel of the country of Eva Peron about which she emotes so passionately in ‘Don’t cry for me Argentina’.

Despite several visits to the USA, we are yet to see ‘The Yellow Rose of Texas’ or the border town of Marty Robbins’ ballad, ‘El Paso’ which tells the story of a love gone wrong. Maybe we could have found ‘Rose’s cantina’ where the duel was fought and the ‘blackeyed Felina’ who was the cause of it. 

There is so much more to do in the US. Elvis Presley sings praises of 'Blue Hawaii', Johnny Horton tempts one to go 'North to Alaska' to search for gold and BeeGees 'feel like going back' to and remembering 'Massachusetts'.

On to Mexico. So many songs beckon one to it but just to name a couple, there is ‘South of the border, down Mexico way, …..That’s when I fell in love’ as sung by many including Frank Sinatra and Perry Como. Sailors may prefer The Kingston Trio sailing ‘Round the Bay of Mexico’.

The West Indies have always had their pull with Calypso songs. Long before Harry Belafonte, the Andrews Sisters were ‘Drinking Rum and Coca Cola’ and promising paradise going down Point Koomahnah in Trinidad.  In the 50s, Belafonte appropriated the title of King of Calypso and popularised the beat universally. In one of his numerous hits, ‘Jamaican Farewell’, he throws us the bait for a visit to Jamaica ‘Down the way where the nights are gay (!), and the sun shines daily on the mountain top’.

As early as 1951, Father Mackessack put the idea of travelling to Ireland in my head with,              ‘When Irish eyes are smiling,                                                                                                                 Sure it’s like a morn in spring,                                                                                                                   In the lilt of Irish laughter,                                                                                                                          You can hear the angels sing’.                                                                                                                      One would have to be careful though. For,                                                                                         ‘…..When Irish eyes are smiling,                                                                                                                Sure they’ll steal your heart away!’

The largest miss of all is Africa. Technically, we have done the continent having been to Mauritius but not the huge mainland. There was the 1954 big hit of The Four Aces, ‘Skokiaan’, with delightful lyrics,                                                                                                                                                                   'Oh-ho, take a trip to Africa, any ship to Africa….                                                                                     And warm lips are blissful, they’re kissful of Skokiaan’.                                                                       Skokiaan is an illegal self-made alcoholic beverage; wouldn’t it be fun to taste it in Africa!

Whilst on Africa, Jo Stafford asks us to ‘See the pyramids along the Nile’ in ‘You Belong To Me’.

So many places, so many songs, so many omitted. The only way to do it - ‘On Wings of Song’.

Japan too remains. Well, for now, best to say 'Sayonara'!

COMMANDING KATCHALL

 

I took over command of Katchall at Vishakhapatnam on Saturday 19 February 1977. Katchall, constructed in USSR, was classified as a corvette or light frigate with a full load displacement of 1150 tons. Her basic role was anti-submarine for which she was armed with torpedoes and rockets. Her normal speed on the main diesel engine was 16 knots which could be boosted up to 30 by connecting two gas turbines.

Pitaji, my Nana, considered Saturdays auspicious and had chosen that day for his swearing in as a high court judge. I decided to follow that belief and found that it was a good day for another reason. At that time, Saturdays were half working days known traditionally in the Navy as ‘make and mend’ days from old times when sailors were not officially supplied with uniforms and had to make and mend their own. So after taking over the new responsibility, one would have a day and a half to mull over how to proceed with the new task.

Following my scooter accident in Delhi, my head was bandaged but fortunately I was able to put on my cap and be properly dressed for the occasion. My predecessor, Cdr TN Krishnaswamy, escorted me for the ceremony known as Divisions, and other formalities and was then seen off by me. Thereafter I followed the convention of addressing the ship’s company so that all men could get to see and hear the new Captain. I kept my speech short and devoid of sensationalism unlike old Cdr PN ‘Peter’ Mathur who had famously told his sailors, “Mein Khuda to nahin, par aapke liye Khuda se kam bhi nahin hoon!”

I also did not intend to copy Capt Zadu in not having a haircut during my tenure but decided to preserve long, bushy sideburns as my distinctive feature.

On the ship, my second-in-command (XO) was Lt Cdr Vimal Kumar. We took a few days to get to know each other and had a point of difference to start with. He wanted to appoint someone as Mess Secretary but I wanted the job to be given to one Lt CP Sharma who had impressed me. Vimal said that as President of the Mess Committee, it was his prerogative to appoint whoever he wanted. I told him that while normally he would have the freedom to do as he liked but if I felt something should be done, he would have to follow my direction. After that, Vimal and I got on very well and had no further point of discord during my entire tenure. Incidentally, CP now runs a successful travel agency in Delhi.

In the Eastern Naval Command, there were two changes on top shortly after my taking over. Vice Admiral SH Sarma, who was the Fleet Commander when I was Fleet Communcations Officer during the 1971 war, took over as C-in-C and Rear Admiral MK (Mickey) Roy took over as Fleet Commander (FOCEF) from Rear Admiral DS Paintal.

When I took over, Katchall was in dry docks undergoing a refit. Soon, it was time to move out of the docks to a jetty. Our engines were still not ready and the move was planned by using tugs. I thought this was an ideal time to try my hand at using ‘Povrots’, the famous active rudders, which are not really meant for movement on their own as they provide a speed of just 3 knots and are primarily meant to supplement the main rudder. So while the tugs were kept as standby, we made the move by ourselves. The thrill of handling the ship for the first time is an exciting moment for any Captain as once all shore lines have been cast off, the ship is at the mercy of wind and tide and it is imperative that the Captain give the correct orders to handle the ship with precision and elan. In this case it was even more so as it was an unusual move and I was using an unfamiliar equipment. All went well and I got the hang of the Povrots.

Soon the refit was complete and we started sailing for trials. Fortunately, everything went smoothly including the indigenous gas turbine rubber mountings which had caused some officers senior to me to decline this command. On completion of trials, we joined the Eastern Fleet under Adm Roy.

The normal routine for exercises was operating off Vizag Tuesdays to Fridays. Weekends were usually free and I felt it was important to keep the sailors and families busy as Vizag had very few outside attractions. Some of the major activities I recall included a picnic at the famous Simhachalam temple grounds and a Cycle race from Vizag to Bheemunipatnam, a distance of about 40 kms. Families and non-participants were transported by bus to join in the prize distribution headed by Adm Roy followed by a hearty lunch.

Sports are very important for the morale of the ship’s company and we cobbled up some competent teams which acquitted well in Football, Hockey and Volleyball.

Things were running smoothly till later in the year, Vimal proceeded on a spot of leave and the mantle of XO fell on the next officer who was a junior Lieutenant with little experience. Captain L Ramdas, later CNS, was then commanding 32nd Patrol Vessel Squadron at Bombay and brought his ships to Vizag. He made the courtesy call signal to FOCEF, Adm Roy, who at short notice decided to take the call on Katchall. We quickly got together a guard of honour on the Rocket launcher deck and dressed up in formal uniform. Adm Roy arrived followed by Capt Ramdas. On the latter’s arrival, when the guard went through the drill of presenting arms, the bayonets went piercing through the low awning we had omitted to remove. A snigger from Capt Ramdas, embarrassment all around and dirty looks from Adm Roy ensued. Then the Admiral, Capt Ramdas and I adjourned to the Captain’s cabin for drinks. When I rang up for the steward, he arrived in slept-in shirt and shorts and sandals in contrast to our sparkling white tunics, trousers and shoes, medals and swords! On Capt Ramdas’ departure, I got a good dressing down from Adm Roy.

Vimal returned from leave and to get over the incident, I decided to head to Jaipur for a short holiday. On return, Vimal and I got together and vowed we would meticulously ensure that from then on, nothing would go wrong.   

Kavaratti and Katchall share their commissioning date on 23 December. We had sailed for exercises and returned to harbour in the afternoon on that day. We had planned a combined dinner in the evening and were berthed together with Kavaratti alongside the jetty and Katchall next to her. The party was attended by all the VIPs in Vizag including the C-in-C, FOCEF and important civilians. The merrymaking went on till late at night and after the VIPs left, I asked my friends Kailash Kohli, Fleet Operations Officer, and Gulab Israni to adjourn to my cabin to have one for the road. While we were sharing hearty jokes, at about midnight Kailash received a phone call from Adm Roy. Kailash told me that the tug Gaj which had towed a target for our firing practice earlier in the day, had not returned and they had no communication with her. FOCEF wanted a ship to sail, find Gaj and bring it back to harbour. Actually, Kavaratti was the duty ship but she had played the seniority card in berthing and being the inner ship, it would take a lot of time and effort to pull Katchall away and clear the way for Kavaratti, so why not I sail instead! Good idea, and I told the Officer of the Day (OOD) to recall as many sailors and officers as possible and get ready for sea expeditiously.  Kailash said he would like to sail with us and went home to change. I told the OOD that I would try and catch a shuteye and to wake me up when ready. 

At 2 am, I was given a shake and told we were ready. Apart from the duty watch and live-in officers and sailors, we were not able to get many others including senior key personnel on board. On the bridge, there were a number of fresh young faces instead of the usual experienced lot. But they were all keen and we set sail and were out of the harbor by 3 a.m.

With heavy heads, Kailash and I decided we must hit the hay for some time. To play safe, we set course east at slow speed and went to sleep. We got up at first light and taking into account the tidal current, decided our best chance to find Gaj would be by going south at high speed. This worked and in a couple of hours, we spotted Gaj. We closed in and found that Gaj had had a total power failure and had been merrily drifting the whole night. Fortunately, the weather was calm, so there was no damage.

The first thing we did was send them some hot food. Thereafter we took them in tow and reached Vizag safely in the afternoon.

At the debrief, Adm Roy praised us for sailing at such short notice, finding Gaj and bringing it back. He, however, had a question, “Why did you go east initially?”  Some vague waffle mentioning complex tidal currents and circulatory wind directions was mumbled by Kailash and me. Thankfully, the matter was not pursued!

Getting back to our anniversary celebrations, enterprising Vimal had booked Leela Mahal Cinema on Christmas Day for a special show of the movie ‘Kora Kagaz’ starring Jaya Bhaduri and Vijay Anand. We had invited ships’ companies and families of all fleet ships and a good time was had by all.

In January ’78, we had our harbor and sea inspections which went off well. Thereafter, Adm Roy took Kavaratti and Katchall to Calcutta where we were given a great welcome. Calcutta has always been a good port for ships to visit and in this case it was specially so given Adm Roy’s local contacts. Of note was a dance performance by Tanushree, daughter-in-law of the famous Uday Shankar. I was so impressed by the former that I wanted our daughter to be named after her but Akhila prevailed with Shumita!

Visit completed, both ships sailed out. In the meantime, a warning was received that a cyclonic storm was developing in the Bay of Bengal. Kavaratti connected gas turbines and headed for Vizag at high speed but for some reason which I do not recall, perhaps lack of availability or a leak, Katchall was short of fuel and we could not use gas turbines for fear of running out of oil. So we were confined to a maximum speed of 16 knots on diesel engine only.

The night was uneventful but in the morning, the storm was in full blow. The sea was very rough and the wind hurricane strong. Katchall was bobbing up and down with the bows pitching up 25 degrees, a mass of 1150 tons of steel suspended at that angle for a second before plunging back into the giant waves which would go flying over the bridge and the mast. With each downward dive into the sea, the ship shivered and shuddered as if it would break! Visibility was very low made worse by rain and sea spray all over and the radar showed nothing but whorls of the cyclone. Scenes described in Nicholas Monsarrat’s novel ‘The Cruel Sea’ seemed to be playing in real life reminding one of how brutal the sea can be. At a time like this, the Captain is in a most unenviable position: he is virtually alone on the ship which is not even a tiny speck on the vast ocean, yet he is solely responsible for the ship and the sailors for whom, as Peter Mathur had said, he is ‘Khuda’!

Almost all of the ship’s company were seasick. I, who as a cadet used to be desperately sick and curse myself for joining the Navy, could now not afford that luxury and was in full charge of my faculties proving that responsibility is the greatest antidote to seasickness. I calmly sat on the Captain’s chair keeping an eye on things and hoping for the best.

I must have dozed off for a while because when I looked up after sometime, I found there was no one on the bridge. The duty officer, the helmsman and the signalman were nowhere to be seen. The ship, instead of facing the waves, seemed to be rolling excessively. I sprang from my chair and looked at the gyro which showed the course as correct. Something made me look at the magnetic compass and I found that instead of steering south, we were heading west towards land. Obviously, the gyro had failed. I grabbed the wheel and brought the ship around 180 degrees to head east. I didn’t know how long we had been sailing towards land and disaster, so I decided to keep steering away from the coast for two hours at least.

Meanwhile, the duty personnel who had all been terribly sick trooped in one by one. They were in such a miserable state I couldn’t even scold them! After a couple of hours, we resumed our course southward. By night, the weather had calmed a bit and I decided to keep the ship on a safe course and get some sleep.

Waking up at dawn, I saw the weather had cleared considerably and the gyro and the radar were functioning correctly. We found we had fetched up farther south and east than estimated and altered course to return to Vizag.

Meanwhile, I received my letter of appointment as Directing Staff, Defence Services Staff College, Wellington. Cdr VK Nagpal was appointed CO Katchall to relieve me.

In early March, the fleet sailed to observe Families’ Day which was my final outing in command. By this time, Adm Roy had become fond of Katchall and decided to fly his flag on my ship though I was not the seniormost CO which is generally the norm for the flagship. The day went off very well and my command came to a successful end.

In my final interview with Adm Roy, he expressed satisfaction with my performance but for a small caveat. He said, “Ravi, you have done very well but I only want to say that you should never lose bearing”. This term is normally signaled to a ship which falls behind its usual station. But in the context Adm Roy used it, I have often wondered if he had a deeper meaning!

All that remained for me was to hand over to Cdr Nagpal and pack up for Wellington.

 

CAN ONE BE YOUNG AND THE OLD 'GAY'?

As I began shaving this morning, Paul Robeson’s bass baritone boomed into my mind singing ‘Old Black Joe’ with the lines ‘Gone are the days, when my heart was young and gay’. Then I thought, maybe I can work on feeling young at heart but, hey, what about ‘gay’? 

This word which is believed to have originated in the 12th century from Anglo-French and Germanic languages, used to mean joyous, lively, merry, happy, carefree, etc. and only that. There is an Australian nursery rhyme which the venerable Father Mackessack taught me to sing in school,              ‘Kookaburra sits on an old gum tree,                                                                                                        Merry merry king of the bush is he,                                                                                                        Laugh, Kookaburra laugh, Kookaburra gay your life must be’.                                                                  Poor bird, today it would probably get askance looks from the orthodox and the conservative!

Through the years till my younger days, many popular songs used the word ‘gay’ in its original context. ‘Old Black Joe’ is an 1860 song. To mention a few others, in 1945 a Rodgers and Hammerstein musical “State Fair” won the best original song award for a song with the lyrics ‘But I feel so gay, it might as well be spring’. In the 1960s, the musical “West Side Story” has a song that goes, ‘I feel pretty, oh so pretty, I feel pretty and witty and gay’. The theme song of the movie “Around the World in 80 Days” sings praises of ‘gay Paree’ and in “The Last Time I Saw Paris”, ‘her heart was warm and gay’.

In Hank Williams’ ‘Jambalaya’, ‘Pick guitar, fill fruit jar and be gay-oh, Son of a gun we’ll have big fun on the bayou’. And in the evergreen Dean Martin’s ‘That’s Amore’, ‘Hearts will play tippy-tippy-tay, tippy-tippy-tay, like a gay tarantella’ which is a fast tempo Italian folk dance.

As late as 1997, Bob Dylan sang ‘I’m strummin’ on my gay guitar’ and the most recent use of the word in the old sense that I could find was in the 2007 Disney movie ‘Enchanted’ in the lyrics ‘To the gay refrain of a happy song’. 

Its use in literature is illustrated by this quote from the famous Pearl S. Buck in her 1948 novel, ‘The Big wave’, in which she writes, ‘Setsu grew into a gay, wilful, pretty girl’. Its spoken and written usage has been commonplace as in ‘gay abandon’, ‘gay laughter’, ‘gay tune’, ‘gayest of the spring flowers’ and ‘a bird’s gay spring song’.

The word is a name too as in the English poet John Gay. And the Boeing B-29 bomber which was the first aircraft to drop an atomic bomb in the closing stages of World War II was named 'The Enola Gay' after the mother of the pilot, Colonel Tibbets. Can you imagine even a remote homosexual connection there!

Somewhere in the 1950s, the word underwent a transformation and became a convenient one to use instead of homosexual. Today that has become its primary meaning pushing the merrymaking and happiness context to near obscurity. When someone says 'gay', one immediately identifies it with homosexuality never imagining he could be meaning 'happiness'. It is now part of LGBT.

I can try to feel young but have no desire to be gay. Or be content remembering the song sung by Maurice Chevalier in Gigi, “I’m glad I’m not young anymore’!

I often wonder if there is any other word in the English language which has been subjected to such a metamorphosis as the word 'gay'.

JAIPUR LOVES ME

Often I have written and spoken about my love for Jaipur. When returning to Delhi after a recent visit, I was wondering why I love Jaipur so much when the answer came joyfully screaming back at me, ‘Because Jaipur loves me’!

Jaipur treats me as a young man. Our domestic staff there have been working with us since my mother's time and while she was ‘Mummy’ to them, I was ‘Bhaisahib’ and remain so. Nobody addresses me with the plain, formal ‘Sahib’, ‘Sir’ or ‘Unkilji’ as they do in Delhi! And Akhila is ‘Bhabhiji’.

At the same time, there is more respect in Jaipur. People are polite, courteous and deferential in contrast to the cold unconcern of Delhi. Diggi Palace is a stone’s throw from our house and a number of Rickshawwallahs pile up there waiting for customers. When I walk past, they all get up and do a ‘Namaste’. I usually take an evening walk on the green, green grass in the nearby Maharaja College and the watchmen, far from questioning me, respectfully greet me when I enter and if I get late, patiently wait for me to exit before closing the gates. The neighbours are all hospitable, warm and helpful.

In Jaipur, we feel welcome and wanted. I ring up a veteran 9 years my senior and he immediately organizes a dinner and calls other mutual friends. A former Navy Chief wants to play golf with me. Other friends and relatives ask when we are free to come over. In Delhi, no one gives a damn!

We go to a shop and the shopkeeper knows what we want and lays out a spread of ice creams and dark chocolates. We book a table at the Rambagh Hotel and the Manager is at the porch to receive us. At the neighbourhood Coffee shop, the waiter wonders why we are coming after so long. At Niro’s, the manager smilingly confirms that they still serve sundaes such as Honeymoon Special and Knickerbocker Glory which I used to have when in school in the 1950s. He sends one of each with his compliments.

To feel younger, I often walk down the street where we lived 70 years ago. The government house on 3 Hospital Road is still standing and the paint is not cracked and dry. I see the driveway where we used to play Cricket. If I didn’t have company, I just played alone in the verandah on the right by bouncing the ball on the wall and hitting it on return. Many India-Pakistan ‘test matches’ were played that way! And there’s the balcony where a kid relative of ours sleepwalked over the parapet, fell on the flowerbed down below, dusted himself and walked off nonchalantly. Shashi Mamaji named him ‘Kabutar’ which name stuck to him for life!

Sadly, ‘Ananda’, Pitaji’s own house on the adjacent Vivekanand Marg where we lived for over 50 years, does not exist any more but beautiful memories are vividly alive. Fortunately, Mummy built her house on a portion of the plot, so the air that we breathe and the ground that we live on are the same. It helps that Akhila also loves Jaipur. She is proud of her little garden which she tends to fondly and is gratified that her efforts are rewarded with fruit and flowers on each visit.

A visit to my old School, St. Xavier’s, is a must. The majestic multi-coloured stone building has me enthralled and I can feel Fathers Pinto, Mackessack and Mann graciously blessing me.

It is a record that during every visit of ours, and we average 4-5 a year, it rains at least once in Jaipur no matter what the season. In our recent 3-week visit in March, it rained thrice and the weather turned heavenly. Every evening, a peacock family paid us a visit and for our exclusive viewing, the male performed an extended dance show on the roof of an adjacent house while the female and siblings strutted about.

Yes, the feeling is mutual. I love Jaipur and Jaipur loves me.

MY TOP ITALIAN SONGS

 

 

 

You knew it was coming, didn’t you?  My favourite Italian songs.

 

I love Italy and everything about it: its countryside, art, sculpture, food, the sound of its sweet language, beautiful women, handsome men, movies, songs and everything else! Sometimes people tell me I don’t look like an Indian and I hate that, immediately correcting them saying I am 100% Indian and proud to be so. But in Italy, when someone told me I could pass off for an Italian, I let it go smugly!

 

I have been to Italy four times and each time thrown a coin in the Trevi Fountain. Three times it has worked- I have revisited Italy, but the fourth coin’s magic is awaited. Will it work? Or would it lead to being born in Italy in my next life!

 

I have digressed: back to songs. Generalisations are not entirely fair but since I wrote about French songs earlier, to me it appears that the French are a little sad and brooding while the Italians are happier and more open with their emotions and not afraid of wearing the heart on the sleeve.

 

Now for the hard part. I love so many Italian songs that it is tough to select. However, I will attempt with two provisos: one, many will be left out because of sheer numbers and space, and two, songs listed will not be in any particular order: they are all equally good.

 

First, there are the evergreen Neapolitan songs exclusive to Italy. They date back to 1835 when the first music festival took place in Naples and was held annually till late 1940s. The songs became very popular from end-19^th century and remain so till the present. Most of them have been sung by every famous tenor starting with Enrico Caruso, Mario Lanza and Beniamino Gigli down to the modern 3 tenors, Jose Carreras, Placido Domingo and my favourite Luciano Pavarotti, and the youngest, Andrea Bocelli.  Apart from the usual theme of love, many of the songs celebrate the sun, the sea and the city of Naples or lament the greatest tragedy for a Neapolitan which is not death but absence from Naples.

 

I have four favourites.  I was introduced to the first one by Vinnie Mama when he brought a 78 rpm disc of ‘Santa Lucia’ by Enrico Caruso on his return from a Europe visit in the early 1950s. In fact, ‘Santa Lucia’ happens to be the first Neapolitan song to be given Italian lyrics in 1849. The song is an invitation by a boatman to sail in his boat along the picturesque waterfront of Santa Lucia district in the Gulf of Naples.

 

‘Funiculi Funicula’ was composed in 1880 to mark the opening of the first funicular on Mount Vesuvius. ‘O Sole Mio’ (My Sun) is probably the most popular and won the Grammy award for Luciano Pavarotti in 1980. ‘Torna e Surriento’ (Come Back to Sorrento) praises the scenic surroundings of Sorrento. Twice I have had the pleasure of sailing in a boat from Capri to Sorrento and then a train ride to Naples and the beauty of the sea and coastline are fabulous beyond words.

 

Coming to other Italian songs, let me start with three numbers which I always requested for when visiting a nightclub or restaurant during my visits to Rome. First, ‘Il Mondo’ (The World), a 1965 hit by Jimmy Fontana and arranged by the well-known composer Ennio Morricone. For Fontana, it was his most successful recording. Inevitably, it had English versions titled ‘My World’ of which I like Englebert Humperdinck’s the best.

 

‘Al Di La’ (Beyond) sung by Betty Curtis was the Italian entry in the Eurovision song contest in 1961 but the version I like best is by Emilio Pericoli who mesmerized Troy Donahue and Suzanne Pleshette and us in the 1962 movie ‘Rome Adventure’ also known as ‘Lovers Must Learn’. It became a great hit both in the US and UK. Donahue and Pleshette’s screen romance turned real leading to their marriage a few years later!

 

‘Grande Grande Grande’ (Great Great Great) sung by the Italian singer Mina was the no.1 hit in Italy in 1972. Its lyrics were written by the famous singer Julio Iglesias along with two others. Sample the lyrics (translated) to get the flavor of the song, ‘I hate you, then I love you, and then I love you, then I hate you, and then I love you……You are great, great, great….’ This song was titled ‘Never Never Never’ in English and sung with equal passion by Shirley Bassey. The English lyrics are also similar: ‘I love you, hate you, love you, hate you…..I never, never, never want to be in love with anyone but you’.

 

Umberto Tozzi is a great Italian pop singer and I love his ‘Gloria’ which was a big hit in Italy in 1979-80. The English version of this song by Laura Branigan is equally good and was on top of the pops in many countries including 36 weeks in US in 1982. At least two other hits of Tozzi are worth listening to again and again, ‘Ti Amo’ (I love you) and ‘Tu’ (You). Along with ‘Gloria’, these are guaranteed to chase your Corona blues away!

 

In 1958, Italian singer Domenico Mondugno recorded ‘Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu’ (In The Blue, Painted Blue) which became an instant hit internationally. It was then sung in an English-Italian mix by Dean Martin as ‘Volare’ (To Fly) which too became a global hit. Its popularity lasts till today and it ranks among the best known Italian songs worldwide.

 

Dean Martin, original name Dino Paul Crocetti who had an Italian father and Italian-American mother, will be remembered as the person who truly injected Italian flavor in English songs and some of them are worth recalling here though they are not strictly Italian. ‘That’s Amore’ is a love song ‘in Napoli where love is king ….. when the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, That’s Amore’. In the pre-fast food joints era, that’s when I first heard of a pizza! ‘Innamorata’ is an ode to a sweetheart while in ‘An Evening in Roma’, the lonely singer is envious of couples that he sees on the streets of Rome and invites his girlfriend to meet him perhaps for an espresso.

 

Let me mention here that there is a group called ‘Il Volo’ consisting of three handsome guys aged 26-27 who sing most of the songs mentioned above beautifully and very often, I play them on TV. Appropriately, they call their style of singing ‘popera’!

 

In an Italian-American musical of 1957 'Seven Hills of Rome', Mario Lanza sang 'Arrividerci Roma' which familiarised us with the Italian 'farewell'. 

It is now time to sing ‘Buena Sera' (Good night) a la Louis Prima.

 

ADDENDUM TO MY FAVOURITE FRENCH SONGS

I would like to add two more songs to my list of favourite French songs.

The first one is the haunting theme from the highly emotional movie, 'Un homme et une femme (A man and a woman). The composer was Francis Lai who gained international fame after this 1966 film score and won the Golden Globe award for it. He would go on to sweep all possible awards in 1970 for the musical score of the even more emotional movie, 'Love Story'.

The second song is 'Les feuilles mortes' (Dead leaves).This was composed for a 1946 French movie 'Les portes de la nuit' (Gates of the night) and sung by Irene Joachim. Johnny Mercer gave it English lyrics and it was first sung by Jo Stafford in 1950 as 'Autumn leaves'. It became a top hit and soon all famous English singers were recording it including Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra and Doris Day. Of course, all of us love the unforgettable Nat King Cole version of it.

Not that well-known, but the pianist Roger Williams' instrumental recording of it was the no.1 bestseller in 1955.