About 20 and in Calcutta. Falling in and out of women. Notes of incorrectness applauded. There was no pride in being a bhakt. And one 1966, November morning, The Statesman, Calcutta, carried a news item: Reita Faria is Miss World. Reita was 23 and today 73. Jumped in joy; booms in the heart; fell in love with Reita Faria; wrote a short Letters to the Editor, The Statesman, clapping Miss World. The letter got published. Had then cuttings of the news item; lost them. Friends looked down on her; The Statesman carried her flag. And after some time Reita fell away as me realised she would not be my friend and partner. But she was there. Today The Sunday Express magazine carries a detailed write up on the Lady by Sunanda Mehta. She a star in the sky and me a dot of earth, not a kissing chance. A medical student from Grant Medical College, Bombay, she is a Goan. Only Goans among Indians lap life, dance life, laugh life like the sea off their homes. None else. Simply, none else. Born to Goan parents she lived in Matunga and then settled down in Dublin. Mehta quotes her: 'the glamour world could have never given me this grounded security. I wish the girls today would realise the fleeting nature of fame and looks. Running after these flashes of publicity, trying to hold onto what changes so rapidly and always looking out for variety, be it in ambitions or relations, is bound to cause distress. It's unusual for a celebrity to make for a happy family these days, but this is where real happiness lies -- in secure relationships,' she says. .....When David and I look back at our life - 49 years together, including four before marriage - we realise we have each other, good health, children and grandchildren, and still so many shared interests from golf to skiing. What more does one want? I have my whole world.' A Tuka, a Kabir and a Shankaracharya of Bhaja Govindam will be proud of Reita, having found her metier of happiness. Sunanda Mehta writes a Faria life in a dear old happy way, bringing a Sunday happiness to me. Today the essay tasted better than coffee. Today, Faria, Firpos, Trincas, Park Street, the Maidan, Lakes became live. Do not know whether today Faria will be appreciated by activists and the rest; there will be howls of protest; Reita Faria does not chant femininism as that was not the fashion in those times; those times, men and women loved, Casablanca years, smoked, drank, sang out of tune....rolled along.. improper times or Reita Faria times come back again... we are too serious for all that... not sufficiently flowery, flippant.. Thanks Reita for a fun Sunday.
Saturday, December 17, 2016
Reita Faria
About 20 and in Calcutta. Falling in and out of women. Notes of incorrectness applauded. There was no pride in being a bhakt. And one 1966, November morning, The Statesman, Calcutta, carried a news item: Reita Faria is Miss World. Reita was 23 and today 73. Jumped in joy; booms in the heart; fell in love with Reita Faria; wrote a short Letters to the Editor, The Statesman, clapping Miss World. The letter got published. Had then cuttings of the news item; lost them. Friends looked down on her; The Statesman carried her flag. And after some time Reita fell away as me realised she would not be my friend and partner. But she was there. Today The Sunday Express magazine carries a detailed write up on the Lady by Sunanda Mehta. She a star in the sky and me a dot of earth, not a kissing chance. A medical student from Grant Medical College, Bombay, she is a Goan. Only Goans among Indians lap life, dance life, laugh life like the sea off their homes. None else. Simply, none else. Born to Goan parents she lived in Matunga and then settled down in Dublin. Mehta quotes her: 'the glamour world could have never given me this grounded security. I wish the girls today would realise the fleeting nature of fame and looks. Running after these flashes of publicity, trying to hold onto what changes so rapidly and always looking out for variety, be it in ambitions or relations, is bound to cause distress. It's unusual for a celebrity to make for a happy family these days, but this is where real happiness lies -- in secure relationships,' she says. .....When David and I look back at our life - 49 years together, including four before marriage - we realise we have each other, good health, children and grandchildren, and still so many shared interests from golf to skiing. What more does one want? I have my whole world.' A Tuka, a Kabir and a Shankaracharya of Bhaja Govindam will be proud of Reita, having found her metier of happiness. Sunanda Mehta writes a Faria life in a dear old happy way, bringing a Sunday happiness to me. Today the essay tasted better than coffee. Today, Faria, Firpos, Trincas, Park Street, the Maidan, Lakes became live. Do not know whether today Faria will be appreciated by activists and the rest; there will be howls of protest; Reita Faria does not chant femininism as that was not the fashion in those times; those times, men and women loved, Casablanca years, smoked, drank, sang out of tune....rolled along.. improper times or Reita Faria times come back again... we are too serious for all that... not sufficiently flowery, flippant.. Thanks Reita for a fun Sunday.
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