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| Devika
Bhojwani |
 Changing
Fate
My mother nurtured me on love and ‘moong dal
pani’ (milk powder was a luxury they could not
afford). But life soon changed after the first film
that my father wrote and directed, ‘Gautama Buddha’
won great acclaim and a prize at the Cannes Film Festival.
We moved to Juhu, into a lovely old bungalow in the
Theosophical Colony.
I
Christened Myself
I had even started attending my first school, but
I still didn’t own a proper name! My parents
had not been able to agree on a name for me, and I
was enrolled as Gogi! A pet name that has stayed with
me even till today. However, by the ripe old age of
five, I decided that I was going to find myself a
name. One day I returned home from school and declared
that I would now be called Devika. It was my best
friend’s name, I liked it and the matter was
settled.
My
Childhood Was Fun
Growing up was one big adventure. Straight after school
I would be up on a ‘peru’ or ‘badam’
tree or hunting for tadpoles in the rice fields behind
our home. I collected anything that crawled or wriggled.
You could always find a couple of earthworms or caterpillars
in my drawers or pencilbox. They were my friends.
My other friends were mostly the servants’ children
from the neighborhood. Free spirited and shoeless,
I always had more fun with them - crab hunting on
the rocks or playing ‘attyapatya’ on the
beach. I don’t think I owned a pair of shoes
apart from the brown keds for school. Who needed them?
Growing
Up
Soon, my sister Malavika and brother Siddharth arrived.
My mother had started the ‘Samovar Cafe’
in the Jehangir Art Gallery at the other end of town
and spent long hours away from home. Being the eldest
sibling, I slipped into the role of surrogate mother
to them quite naturally. Due to my father’s Leftist
background and political connections, our home was
always filled with the most interesting people. Like
Krishna Menon, our Defence Minister, who would carry
me off on a campaign trail or some public meeting.
I once sat spellbound for 12 hours at a stretch while
he addressed a public meeting on Juhu beach. I must
have been 10 then.The poet, Harindranath Chattopadhaya,
would drop in and regale us with poetry recitations.
And our dashing neighbours, the Khan brothers —
Feroz, Abbas (now Sanjay), Ahmed, Shahrukh and Akbar...
and Dilshad, their gorgeous sister who used to come
over to study Economics with my father. Abbas would
come over to meet with his lovely Parsi girlfriend
Zarine, a top model of that time. Ahmed was in love
with my aunt Shabnam, and Akbar was my first crush.
What a heady mix!
I Was Determined To Steal The LimelightIt
was K A Abbas, the legendary writer and film-maker
(he stayed below us) who gave me my first public appearance
in a play he had written, ‘Lal Gulab Ki Wapsi’
based on Nehru. Indignant that I had no speaking part,
I stole the lines of the actor who was to make an
appearance after me, throwing the whole play into
confusion on the opening night. At 12 years, I was
knighted! I had been made a knight of the Order Of
The Round Table. It was based on the legend of King
Arthur’s Round Table and run by the wonderful
Jer Jassawalla. I attended discourses by Swami Chinmayananda
and even made a trip to Adyar in Madras, to meet Rukmini
Devi Arundale. School was a breeze at St Joseph’s
Convent in Bandra. I rose from boisterous brat to
perfect Prefect, Games Captain and eventually Head
Girl. On leaving school, I carved a heart with a ‘thank
you’ and my name on a tree in the school compound,
and wept. I was saying goodbye to the most beautiful
years of my life. At the J J School of Art, where
I was studying Textile Design, I became General Secretary
of the college union and organised one of the first
strikes (part of the college campus was being sold
off to Mafco). How could I not? It was in my genes.
At a meeting of college General Secretaries, I met
Aspi Chinoy, General Secretary of the Government Law
College, and was enthralled with his brilliant scheme
— ‘Land Army’, where students from
city colleges spent one year in a rural college. Through
my father’s political contacts we met Indira
Gandhi who was then Prime Minister and who promised
to seriously look into it. Though nothing ever came
of it, I still believe it’s a great idea. More..... |
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