Tinsel
Manoj (Vaz) Ramchandran
First published in India 2014 by Frog Books
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Copyright © Manoj (Vaz) Ramchandran
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
ISBN 978-93-84226-37-4
Book Editor: Surojit Mohan Gupta Cover Design: Mishta Roy
Layout: Chandravadan R. Shiroorkar
Typeset in Book Antiqua
Printing: Thomson Press India Limited Price — India: Rs 295; Elsewhere: US $12
Dedication
In fond memory of my best friend Roy Varghese, who passed away
in an accident when he was just 27. This book is not the story of Roy.
I have just named the principal character after him as a token of remembrance. May your soul rest in peace, Roy.
About the Author
A Keralite, born and brought up in the middle class housing board colonies of Chembur in central Mumbai, Manoj (Vaz) Ramchandran has written Tinsel from first hand experiences.
He started his career as a copywriter in Sam Balsara’s Madison Advertising in 1989, but soon realized that he had an independent line of thought and could not be forced to toe a line. Hence he founded Touché Communications Pvt. Ltd, a totally creative-centric Ad Shoppe in 1991 at the ripe old age of 25.
Today Touché is 23 years young and Manoj as Chairman & Managing Director holds 100% stake in the company.
‘Tinsel’ was his childhood dream and he had written the first few chapters more than 20 years ago. But the deadlines and pressures of the advertising industry and the burgeoning responsibility of raising a son as a single father, kept him from devoting time for it.
Now that his son, Shlok Ramchandran, is 19 and an international badminton player who trains in Pullela Gopichand Badminton Academy in Hyderabad and day to day running of the agency is handled by experienced managers and executive officers, he finally made time to convert his dream into black and white.
After all, we all dream in black and white they say. Some literally.
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Prologue: September 1965
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Book One
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1980-1992
Inter-logue: November 1992
Book Two
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1993-2000
Inter-logue: August 1997
Book Three
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2001-2008
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Epilogue: September 2025
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CONTENTS
Prologue : September 1965 ...................................................................................10
Book One - 1980-1992
CHAPTER 1 ..............................................................................................................15
CHAPTER 2 ..............................................................................................................22
CHAPTER 3 ..............................................................................................................28
CHAPTER 4 ..............................................................................................................34
CHAPTER 5 ..............................................................................................................38
CHAPTER 6 ..............................................................................................................43
CHAPTER 7 .............................................................................................................50
CHAPTER 8 .............................................................................................................56
CHAPTER 9 .............................................................................................................62
CHAPTER 10 ............................................................................................................69
CHAPTER 11 ............................................................................................................73
CHAPTER 12 ............................................................................................................80
CHAPTER 13 ............................................................................................................90
CHAPTER 14 ............................................................................................................96
CHAPTER 15 ...........................................................................................................102
CHAPTER 16 ...........................................................................................................108
CHAPTER 17...........................................................................................................114
CHAPTER 18 ..........................................................................................................119
CHAPTER 19 ..........................................................................................................124
Inter-logue : November 1992...............................................................................132
Book Two - 1993-2000
CHAPTER 1 ............................................................................................................136
CHAPTER 2 ............................................................................................................140
CHAPTER 3 ............................................................................................................145
CHAPTER 4 ............................................................................................................148
CHAPTER 5 ............................................................................................................152
CHAPTER 6 ............................................................................................................158
CHAPTER 7 ............................................................................................................163
CHAPTER 8 ............................................................................................................168
CHAPTER 9 ............................................................................................................171
CHAPTER 10 ...........................................................................................................176
CHAPTER 11 ...........................................................................
................................183
CHAPTER 12 ...........................................................................................................192
CHAPTER 13 ...........................................................................................................196
CHAPTER 14 ...........................................................................................................203
CHAPTER 15 ...........................................................................................................209
CHAPTER 16 ...........................................................................................................215
CHAPTER 17 ...........................................................................................................220
CHAPTER 18 ...........................................................................................................225
Inter-logue : August 1997 230
Book Three - 2001-2008
CHAPTER 1 ....................................................... 239
CHAPTER 2 ....................................................... 245
CHAPTER 3 ....................................................... 249
CHAPTER 4 ....................................................... 254
CHAPTER 5 ....................................................... 259
CHAPTER 6 ....................................................... 264
CHAPTER 7 ....................................................... 268
CHAPTER 8 ....................................................... 273
CHAPTER 9 ....................................................... 277
CHAPTER 10 ..................................................... 281
CHAPTER11 ...................................................... 285
CHAPTER 12 ..................................................... 289
CHAPTER 13 ..................................................... 293
CHAPTER 14 ..................................................... 297
CHAPTER 15 ..................................................... 300
CHAPTER 16 ..................................................... 304
CHAPTER 17 ..................................................... 308
CHAPTER 18 ..................................................... 312
Epilogue : September 2025 ............................. 315
Prologue
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September 1965
The night was darker than usual. Sirens were blaring. Groups of civil defence personnel were on the road, telling people to switch off their lights at home. Bombay had had an air raid warning. The war that seemed so far off had suddenly caught up with the sleepy suburb of Bombay called Chembur. After all, India’s premier Atomic Plant, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre was just a stone’s throw away.
To make matters worse, the rain was incessant. The sudden flashes of lightning seemed like a giant tube light struggling to switch on. The trees that lined the roads were dancing dangerously to the tune of the gusty wind.
George Philipose didn’t care. All he cared about was Philomena, his wife. In the small, dingy maternity home, built in a garage, Dr Mariama Jacob was worried. The baby was breech. She needed an anaesthetist and specialist surgeon for a C-section, but at this time of the night and under these circumstances, she knew she would get none.
Dr Jacob, at 50, was an experienced doctor. She had delivered Philomena’s older son, 3 years ago. It was bright sunshine then, and the delivery was normal and uncomplicated. It was different now. Philomena was bleeding profusely, her pretty face contorted with pain. Dr Jacob cursed the dead telephone line. She looked out of the window and could see the shadowy figure of George pacing.
She liked the young Keralite from Calicut who had married George 5 years ago and settled with him in Bombay. Philomena was kind, hardworking and soft spoken; she did not deserve the pain she was enduring, she thought, as she murmured a prayer.
The baby was caught in an awkward position, which made it impossible for a normal delivery. Philomena was losing far too much blood and her pulse was sinking. Desperately, Dr Jacob tried to manipulate her stomach manually, but the bleeding just got worse.
“Ende Kartaave… (My Jesus…)” she murmured, “I am losing her…”
Her nurse, a young girl, barely 21, who had just passed out of nursing school and joined Dr Jacob just 3 months ago, looked ready to literally pass out now.
12 Tinsel
Suddenly, there was a huge crash outside. A 60 year old Gulmohur tree had lost its patience with the cyclonic wind and given way, crashing into a yellow and black Fiat taxi parked on the road, crushing it completely. Fortunately the taxi was empty. Soon a crowd swelled around the tree and attempts were being made to clear the road.
“Idiots!” swore George to himself, “They don’t even know that you need to cut the tree into pieces, before moving it!!”
George was a swarthy young man, 5 feet 10 inches tall, dark complexioned, with broad shoulders and a powerful physique built by climbing coconut trees and playing volley ball in the fields of Kannur in Kerala.
He had moved to Bombay at the age of 20 armed with an electrician’s diploma. Fortunately for him, after an initial struggle, he had managed to get a job as an electrician at the Public Works Department and was allotted a small one bedroom flat in the Government housing board society in Tilak Nagar, Chembur. With a Government job and an apartment in Mumbai, he was a prize catch for Philomena’s parents.
George had left their older son; 3 year old Mark with their neighbours, the Parabs. He was worried. He was
Manoj (Vaz) Ramchandran 13
against the second pregnancy right from the onset. Philomena was weak and anaemic. The Bombay weather had not been kind to the petite girl from Kerala. But Philo had insisted.
Right from the beginning, George had a bad feeling about the pregnancy. Now, he was sure something had gone wrong.
It was then that the delivery room door opened.
“We managed to save your son…” muttered Dr Jacob, her eyes swollen with tears.
“And Philo?” asked George, his voice, a hoarse whisper…
“I am sorry George,” Dr Jacob said, “we tried our best, but we couldn’t…”
George had turned around before she could finish, the rain lashing his face, hiding the tears that flooded his face. He headed straight to the fallen tree and picking up an axe, started chopping the tree furiously. One thought pervading his mind…
“We didn’t need this child… Oh Philo … why were you so stubborn about bringing him into this world? Now look what he has done to you!”
You are young only once.
You are also dead only once.
Book One
________________________________
1980-1992
“Roy George Philipose…” Mrs Godse’s voice thundered, “Get down at once!”
Roy looked down and he saw what he expected, Head Mistress Mrs Godse was standing two floors below him, on the ground with Mr Ahmed, the secondary school supervisor.
‘There goes my movie…’ thought Roy while hanging on precariously to the drainage pipe outside of his class room window, ‘and a long lecture to boot!’
Every Saturday, Rajhans, the cinema hall in the lane next to the school showed international award winning movies at 10:00 am which nobody understood but were in great demand for the sexual content. And every Saturday, Roy would climb down from the second floor class room window to avoid the school staff, change into his casual clothes in a shop nearby and slip into the theatre.
16 Tinsel
Since he had befriended the door man and the usher, he would buy the cheapest ticket and watch the movie from the most expensive row in the balcony.
Today, because of the commotion he was going to lose out on Claud
e Goretta’s award winning 1976 classic The Lace Maker.
With a sigh and an ape like dexterity, Roy put one foot on the ledge and jumped back into his class room.
“Mr Ahmed, I need grills fixed on all the windows as soon as possible!” Mrs Godse was all fire and brimstone, as she marched into the school building, “Please make a requisition to the trustees immediately! And send that scoundrel to my office.”
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