My friends are like my sisters. Whether it's playing cards, taking a walk or looking me up when I'm sick, they play a big part in making my life comfortable," an affable Reshma Dadlani says, comfortable in a couch at her Peddar Road residence.
Reshma Dadlani, Mumbai
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Mother to rocker and Pentagram frontman Vishal Dadlani, also one half of hit Hindi film music duo Vishal-Shekhar
Pic/Bipin Kokate
Exhorting us to snack on an array of appetising munchies at regular intervals, she admits she has been lucky with people. On a visit to London, a woman offered to help her out with her luggage at the airport, she recounts. "I didn't know how to call for a porter, and had three big bags for my daughter, who was expecting a baby. This sweet blonde woman offered to help me. Of course, once the weight of the bags descended on her shoulders, the blonde found herself staring at a tall order. "She was breathing heavily at the end of it. I'm sure that's the last time she offered to help any Indian at the airport!" she laughs.
This kind of humour makes Dadlani an easy woman to be around. "When I first moved from Jakarta to Mumbai in 1971, Breach Candy was dead. My sister and I would be stared at when we walked down the road in short skirts while everybody wore sarees. I didn't know how I would survive," she admits. Forty years later, dressed in a privately-tailored salwar kameez, Reshma says she now feels like a fish out of water out of the city.
"I love Mumbai. I can't imagine living anywhere else. I have amazing friends, and the city has taught me much."
That journey, which started with her changing her name from Bhagwanti to Reshma when she got married --"we (Sindhis) have a custom where the wife's name is matched to the husband's to ensure his prosperity. I picked Reshma"-- has today culminated in a full life that sees her work out everyday, and support the endeavours of her son Vishal, a musician who is decidedly not cut from the same cloth as others who populate the music scene today.
Over a fresh batch of doughnuts made all the more gooey by the breeze wafting in through large windows, she recounts how her son and members of his then-fledgling rock band Pentagram would practise in his bedroom. "They were sweet boys," she says indulgently. "One time, my friends were over and Vishal's group was practicing. They were shocked to hear all the noise!"
This sort of support is heartening to hear of, especially when she tells you Vishal would bring home school prizes for science. "We thought he would be a doctor! But he always sang beautifully, and eventually, when he decided to take the musical route, we were just happy that he was happy."
Today, much of her day is taken up by card-playing, exercise, and watching films. "I am a huge movie buff. It was what I was most excited about when I moved to Mumbai. When the kids came along, we would take regular vacations to Kashmir, where we would invariably end up meeting some star. We saw the shooting of Silsila, and the kids got autographs from Amitabh Bachchan and Prem Chopra. The Bachchans were staying in the room opposite us, and I used to be such a big fan that I even asked the waiter what food they had ordered. He told me Jaya Bachchan had ordered baked fish. I was thrilled!"
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