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"There’s only one food,” responds maestro Zubin Mehta to Dr Jehangir Sorabjee’s question about which is his preferred cuisine. And what would be a Parsi lunch menu? Without a pause he tops his choice with "Parsi cutlets to start with, with tamota ni gravy, pachhi kolmi no tatrelo patio (then a spicy prawn gravy), dhansak with good kababs — deep fried.” The Parsi foodie acknowledged that the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel gave him a mean akuri (spiced scrambled eggs) that morning of April 16, 2016 for breakfast after he had indicated how many chilies he wanted the previous day. He was offended that the akuri of the prior day was bland, without chilies, spiced as if prepared for a foreigner! Even in Tel Aviv, Israel, Mehta has located an Indian restaurant which serves up a wished for dhansak! His Parsi food seems to have the same punch as the upbeat of his baton.

 

 

 

Mehta commenced his 80th birthday festivities in Bombay, his birthplace, with concerts, a book launch and interviews. The revelries continued globally throughout April. Pointing to the audience gathered at the Taj for "Conversations with Zubin Mehta,” hosted by The Mehli Mehta Music Foundation (MMMF), he declared his "special love for Bombay” where he "can walk blindfolded in the heritage area.” When questioned what makes him return again and again, he reminisced about Colaba being idyllic when he still lived there and recalled British troops marching to Afghan Church as he muttered "Quit India” under his breath. He recollected growing up in a very hard-core, anti-British, nationalistic atmosphere when "we walked out in protest,” as the British national anthem’s first chords were struck. Sorabjee, a medical practitioner specializing in infectious diseases, was chosen to interview the maestro as he is known to be a serious student of western classical music who chases concerts globally and is well versed in the subject.
Mehta’s father Mehli was chosen to entertain club goers at the Breach Candy Swimming Club in Bombay, where Indians were barred. Mehli had to use only the rear door, as did all Indians. The son said that his musician father used to play the violin at the Taj some evenings as well and dined without apartheid coming into play at this swish hotel which welcomed its own countrymen. Later in his career, in Glasgow where Mehli searched for an apartment, he was unable to rent one – his complexion not being right. The son revealed, "(He) never conducted (a composition of) an English composer. So much animosity.”
The offspring termed his father "friend, inspirer, educator and teacher.” He taught him how to read an orchestral score and followed up with playing recordings, "I definitely got my love of orchestra from him.” Mehli conducted a semi-amateur orchestra in Bombay and later a professional one in Los Angeles. Zubin narrated how comedian, actor and musician Danny Kaye once informed him, "If you want to know what terror is, go to the rehearsal of your father.”
Passionate about ‘healing communities’ in war torn zones — Israel, Bosnia and Kashmir — and about social upliftment, Zubin performs wherever he believes music can make a difference. He persists in trying to string together the Arabs and the Jews to make music. "It is the impact on others which is important. Spiritually you feel very fulfilled.” The key to this is that "they (Arabs and Jews) smile at each other… I don’t know what happens the next day.”
Also known for promoting new talent and experimentation, the conductor harmonizes outreach programs exposing disadvantaged children to classical music. On the same page as musician José Abreu, Zubin was full of praise for the Venezuelan conductor, pianist, educator and activist who has seeded 102 youth orchestras in that South American country. In fact Zubin has broadened the MMMF’s scope to take music to the slums of Bombay. Sorabjee impressed the renowned conductor by, without missing a beat, preempting Abreu’s name just as Zubin was about to utter it.
Zubin always attempts to introduce contemporary music, even to the conservative Israelis. The Indian passport holder continues to experiment, as with the first three tenors’ concert in 1990 comprising of Spaniards Plácido Domingo and José Carreras and the Italian Luciano Pavarotti, which was broadcast from Rome to a billion people across the globe. He has also conducted the Australian Youth Orchestra in India, comprising of the best Australian players from world orchestras, which he acknowledged as "one of the best full orchestras I have conducted.” With no intent to cut down on work, the maestro continues to stand before his musicians for hours — "Once you are there, you just forget.” He made light of Sorabjee’s query about conducting excerpts of Richard Wagner’s daunting The Ring Cycle for over five hours, a few months back. Zubin specified he stands at concerts though he may sit during rehearsals. When Sorabjee declared he was a Wagner buff, the maestro jested, "Then you are with (attending) the wrong orchestra!” Zubin was referring to the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra which he conducted this April in Bombay, which desists from playing the anti-semitic Wagner’s music.
Asked about fusion music, he said the program in which he played with the sitarist exponent Pandit Ravi Shankar was received in a lukewarm fashion in India, "whilst in Israel and Florence, Italy he received a standing ovation.” Zubin brightened up while talking about the Pandit’s sitarist daughter Anoushka "who plays stuff Panditji couldn’t. She’s a super virtuoso.”
Questioned about MMMF, Zubin said he was "very happy where it’s going” but added his dream would not be realized until the school has its own premises. MMMF was founded in 1995 by the conductor in memory of his late father.
Proclaiming himself a devout Zoroastrian he takes every opportunity to go to an agiary in Bombay and leads the various orchestras he brings to Bombay, in a traditional dagli.
"Parsis are indestructible,” Sorabjee quoted the late J. R. D. Tata, chairman of the Tata Group. The sentence was hardly completed when Zubin interjected, "He was talking of my family!” Zubin revealed that Mehli had four brothers; except one, all died in their 90s. "I’m not stopping. No intention of slowing down,” Zubin humored the guffawing audience. The maestro used to be a student of the B. K. S. Iyengar School of yoga but now does not find time to practice due to his hectic travel schedule.
On being asked where home is, he thanked North America for welcoming him, particularly Los Angeles where he lives. With a residence in Florence, he loves being there and in Vienna "where I am completely at home.” Zubin studied in the Austrian capital during the 1950s, when the opera house had been bombed by the allies during World War II. It was "a hole in the ground and had to be built from scratch,” he recollected. He also specially mentioned central Europe as a musically fulfilling region. "But it is here (in Bombay) that it all comes together for me spiritually.”