Indu Mirani (MUMBAI MIRROR; September 18, 2018)

Every Monday evening, at Navratna bar at Santacruz in Mumbai, two tables with blue tablecloths are joined and a ‘Reserved’ sign plonked down. The wait then starts for its star clientele, the Mondaylaa group, (spelt with Monday in English and laa in Marathi loosely translated as On Monday), an informal club of nine actors and directors, members of the Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA), some of whom have known each other for 60 years since they studied in Class I. The youngest, as it were, is Rakesh Bedi who has been with the group for 40 years.

The leaderless group where everyone is an equal comprises of Ramesh Talwar, Avtar Gill, Rakesh Bedi, Bharat Kapoor, Subhash Dangayach, Raman Kumar, Jaspal Sandhu, Inderjit Sachdev and Bansi Thapar. They meet every Monday evening from 8 to 10 pm (drinks and snacks but no dinner). They have been gathering at the same table at the same venue for 10 years ever since the bar opened. Interestingly, the group, which met in no fixed place earlier, was started 24 years ago on the same day as Nelson Mandela was released from jail and though they share a name there was also the thought that they couldn’t be drinking liquor if they called it Mandela. And so Mondaylaa was born. Though attendance varies depending on each one’s work and presence in the city, if even two are able to make it, the club is in full swing.

Most often they move on to the bar following a meeting at the IPTA rehearsal center in the same area. Sometimes they continue whatever they have been discussing at the rehearsal hall but their conversations cover a variety of subjects from movies, culture, literature and plays and IPTA policies to personal issues and sher o shairi. Constructive arguments are welcome. But contentious topics like politics and religion are off the agenda. They expect no special treatment from the waiters or the other patrons and get none except when they get particularly raucous as they got for our photographer.

They are largely on the same page, which is not to say that they don’t have differing views on some subjects. Sometimes tempers flare and unkind words are traded but the group on the whole encourages warring members to discuss differences the same evening and go home with everyone at peace. As Ramesh Talwar, maker of sensitive films like Baseraa and Doosra Aadmi says, “We leave relaxed, all frustrations and tension inducing situations addressed.”

They have been asked several times to expand their group but they are quite satisfied with their number. The don’t mind visitors who they refer to as “Associate members’ but the core group doesn’t change. One member is a diamond merchant, another runs a business of motor parts while a third is a retired banker. “Sometimes I think that with the hectic work we all do we spend more time with each other than with our families,” says Gill. “Our families are used to it. If we don’t remember that it is a Monday, they will remind us,” he adds chuckling.

Over the years some traditions have built up and other than restricting the consumption to liquor and snacks, anyone who goes abroad has to return with a bottle, which will be consumed at the next Mondaylaa. The returnee will also foot the bill for the evening. Birthdays are celebrated with all members contributing Rs 100 each and buying a symbolic gift.

The name Mondaylaa was suggested by Raman Kumar, creator of the lovely Farooq Shaikh – Deepti Naval starrer Saath Saath and producer of the iconic TV show Tara, and enthusiastically accepted by all.

They never meet on another day even if several Mondays have been washed out, as the recent rains did, because then it won’t be Mondaylaa. Likewise location. They have a standing offer in fact, by a film producer, to meet at his home. As a bait he has promised to get bespoke matching kurtas, pyjamas and shoes for all of them and serve the highest quality of food and drink but they’re not biting. For them Monday is Mondaylaa at their Navratna, which could also mean the nine of them.