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Boom Boom the Fifth
I visited India and Nepal for the first time on a Buddhist pilgrimage led by Shantum Seth in 2007. The following — which I wrote in Dharamshala, India — is from my 2008 trip.
Days ago, Lynn and John went to the café, Boom Boom the Fifth, on a Monday night. Normally Boom Boom doesn’t do her cabaret show on Mondays, but she did it special just for them (I think because it was John’s birthday).
Lynn said, “It was like we were in an independent film.”
Boom Boom played a Bessie Smith record and sang with it — I get the impression she’s a very good singer. She wears excessive make-up, with lipstick that goes high above her lips and forms a pair of sharp points, under her nose. Oh, yes, also, she’s Australian.
Lynn said, “Boom Boom had a relationship with the Raj that I can’t explain because that would be unmindful speech.” Shantum later smilingly said that Boom Boom likes to gossip, to spread gossip, not just be the subject of gossip.
The Raj himself is a bit quirky. I mentioned that he wore pretty clothes. In addition to the regional hat, he sometimes wore a hand-quilted jacket, or a dark red or navy-blue velvet robe in the same wrap-around, vaguely Tibetan-looking style. I never thought I’d want to pet a Maharaja. He is pale for an Indian and has deep-set eyes and white hair, what’s left of it.