STORYTIME TAPESTRY

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Deepak Morris??™s Weekly Column

? East Meets West

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Oct 6, 2005

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To continue with my vision of a world tapestry of love and understanding of cultural values throughout the world, every Thursday we will be graced by the artistic vision of Mr. Deepak Morris, a wonderful playwright and friend from Prune, India.? 

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His plays have been preformed in front of audiences in Toronto, Canada

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Love in Karachi

How Deepak Morris got his unusual name

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Pre-Independence, undivided India. Solomon Moses Penkar, young, ambitious and, above all, disciplined, was in Karachi to fulfil a government contract. Starting out as a carpenter, he had shown astute business acumen and had quickly become a leading light in his Jewish community, taking on road building contracts and executing them with a rapidity and quality that brought him even more orders and money beyond his expectations. He soon branched out into other building contracts.

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He bought several cars, horse-drawn carriages, land, the very best in electronic home entertainment. Solomon was a happy man. And a powerful man. Soon, his family would arrange a marriage for him with a nice Jewish girl and the two of them would raise many children, strengthening the minuscule Jewish community in India.

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That plan was to change in one short luncheon.

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Invited to a friend??™s home in Karachi for lunch, Solomon saw a young, strikingly beautiful girl doing the household chores. She was unusually fair for an Indian, had long, jet black hair to her waist and a pair of twinkling, intelligent eyes. Their eyes met and instantly threw a small Catholic community and a smaller Jewish one into turmoil.

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The details of their stormy romance can only be conjectured, for the prime witnesses, and even the secondary ones, have long ago joined the lovers in their garden beyond the grave. But stormy it must have been. She was Catholic. He was Jewish. She was fair. He was blackened by the sun. Skin colour matters more in India than people will admit. He was a rich man. She was a poor orphan, ???adopted??? by kindly relatives, for whom she worked as a maidservant in return for food, lodging and a little education.

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Two stubborn lovers joined in matrimony and Solomon, stung by his family??™s rejection, vowed nevermore to bear his family name, nor let any child his bride may bear join the Jewish fold. He dropped the ???Penkar??? and changed the ???Moses??? to ???Morris???.

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Years went by and she accompanied him wherever he went on his work, until they decided that the children??™s education was suffering because of their wandering lifestyle. He had travelled all over India and loved Pune, then called Poona, for its beautiful climate and laid-back lifestyle. Isabel Morris took root in Pune and brought up their children with an iron hand. Somewhere along the way, Solomon had converted to Catholicism and the children had all been given anglicised names. Oswald, Monica, George and Veries grew up in Poona, with occasional visits to their mother??™s village in Mangalore. Her relatives had mellowed and all was well on her side of the family. Solomon, however, never forgave an insult and so never went back to his people.

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George Morris married after his father??™s death, when the family fortunes were lost because of skulduggery on the part of Solomon??™s business partners. His was an arranged marriage. He married Marie Simmons, an orphan. Her father was Anglo-Indian and mother was from Mangalore.

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When they had their first child, a son, they hadn??™t decided on a name, right upto the time of baptism. When the priest asked by what name the child was to be called, George stunned everyone by announcing that the boy??™s name was to be ???Deepak???, a name everyone took to be Hindu. It was too late to protest however. The priest had named the boy and the ceremony was over before anyone had time to take a second breath. When asked later why he had chosen a ???Hindu??? name, dad had replied, ???It is an Indian name. Never shall he forget where he comes from and who he is.???

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Deepak Morris

rhapword@yahoo.com

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Founder of Rhapsody Theatre, author, playwright,
actor and director Deepak Morris has been
associated with Theatre and Communication all
his life. A Master of Commerce from Pune
University, Master's Diploma holder in
Management from The Institute of Management
Development and Research (IMDR), Pune, and
Diploma holder in Computer Studies from the
National Computing Centre, UK, Deepak
combines a passion for theatre with professional management techniques
to deliver consistently well staged theatrical
performances. An accomplished actor himself,
Deepak has won numerous awards for acting and
debating, including the "Best Actor" award at
the International Year of the Youth Drama
Festival in Pune and the "Best Male Newcomer
Award" in 1997 in Dubai, U.A.E. Having acted
in numerous productions in India and Dubai,
Deepak began writing and directing his own
plays on a regular basis in March 2001. To
date, he has written several one-act plays
and skits and his group, Rhapsody Theatre,
has staged no less than 13 plays in three
years, a record of sorts.