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Memory and Writing

I love writing about moments that intersect with multiple events. Right now I’m working on an article about my experiences in 1992, when I played violin in the Bombay Chamber Orchestra.

The idea of the piece is to focus on the masterful conductor and how she conveyed a unified vision to a diverse group of musicians. Plus, use the orchestral experience in Bombay as a jumping off point to talk about all the changes that were happening in India, the world, and my life at the time.

Yesterday, I found the program for the show and discovered that the conductor’s name was completely different from what I remembered.

I looked at the program for a while, hoping to find evidence that my memory was right, but I couldn’t. Even now, I’m still wondering if the program is wrong.

If I were writing fiction, I’d name the conductor in the way that best suited the story. In this situation, even though it feels weird, I’ll go with the name in the program.

Farhad Desai

Farhad is Co-Founder and Mindfulness Facilitator at Beyond Binary Consulting. He is the author of Orientation: For the Journey of a Lifetime