Tweet
The Times of India, India
Sept 22 2014
Kolkata loses its favourite raconteur
by Jaideep Mazumdar,TNN
KOLKATA: The morning durbars under the portico of the delightfully
eccentric Fairlawn Hotel on Sudder Street have just become history.
The 'Duchess of Sudder Street', as Vi (Violet) Smith was popularly
called, will not be holding 'court' there anymore. And legions of her
fans, as well as the galaxy of loyal customers of her hotel, will no
longer be regaled by her stories about the Kolkata of yore. Smith
passed away at her first-floor quarters of Fairlawn Hotel on Saturday
at an age of 93.
The stories she narrated were as eclectic as her personality, and the
hotel itself. One of her favourites was how Shashi Kapoor ("drop-dead
gorgeous he was," recalled Vi) met and fell in love with Jennifer
Kendall. In the spring of 1965, the Kendals, who used to own a mobile
theatre company called 'Shakespeareana', were putting up at Fairlawn
and Prithvi Theatre (owned by Shashi's father Prithviraj Kapoor) also
happened to staging shows at New Empire at the same time. Jennifer had
gone to watch a show there and it was "love at first sight" for
Shashi, who courted Jennifer, joined 'Shakespeareana' and eloped with
her to Bombay to get married after her father Geoffrey refused
permission for marriage. The couple spent their honeymoon in Room No
17 of Fairlawn, and Vi named it 'The Shashi Kapoor Room'.
Vi was also very fond of telling visitors about Patrick Swayze who
stayed at the Fairlawn while shooting for 'The City Of Joy' in 1991.
"He was very nice and soft-spoken. He had told me about the ranches he
owned in California and New Mexico, about his wife Lisa and his
childhood," the coiffed and elaborately made-up Vi told this
correspondent a couple of years ago. She was also an encyclopedia on
the Calcutta of the glorious past.
Violet Smith was an Armenian whose grandfather escaped the genocide of
the Armenians by the Ottomans in Turkey in 1915 and reached India
through Iran and Afghanistan. Violet married Edward Frederick Smith, a
British army officer, in 1944 and moved to England later, but returned
in 1962 to take over the affairs of Fairlawn. Violet's mother Rosie
Sarkies had bought the property from two British ladies in 1936. The
sprawling structure that houses the hotel is 231 years old now, having
been constructed by one William Ford in 1783.
Vi lent her personality to the hotel she dearly loved. Stepping in
through the iron gates of the hotel is like entering a green oasis set
amidst the bustle of the city. A profusion of plants, mostly palms,
provides an immediate soothing experience and leads to the portico
where, every morning, the redoubtable Violet used to hold court. Not
just the abundance of potted plants, the colour of the walls, linen,
wicker and cane chairs, settees and stools, many of the draperies and
even some of the crockery are green or have splashes of it. It's
Violet's favourite colour. "Green symbolizes freshness, vibrancy and
reminds one of nature," she used to say.
Other regular guests at Fairlawn that Vi would often talk about were
filmmakers Ismail Merchant and James Ivory, actors Melvyn Douglas,
Penelope Cruz, Julie Christie, Felicity Kendal (Jennifer Kapoor's
sister) and Om Puri, writers Gunter Grass, Eric Newby, Dominique
Lapierre, Ian Hislop and Glen Balfour-Paul, British playwright Tom
Stoppard, TV presenters Dan Cruikshank and Clive Anderson, and even
Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner (Sting, for the uninformed)!
And all have paid glowing tributes to the hotel and its wonderfully
charming owner Violet Smith. Lapierre went to the extent of wishing he
loses his passport when he stays at Fairlawn the next time so that he
can stay on at the hotel forever. Newby calls Fairlawn his "most
favourite hotel". Vi would often say her motto was to "receive
tourists as guests and send them away as friends". For her innumerable
friends all over the world, Fairlawn, and Kolkata, will never be the
same without Vi.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/Kolkata-loses-its-favourite-raconteur/articleshow/43104503.cms
Sept 22 2014
Kolkata loses its favourite raconteur
by Jaideep Mazumdar,TNN
KOLKATA: The morning durbars under the portico of the delightfully
eccentric Fairlawn Hotel on Sudder Street have just become history.
The 'Duchess of Sudder Street', as Vi (Violet) Smith was popularly
called, will not be holding 'court' there anymore. And legions of her
fans, as well as the galaxy of loyal customers of her hotel, will no
longer be regaled by her stories about the Kolkata of yore. Smith
passed away at her first-floor quarters of Fairlawn Hotel on Saturday
at an age of 93.
The stories she narrated were as eclectic as her personality, and the
hotel itself. One of her favourites was how Shashi Kapoor ("drop-dead
gorgeous he was," recalled Vi) met and fell in love with Jennifer
Kendall. In the spring of 1965, the Kendals, who used to own a mobile
theatre company called 'Shakespeareana', were putting up at Fairlawn
and Prithvi Theatre (owned by Shashi's father Prithviraj Kapoor) also
happened to staging shows at New Empire at the same time. Jennifer had
gone to watch a show there and it was "love at first sight" for
Shashi, who courted Jennifer, joined 'Shakespeareana' and eloped with
her to Bombay to get married after her father Geoffrey refused
permission for marriage. The couple spent their honeymoon in Room No
17 of Fairlawn, and Vi named it 'The Shashi Kapoor Room'.
Vi was also very fond of telling visitors about Patrick Swayze who
stayed at the Fairlawn while shooting for 'The City Of Joy' in 1991.
"He was very nice and soft-spoken. He had told me about the ranches he
owned in California and New Mexico, about his wife Lisa and his
childhood," the coiffed and elaborately made-up Vi told this
correspondent a couple of years ago. She was also an encyclopedia on
the Calcutta of the glorious past.
Violet Smith was an Armenian whose grandfather escaped the genocide of
the Armenians by the Ottomans in Turkey in 1915 and reached India
through Iran and Afghanistan. Violet married Edward Frederick Smith, a
British army officer, in 1944 and moved to England later, but returned
in 1962 to take over the affairs of Fairlawn. Violet's mother Rosie
Sarkies had bought the property from two British ladies in 1936. The
sprawling structure that houses the hotel is 231 years old now, having
been constructed by one William Ford in 1783.
Vi lent her personality to the hotel she dearly loved. Stepping in
through the iron gates of the hotel is like entering a green oasis set
amidst the bustle of the city. A profusion of plants, mostly palms,
provides an immediate soothing experience and leads to the portico
where, every morning, the redoubtable Violet used to hold court. Not
just the abundance of potted plants, the colour of the walls, linen,
wicker and cane chairs, settees and stools, many of the draperies and
even some of the crockery are green or have splashes of it. It's
Violet's favourite colour. "Green symbolizes freshness, vibrancy and
reminds one of nature," she used to say.
Other regular guests at Fairlawn that Vi would often talk about were
filmmakers Ismail Merchant and James Ivory, actors Melvyn Douglas,
Penelope Cruz, Julie Christie, Felicity Kendal (Jennifer Kapoor's
sister) and Om Puri, writers Gunter Grass, Eric Newby, Dominique
Lapierre, Ian Hislop and Glen Balfour-Paul, British playwright Tom
Stoppard, TV presenters Dan Cruikshank and Clive Anderson, and even
Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner (Sting, for the uninformed)!
And all have paid glowing tributes to the hotel and its wonderfully
charming owner Violet Smith. Lapierre went to the extent of wishing he
loses his passport when he stays at Fairlawn the next time so that he
can stay on at the hotel forever. Newby calls Fairlawn his "most
favourite hotel". Vi would often say her motto was to "receive
tourists as guests and send them away as friends". For her innumerable
friends all over the world, Fairlawn, and Kolkata, will never be the
same without Vi.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/Kolkata-loses-its-favourite-raconteur/articleshow/43104503.cms