Stunning Symphony : Meher and Pheroz Pudumjee

The Rs 5000 crore plus Thermax Ltd, headquartered in Pune and with offices in 19 locations across the globe provides a range of engineering solutions in the energy and environment sectors. Its Chairperson, Meher Pudumjee, a Chemical Engineer, is passionate about music, especially Western Classical. Her husband Pheroz, an MBA and Director of Thermax, oversees the company’s international initiatives. He too has a talent for singing but prefers to keep it a secret; he is a lot more eloquent about his love for automobiles. What makes their marital journey a classic duet is their mutual respect and friendship and their ability to keep their feet on the ground and be human.

If music be the food of love, play on…“ said Shakespeare, and Pheroz Pudumjee, for sure, continues to have an overdose of it, thanks to his wife Meher, who loves western classical music. Meher never misses her weekly rendezvous with `The Chamber Singers’ choir where she mellifluously practices works of Bach, Brahms, Schubert, Debussy, Bernstein and so on. Every Tuesday, between 6.30 and 8 p.m., she reserves time for her passion and heads to Gulati Hall in Pune. When concerts are scheduled, her rehearsals carry on well past her class hours, her voice resonating the corridors of the house, until late night. She proudly says, ”Even if I am travelling, I try and work around my being in Pune on Tuesdays and if I have a meeting then I ensure I finish it in good time to be able to make it for the choir.”

''No, it is not just her love, she is simply obsessed when she catches onto a tune,'' says Pheroz with a mix of appreciation and exasperation. “I respect her passion and all the effort she puts into music, but she has the tendency to overdo things. Passion overtakes to such an extent that she gets obsessive, I get her to be temperate.“ Then he affectionately complains that he is compelled to hear the songs that she would be rendering at the concert, several times, well before the concert day!

Meher smiles and adds with a twinkle in her eyes, ''You know, he is a brilliant vocalist; he sings so well, but refuses to do so. I wish he would also sing in the choir – we need more male voices. “Pheroz intervenes, ''No I have no intention of joining any choir, thank you; I am happy being a bathroom singer,” and confesses that they have friendly arguments once a week, over music, and that’s quite enough!

Meher’s passion surfaces when she says, ''My enjoyment is far greater than what my voice brings to the choir. I thoroughly enjoy meeting our eclectic group every Tuesday for the past 15 years, who come together for the love of music. Our conductor, Veronica Krishnayya is phenomenal in the way she weaves together different and very unusual pieces of music.’’

By Vinita Deshmukh