Annie waved at Daniel a final bye and then sat in the
cab, turned towards Prof. Carl Bernstein, in a way she was glad to see him, she gave
a tired smile and a quick hug simultaneously, the Prof. too gave a wry smile, that
almost reflected a sign of relief and mumbled his Hellos as he extended his arm
to allow Annie her light hug, they both then quietened a bit and shifted to
their individual corners of the cab, as it hummed on its way to the Boston
International airport on their way to London. Annie tried her best to look
normal but she knew the effects of the anaesthesia in the afternoon and all the
drinking and drugging the past few days after the ugly Richard split continued
to have an effect on her general energy levels, but otherwise she was feeling
good, having discarded her unwanted egg safely. In fact the feeling was mixed,
she guessed all women felt the same when they went in for an abortion, a bit
blue , sad, full of regrets and remorse. Dr. Allen and Rachel had counselled
her well even before they wheeled her into the theater they had tried their
best to keep her humoured and smiling, but once She had regained her
consciousness after the surgical operation – even if it was relatively a quick
procedure, she thought, the pain was a bit more than what she was prepared to
take, it singed, the areas where they had run the laparoscopic whipper – She found
herself feeling a bit strange and how will you put it ? a bit weird actually,
even if this wasn’t her first time, She continued to feel a bit ‘misplaced’ a
bit out of bounds even as she smiled at Dan when he had walked in to see her , a little after she had gained her consciousness. She wondered if
there were women out their who would walk out of an abortion theater and say
Hey! Let’s party! I have killed the baby!
Annie smiled again to herself and then once again
became conscious about the presence of her mentor and guide Prof. Bernstein in
the cab, in a way She was glad that she was travelling, British Airways, first
class, so she would get a good 7-8 hours rest, since the flight they had booked
was hopping through New York. Prof. Bernstein continued looking at Annie
sensing she wanted to be left alone just to make her feel a bit more relaxed he
opened her a bit asking her some inane questions like if she had made sure she
had packed all the stuff required for the seminar and whether she was prepared
to walk straight into Oxford after landing. She smiled and assured him not to
worry and then opened her laptop and handed it over to him to help him go through
the presentation that she had ready for the next day at the Oxford University
where they were both were to take part in a inter University conference ‘Contemporary
Philosophy and Neo Phenomenology’. The organisers of the conference, which
included senior academicians from all over Europe also planned to fete Prof.
Carl Bernstein with a post conference dinner at the famed University Club on
his extensive contribution to the field of Phenomenology.
For Annie, it was a great opportunity to be getting
a chance to rub shoulders with some of the greatest contemporary thinkers of
the world through this conference, not bad for a young woman whose roots were
in India, that too from a place as oblivious to Philosophy as Mettiguda.
Actually, even if She were a resident of Mettiguda, She wasn’t really a
complete part of the locality’s backwardness, She came from a pretty well to do
family – at least by Indian standards – her father, Hon. Dr. Abraham Ezekiel was
an authority on Comparitive Indian and Colonial Literature, who taught and
carried out Research at the Osmania University, who later took over the prestigious
position as Dean and Head of the elite American Studies Research Centre, ASRC,
located inside the same campus. Dr. Ezekiel was also a well known film
historian with an almost encyclopaedic knowledge of World Cinema and an
endearing authority on Film Aesthetics and the art of Cinematography, whose lectures - on any subject - that he took
were sought after by many of the young, knowledge hungry students at the
University.
Dr. Ezekiel’s was sought after even at the Central
Institute of English and Foreign Languages, CIEFL, a University neighbouring
Osmania University as well as the Hyderabad Central University, where he was often
invited to assist students pursuing Journalism and Mass Communications on the
nuances of various new broadcasting technology mediums. Needless to say Dr. Ezekiel was a well traveled man.
Annie’s mother was also a well read and
academically well qualified woman, Yamini Ezekiel, She was hindu, who had no
qualms in taking on a Christian name when she got married to Abraham, both were
alumnis of the century old Osmania University and both shared their love of
Cinema, Literature and surprisingly religion. Yamini, Annie’s mother was
completing her Mphil. on the Literary aspects of the Bible. While also being
employed as the Vice Principal at the local Santiniketan School, where she had
joined more because of her love to educate the not so privileged young minds
who could barely afford the school.
Annie woke up, she had dozed off, the cab had
reached the airport, they quickly completed all formalities, Prof. Carl Bernstein was a
well known traveller, so the authorities at the Airport did some brisk work
when they saw him, as it often happens whenever one meets familiar people at
work, soon they were off , in between the Prof. asked Annie what software
application she had used for the presentation? She said Adobe, Indesign, he
smiled, glad it was not a powerpoint. Which Annie knew he hated.
Annie thought she would be snoring into the ears of
the Prof. once they sat on their plush Business Class seats of the brand new Airbus
complete with leg rest and bed and a welcome drink – Annie, shriveled, her lean
body shook a bit as she rubbed her palms a bit, just to express pleasure and sat down for the
long trans-atlantic journey.
The music playing was Tchaikovsky’s Swan lake.
Strings chasing, fragile flutes through clean, clear strokes, just right
for Annie’s state of mind. She accepted a welcome Martini and simply lost
herself into the music imagining every bit of the musical by Zubin Mehta that
she had seen along with Daniel at the Broadway a few weeks ago.
Suddenly Annie felt She was waltzing on her toes
and the moonlit sky outside was her stage. She was just floating and felt she
was flying higher and higher as she stretched her hands and pirouetted through
a bluish black sky with a thousand strings and a lone flute for company.
Annie felt she was ready for something more from life. Something more than just something.
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