Annie sometimes felt She was a bit overbearing on Daniel,
But, Dan, he didn't seem to mind at all. Fate and Destiny managed to keep them
always close by right from early childhood, and it was sheer coincidence that
they were neighbours in Mettuguda and then when she shifted to Ooty ,Daniel too
was briefly stationed at his old ancestral native town of Palakkad, a town just a
100 odd kilometers from Ooty, and this went on, even when Annie shifted to UK
to study at the Cambridge University, Daniel was by then already a globe
trotting vagabond, a journalistic nomad, so they would meet almost every odd
month, anywhere from Paris to Copenhagen to Beirut or Istanbul or Jerusalem and
then She shifted to Boston, Harvard, Daniel shifted to New York.
And so it went on. They would meet and Daniel would take
Annie around places, share knowledge and help her let her hair down and simply
walk around the stonehenges of past and present.
Annie enjoyed his company more than anything else.
This made Annie’s connect with Daniel so deep , so natural
it was difficult to even imagine a time without him somewhere around. It just
had to be that he would be able to reach her whenever she wanted.
No matter what.
And he would, without even a word of protest or hesitation.
Yet, they were never like they were in love or they were in
some kind of a relationship or some thing, neither tried ever exchanging any
romantic letters or had moments when they felt like holding each other in
privacy – it did not happen, somehow.
When they travelled they would sleep in the same bed, eat,
drink, fight. But somehow it just didn’t add up to love or sex.
Both were happy to be independent, secure and free. And they
fiercely held onto those things.
Their Montevideo rendezvous was one such, for Annie it was a
break from the Richard episode for Daniel it was a simple pleasure to be able
to spend time with Annie.
Not that there weren’t moments when they got carried away by
each others closeness and tried out some rash stunts when they were young –
like the time they tried to elope once again when they were both entering
college. But soon realised that they were not just the marrying and
settling down types – they were so fiercely independent, that very soon they reconciled
to just being friends.
Thinking that as the best option for their relationship. And
the good thing about the whole relationship was not many knew or could gauge
the degree to which these two were close, it was never overbearing or was never
omnipresent , so people around them hardly saw them together all so often.
They were often seen as two people who knew each other, who
were friends but living far, far away from each other. And nothing beyond that.
Both Annie and Dan took extra care to retain that kind of a
privacy.
Often they just had to meet, once in maybe a few months or
years , go on a drive and share some together time and then viola they felt
they had relived a millennium. Yes, that was there. But yet they were not in
love ! But then it could also be viewed this way – what if the two were living
in denial ? is it possible to think that somewhere down the line they would try
and make out a relationship between them ?
maybe that was possible. But, then will the relationship sustain a
similar energy and freshness? Once it goes for a more intensive and acute
relationship ?
What will change ? Will something change ? Is marriage
between two people who know each other as well as Annie and Daniel desirable ? or
did it have the potential to completely upset an otherwise beautiful
relationship ?
Marriage is a strange animal. It could be pretty testing to
the very best of minds.
And here we are surely talking about two minds that are the
very best of the best – at least in terms of their emotional tendencies and
intellect.
They had now reached one of Montevideo’s famous Cinema theatre
called the Casablanca – it was showing a Gabriela Garcia Marquez adaptation,
Love in the Time of Cholera – Annie realised that the movie was directed by
Mike Newell , an Englishman and a Cambridge Alumni, both Dan and Annie would
have preferred a more native Director.
But then the subject and the novel was
close to both, so they just jumped in.
They were disappointed to see that the movie was in English
and Newell and his Screenplay partner Sir. Ronald Harwood, suffered from huge
Hollywood imagery and completely messed up Marquez great sense of Magical realism
and Marquez sense of the ground earth. Both Englishman simply thought that the
movie would blossom through sheer cosmetic embellishments and elaborate scene
settings – resulting in complete disaster.
The only saving grace was the Brazilians, especially Antonio
Pinto and his music – both Daniel and Annie enjoyed his contribution immensely,
so much that Daniel thought Antonio would probably be the right choice for his
own proposed musical.
They stepped out of the theatre. It was just nearing
midnight.
Right time for some South American clubbing.
Annie and Dan headed straight to Bar Fun FUn .
And were pleasantly surprised to find a local cover band
ready to play live.
Soon they were high on Uvita, Bar Fun Fun’s own secret brew.
A sweetened wine whose composition was more fiercely protected than Coca Cola.
And the club DJ played Shakira’s La Despedida from the film
Love in the Time of Cholera.
Dan and Annie were set.
To party out.
They were set to Tango.
Again.
And somehow, this time they felt a little vulnerable.
The potential was getting a bit complicated.
As in an Ibsen opera.
But that was just German. This was South America.
Man and Woman , Adam and Eve were born here.
Somewhere in the amazon.
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