thesocratespot: LXI Their world

thesocratespot: LXI Their world: How much the world has changed . Maybe it could be safe premise to say that over 3 quarters of the nearly 6 billion people who popul...

LXI Their world

How much the world has changed .

Maybe it could be safe premise to say that over 3 quarters of the nearly 6 billion people who populate the planet are living a lie. Living on a make believe ecology, that floats on a wafer thin coating of a soap bubble.

But they don’t know they are. 

Annie and Dan had returned to New York. While Annie promptly dived headlong into her Harvard assignments. Dan, remained a bit lost, something inside had started giving him a feeling of restlessness, inadequacy and a general sense of feeling listless. He called up his boss, Hoffman, and requested a few days off which was promptly granted without much fuss.

Daniel was once visited by Brian, they sat down over a drink and virtually ended up drinking right until dawn. Dan took his guitar, they both sang a few songs, Dan also played on his Piano, Brian gave company with vocals and drums ( which was always made available every time Dan had a jam session at home) . Later when Brian left early in the morning , he left feeling a bit concerned about Daniel’s current state of mind. But, he was not sure what was nagging Dan, he , Dan, wasn’t the type to get unnecessarily hung up on anything, but yet Brian felt that something was missing in Daniel’s current state of mind, he was all quiet and remote and listless, kind of lost.

Brian stepped out of Daniel’s Ocean Promenade apartment, did not bother to take his car, instead decided to walk with his compact Canon EOS 5D MKII , into the New York dawn, he lit a weed that he had saved for the occasion, and walked stopping, clicking – the city’s silence seemed creepy, but then he couldn’t resist the urge the catch the sky, opening up – like early warrior horses, silently emerging from an unknown direction, suddenly revealing their shape from a horizon that, just a few minutes back, was caught in complete darkness, the horses and their determined horsemen were galloping, with a single minded focus, in a hurry to reach battle ground, that was still some distance away, and as they galloped they were throwing out thick clouds of dust in magenta, pink, grey and black.     

Brian was clicking away, with his weed hanging out loose from his lips, he knew he was high on both alcohol and weed, and that it wasn’t safe walking around New York in that state of mind, but this one of those moodsets, when he felt like taking the risk, fortunately he hardly saw any cops around, instead he could see a few men and women, equally drunk, walk slow with a swagger and a giggle, snuggling close, he even saw some early bird joggers, cyclists and simple bench sitters besides hermaphrodite whores, looking tired and yet braving it, emerging from darkness, flashing a smile at every passerby and then frowning when they were ignored and went back into the darkness, and then again emerging the moment they saw a headlamp approaching or when they heard footsteps approaching, it was like some kind of an automated ramp walk, some kind of a programmed stage play, that went on and on, for hours, no end.

Brian was amazed at their patience and perseverance, eventually they did succeed, a big car with a few young men, laughing and drunk, gave them a ‘come on’ and then they all drove on happily ever after.     

He managed to click them too – with them in all their fairy queen glory. So did he manage to catch some of the young and old New Yorkers who strayed into his camera’s vision.

Brian was lost in his coverage of the New York dawn. He was probably at least more than a few miles away from Dan’s apartment, and then he realised he had left behind his mobile phone at Daniel’s place and so immediately looked for a taxi  and soon found one.

Brian, stepped out of the elevator, the apartment corridor was quite, he walked towards Dan’s apartment and was surprised to find the door ajar, open for all, the lights were all on, still, Dan’s head lying on the Piano keys, he was sleeping, sitting on his Piano stool – drunk and smoked out.

Completely lost to the entire world.

The New York sun was emerging, Brian caught its brilliant reflection on the ocean, and started searching for his mobile, until he found it next to the drum assembly.

He thought of waking up Dan. But then later decided against it. And then walked out again.

Without bothering to close Dan’s apartment door. He just sauntered to the elevator and then was gone.

Danny stirred a bit and the Piano keys tinkled and then howled as he shifted his position.

The sound did not even remotely register on Dan’s consciousness.

He continued sleeping on the piano.

The instrument groaned once a while.

Again the feeling of the strange and the remote and disconnected returned, pervasive in its omnipotence.

Here they were, a group of young, adults – who were not your run of the mill, young adults. They were all well educated, extremely talented, employed in enviable professions, earning well, having a life with an all found menu – but yet here they were living in an island all their own, almost always indulging in alcohol, drugs, dope and ending up lonely. Here they were, struggling, without love, without faith without knowing why they went about doing what they were doing – they just went about doing it.

It was as if they were they just bound to do those things. Like Jesus was bound to be God’s child. The generation of the Dan's, the Annie's & the Brian's – they were all a generation from a strange poppy land.

They were intelligent, creative, talented . Could survive doing several different things at the same time. They travelled the world, visiting places that many could only aspire to travel - yet they were lost. 

They worked hard, and were recognised as the best available talent in their field, they excelled yet at the end of it all – they had to find refuge , by drowning themselves in a sea of alcohol and dope.

But, New York was so large – it was like Mars.

The city seemed like it had two moons and still it had no major tidal waves to worry about.

New York.

Daniel rolled again, this time shifting his weight like he was moving a boulder – the Piano howled.

But Daniel had no knowledge of the sound. He continued sleeping with his head rested on the Piano. 

His flat remained wide open from the entrance through to the ocean.

The dazzling New York Sun was soon consumed by a dragon like dark mass of nimbus clouds, throwing thick sheen's of shimering bright molten silver on the edges completely darkening a good part of the sky.

New York. had no time to even notice such celestial non sense.       

It just tumbled on. Like an eternally spinning laundromat. 

Dirty linen, washed and clean. 

thesocratespot: LX - A Step into the underworld 1

thesocratespot: LX - A Step into the underworld 1: When Daniel woke up, he found he too was sleeping on a comfortable hospital bed, he was inside what looked like a private chamber, tha...

LX - A Step into the underworld 1

When Daniel woke up, he found he too was sleeping on a comfortable hospital bed, he was inside what looked like a private chamber, that could accommodate more than just one patient, but he found he was the only one but his eyes scanned the room he found that he had company, in the same room, there was this large ceiling to floor curtain, polythene, bluish green, and on the other side he could see the silhouette of another body lying facing the other side, Daniel could hardly remember anything beyond the time he had passed out, the music from the night club was still pounding inside his head, all he knew was he had checked Annie into a hospital, he was not even not even sure if this was the same or if it was some other place.

Just then two nurses entered, one elderly and jovial and the other young, petite and pretty serious – both initially were bound towards the other body but then when they found him awake they changed direction and moved straight towards his bed – the elderly one was the first to speak, She said –

Hello ? Dhanielle? In a heavy Spanish accent, pronouncing his name after reading it out from his treatment chart lying next to his bed.

Daniel managed a smile and was surprised he was feeling good despite a mild feeling of heaviness.

The younger nurse quickly checked his drips, adjusted the flow made sure she avoided eye contact. Daniel wanted to ask a lot of questions but he was still drowsy and so decided to keep his mouth rested, but then the elderly sis introduced herself with a smile

“Ursula” .

Daniel acknowledged. A Hi ! The younger simply did not bother. She kept doing some stuff and then quickly moved to the bed on the other side, She had a badge on her chest but Daniel had no energy to look at it, nor did have a chance.

Ursula saw Daniel scanning the other bed, then She said Ms. Ezekiel. Your friend? Pointing her index finger towards the other bed.  

Danny was at first confused when the nurse used Annie’s surname and then grinned and nodded a yes.

Ursula, soon said all fine. No Problimo. “Too much alcoholic”! She said it in English with a face of disgust. And then quickly smiled.  

No problemo, No problem.

After a while Ursula pulled the thick polythene curtain that was in between Daniel and Annie.

By then the younger nurse had left the room. Soon Ursula indicated that She’s gonna step out but then also tried communicating again in English –

Backing with Doctor, soon !

Daniel again grinned and after a while, he fell asleep again.

Annie was still out in her own world. She wasn’t even stirring. She was sleeping nice and sound. And the quiet of the hospital only accentuated her sleep into a zone of her own.

One feels strange sometimes, looking at two urban souls, who were so disconnected from everything, the departure from all things like faith, religion, love or God or even neo-platonism that once ruled the elite of the world – these two represented a generation that was all about ‘them’ , that’s it.

It was just them.

Everything else was an open debate. Open for views, opinions, debates and arguments.

So they were a generation fairly untouched by norms of social governance, they travel, they party, they dance, drink, talk everything from Philosophy, art, music, theatre, literature, politics and economy but yet remain detached and beyond true traditional bonds – the family on both ends is at an arm’s length – they lived, living and completing the cycle of days and nights and days on their own.   

And they did not find it strange. 

Not even when Daniel became an alcoholic, a self styled musical poet, a womanizer, a substance abuser and dilletantic loser who tried possessing Annie in a desperate attempt to hold onto a totem pole and Annie's own struggles to sustain her space and freedom.   

Their youthful, playful physical banter of throwing verbal and physical abuses at each other that once upon a time was used to mock married couples turned a circle and haunted their relationship in real – when they briefly turned their relationship into a living in relationship and then they tried being married.

It was a disaster.

Annie, had to go through a piece of hell. Not that Daniel did not have is share. 

But then neither ever believed hell existed. But in psychological terms, it did. And they were the square creators of it. 

For Daniel, it started when he suddenly found himself disillusioned, lost, depressed and confused.

His dependence on alcohol and dope compounded the whole problem. His esteem kept plunging. 

Reuters became history.

The musical fusion of Shelly and Byron remained one more obsessive indulgence. 

His Guitar and Piano and his plush ocean face apartment in New York all tumbled into a downward spiral and crashed.   

Suicide became an everyday thought.

What kept Daniel alive remained a mystery.

But what kept Annie alive was an even bigger mystery.

               

thesocratespot: LIX Coleridge, Christabel and the spell ( Montevid...

thesocratespot: LIX Coleridge, Christabel and the spell ( Montevid...: The problem with the human mind is that it’s an animal, caged, convented, nunned, inquisitioned,   with its own internal mind, a living ...

LIX Coleridge, Christabel and the spell ( Montevideo contd.)

The problem with the human mind is that it’s an animal, caged, convented, nunned, inquisitioned,   with its own internal mind, a living being, independent of the body. That it lives on. It’s like this beast, that used to live a billion years ago, domesticated.

How domesticated is a quotient, that’s always open for debate.

In fact it, the human mind, could be a combination of several different minds, several different beasts, living on layers upon layers upon layers upon layers of several different minds, blogs, formed during several different time zones, in several different space zones – with unknown triggers.   

So one can say that the potential of a human has no limits – but the fact that it could swing and really, really, swing - way beyond control and in directions not predictable – is a factor that Statistics, Standard Deviation and the very best of forecasting techniques can hardly predict – the fact that it’s beyond the predictable sciences even beyond the science of equity, finance and economics is the saddest part – human mind can create great, wealth, great empires, great innovations and then take a dive into fathoms so deeply irrevocable.

Listen,

There’s nothing called

eternal sunshine.

But there’s always

Something called

Eternal darkness

Moon is but just a mirage.

There’s always,

The eternally

Unknown

The eternally

Unpredictable  

All contained

Well within -

You.

So looking at it from that perspective, the masters of Phenomenology like Husserl or earlier thinkers like Kant seem like the ones who simply managed to build Philosophy’s kindergarten rhymes and the fairy tales meant for budding babies – Snow white and the 7 Dwarfs or Jack and the Bean Stalk or maybe we could even bring in Coleridge and say Christabel –

Beneath the lamp the lady bowed,

And slowly rolled her eyes around;

Then drawing in her breath aloud,

Like one that shuddered, she unbound

The cincture from beneath her breast:

Her silken robe, and inner vest,

Dropt to her feet, and full in view,

Behold! her bosom, and half her side—

A sight to dream of, not to tell!

O shield her! shield sweet Christabel!

Yet Geraldine nor speaks nor stirs;

Ah! what a stricken look was hers!

Deep from within she seems half-way

To lift some weight with sick assay,

And eyes the maid and seeks delay;

Then suddenly as one defied

Collects herself in scorn and pride,

And lay down by the Maiden's side!—

And in her arms the maid she took,

   Ah wel-a-day!

And with low voice and doleful look

   These words did say:

'In the touch of this bosom there worketh a spell,

Which is lord of thy utterance, Christabel!

Even the existentialists for that matter, just left out what was the most challenging part of Philosophy – that area between nature and the human mind that will always remain one step outside even the most powerfully futuristic super computing solution – the fact that we cannot ever stop a tsunami, a Cyclone, a Volcano or a simple flood.

We can predict. We cannot stop.

Or for that matter cannot ever predict the raise and the fall of human intelligence.

It’s a cycle that’s full of unknown triggers that in turn, may have their own triggers.

Unknown to each other.

The triggers themselves are deaf, blind and moving beyond the speed of light and the possibility of they colliding with something totally unknown is - is very real.

And what that collision could result in – is what is the definition of chance.

If at all one has any such definition.           

One can take even the most perfect – human mind - which’s doubtful if it exists - it comes with its own copper winding , its own deep rooted sense of life, its own issues, its own cracks, its own history, its own relations with its own self – through volcanoes, earthquakes, fires - bloody battles and horrors.

It’s never - even before birth – a stable chemical element.

The very fact that a human mind is born with a huge number of elements that’s pre-loaded, pre coded is in itself a problem – ‘coz we, as we, evolve, have been trying to recode, reload.

How much that works. Is nobody’s guess.  

Engineers of Computer software talk about soft code and hard code. But the problem is often times soft codes can corrupt hard codes and at times hard code can spring surprises.    

This is so since the human mind is also a huge suction pump of unknown codes from one’s life  – if you are born with some pre coded stuff like your colour, your height, your face, your shape, even your fucking walk, and voice, your eyes and your hair – are pre coded. And one has no choice. And then comes other issues – like you don’t want to belong to the tribe you were born into, or you want to become a new something.

Something triggers something. And then something emerges. That needs a certain sense of governance , certain discipline, control, direction and most of all culture – but even when a human has perfected the art of managing the beast within – something completely unknown , something from the neumenaic side, as Kant would call it, either shocks you or surprises you or simply catches you completely unprepared.    

A desired result ? good. But what if something else was lurking behind ? something undesirable ? yet unstoppable ?       

 And it may not be just something historical or something to do with chance, fate and destiny that that sperm met that egg and that egg responded and then triggered a life – crazy math.

deep, dark phenomenological ? not really .  

Mind, its exuberance and its decadence, the fact that it’s a hapless slave of time, you are what you feel now, bur what you feel now, could be a result so  many multiple factors, including those that occurred in your life a few hundred years ago, your DNA, esp. the ones that happen exactly when your parental sperms form you as an egg, in an alien womb, about which you’ve your own doubts.

That’s the mystique of Annie’s mind. And, coincidentally it was also the mystique of Danny’s mind.  

They were both tangoing inside the Montevideo night club.

Bar Fun Fun.

And they were experiencing feelings that they had not, before. That they had never.

Call it fear, call it restlessness call it playing safe – they tried a number of unknown, unknown, strangers as partners to dance – they were both quite accomplished with tango –but kept returning into their own arms. Their own space.

The more they came back, the more they wanted to recoil and disappear from each others arms.

And the tension that such an emotion created was clearly not helping things from moving forward. Towards more decisiveness. And the thing was both knew.

Very clearly, what was going on.

So one would come close and then step back, the other would smile at the whole feeling and come closer and then the other would roll away.

Soon, both were looking to get away from each other, they were afraid they would end up doing what they somehow, without saying to each other, always avoided.

Sex.

It was all around.

But neither Annie nor Daniel was ready.

Luckily for them. The DJ announced an hour of dancing with masks. And the masks were being made available at a counter where one could choose at random.

That was when they got lost. The light was dimmed, all human bodies looked like dark animals. No one knew who was who.

Even in such abstractness, the two knew each other’s co-ordinates, like wireless radars, but they chose to get lost.  

                

Into no man’s land.

Annie was on her own, so was Danny.

That’s when Daniel found his mobile ringing, vibrating, he saw the call was from Annie’s mobile when he picked up it was not Annie, it sounded like the night club security wing – they asked him if he knew her, he said yes.

They asked him to come over to a rest room facility on the next floor. Daniel rushed.

Annie, was lying almost naked. She had passed out. Daniel wasn’t sure if she had removed her dress just to let her suffocation out or if she had come to a point were she simply wanted to be naked.

Whatever.

Things did not look good.

And she did not look very likely to come back into consciousness very soon.   

Daniel threw open his Reuters ID. Ordered an ambulance and soon they were rushing Annie through Emergency.

Daniel, himself was hardly conscious.

They had been on alcohol since a few hours now.

The world swirled.

Daniel passed out too.

          

thesocratespot: LVIII La Despedida - It takes two to tango

thesocratespot: LVIII La Despedida - It takes two to tango: Annie sometimes felt She was a bit overbearing on Daniel, But, Dan, he didn't seem to mind at all. Fate and Destiny managed keep the...

LVIII La Despedida - It takes two to tango

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. 

thesocratespot: LVII Montevideo 4.0 Unreal

thesocratespot: LVII Montevideo 4.0 Unreal: Annie spoke about Marquez and Paulo Coelho, Dan spoke about Argentina, and somewhere the conversation of the two went about exploring ea...

LVII Montevideo 4.0 Unreal

Annie spoke about Marquez and Paulo Coelho, Dan spoke about Argentina, and somewhere the conversation of the two went about exploring each other’s knowledge base about various things. Not necessarily South American.    

Marquez lead to Columbia. And the magic of South America. Its people, society, culture.

Argentina lead to Freedom and rights and political science.

And then it was music.

Dan was playing some new jazz rock stuff from his ipod.    

And then they discussed Annie’s experience at Oxford and Cambridge.

Annie gave Dan an outline of all the events, including the crazy one at the Royal Albert Hall.

And then she moved onto Lisbon. There She filtered her stuff to restrict the whole episode as just a result of bad judgement. But Danny knew from Annie’s tone that there was more to it.

But, both accepted each other’s space and left it there.

In between Annie checked on Danny’s progress on his pet musical project –  a fusion adaptation of Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound and Byron’s Don Juan – and then it lead to Milton and Ben Johnson and then Shakespeare.

The discussion went on – from South America to England to Germany and Russia and then France.

All through it was about Literature, Art, Philosophy and poetry.   Somewhere the topic touched Proust.

Marcel Proust.

Daniel was saying “so what about him” ?

Annie replied “nothing, its just that he seems to have triggered an idea of time and space that has been reduced to a mere idea of nostalgia but its just not that’

Daniel queried ‘what do you mean’?

Annie replied

‘ listen Proust’s ‘La Recherche du temps perdu’ is still a completely ill understood part of literary art –

Proust really meant to sustain the word ‘recherche’ as the English ‘research’ and was not really intending to restrict the word or the title to its French limitation – Proust’s work should be seen as a philosophical masterpiece a voluminous attempt to study ‘time and human memory’ and the concept of ‘how time past is a huge controller of time present and time future’ their deep inter connections.

By now the effect of the pot was sinking on both.  

Danny just said

Hmmmm.

Annie paused. As she took a drag.

But she was convinced that ‘Time and Space’ were probably the most opaque side of human life and somehow’ time past had a huge impact on time present.

‘Space now is but an extrapolation of space past’ – that was how it was meant to be.

This time Annie spoke to her own self. Danny was lost staring out into the sea.  

She felt that together ‘time and space’ had a viscious side to them. So that way the entire attempt by Proust was unique, and she wondered if she could ever attempt to solve the mystique.

Talking of Mystique Annie also was intrigued by the concept of Western mysticism. While Annie was quite familiar with the concept of Buddhist or Hindu mysticism – the idea of Christian, especially the South American, mysticism intrigued her.    

She then asked Daniel – Dan you think I can try out being a South American monk ? for a while ?

Dan did not bother to answer.

Annie cried out softly ‘Dan, I’m asking a question’ ?

Dan still did not bother.

Just then Annie’s mobile phone started ringing, Annie checked and found it was Prof. Bernstein.

She answered the call. Exchanged some notes and gave him a heads up on her trip to Montevideo. And then she hung up.

Dan then mentioned about an ongoing Uruguayan Film Festival and then started the car, saying they should try catching up with one film, if possible.

The Chevy sparked itself to a brisk start.

Gandhi looked stale with his ubiquitous smile.  

Nothing seemed real.    

thesocratespot: LVI Montevideo 3.0 - Friends

thesocratespot: LVI Montevideo 3.0 - Friends: When Annie returned from the washroom, which was outside, She found Daniel was at peace, sleeping with half his leg protruding out of th...

LVI Montevideo 3.0 - Friends

When Annie returned from the washroom, which was outside, She found Daniel was at peace, sleeping with half his leg protruding out of the bed and his hands crossed on his chest. 

He slept with a mild snore, Annie kicked Daniel on his leg and called out his name, Dan ! C’mon wake up, its not sleep time yet? - it was around 4 pm in the afternoon - Hey? And She shook him, Dan refused to acknowledge her attempts to wake him up, he mumbled some 'please’ and then turned over to a side facing away from Annie and continued to sleep, Annie wasn’t someone to give up all that easy, she just jumped over Daniel, sat cross legged on his hip and then tried turning him around to face her, all the time talking to him, saying ‘ Dan, C’mon I have so much to talk and I want to go around Montevideo and check out its life, C’mon ! 

Incidentally it was fascinating to hear Annie pronounce the name Montevideo - the first syllable 'Monte' had the 't' sounding almost like both 't & d' put together as 'Mondthe' and the 'Video' part had the 'V' pronounced as a combination of 'b& v' and the last syllable 'Deo' was more like a punjabi 'dev' with a 'yo' added , so it was pronounced Mondte bv devyo - or something close to that - with most secondary syllables pronounced soft and fast. 

Mondthebvdevyo. 

Back on the couch , Annie was still on top of Daniel, She continued her attempt to wake up Dan. 

Dan didn’t seem too inclined , he just turned around and faced away from Annie with his face down. 

Annie tried turning him around and he would go back to the same pose and this went on for a while.

It was strange that these two who knew each other from such long years, never looked at each other with a sense of a Physical attachment, in fact they themselves wondered as to how they ended up coming so very close to making up and then the whole intensity simply dissipated into a session of heavy breathing or simply into a session of looking into each others eyes and then they were back to being just friends – they would have had a thousand such incidents all through their relationship.

But anyone else who would have seen the two would have easily thought that the two were inseparable and that they were as deeply involved emotionally as they were Physically.

Probably more physical than emotional.

Often, they would have seen Annie holding Dan’s arm with a sense of familiarity that comes only with physical proximity between a man and a woman , you know like the sense of touch between two skin types that have known each other nude and naked, that have shared such an intimacy that they have become almost one with each other, you know ? that’s a different kind of touch, its done involuntarily and without even a thought or sense of reservation. One natural action. Annie, would walk beside Dan and then soon hold his hand and both wouldn't have even noticed the action. 

They would simply be laughing and talking and all that.

A bystander would think, wow – a couple their alright.

But the problem is Dan and Annie had never really made up. Sexually. Ever. 

Except for some lame groping time here and there during their really young days, when they had kissed a few times, they never really made up, as in making it up in its true sense. And once they had grown and turned adults, they simply refused the physical aspects, each will have their own partners and each unto themselves.

Until each or either ended up on the other side of a relationship.

Broken. 

Or split. 

Or simply at an end.

But they were somehow always around. Since their Mettiguda days. 

They were separated only when Annie went to Ooty. But they would meet everytime Annie came visiting during the Summer Holidays. 

But then somewhere as they grew into adults and then grew independent they were also quite blaise about each other’s nudity, neither was conscious in front of the other.

Annie could walk stark naked for an entire day with Daniel reading or cooking or some such thing. 

And so would Daniel. Neither would do it just to do it, it would just happen some day when they were together spending a whole day with only each other for company and at either one’s home and it would just happen and none of the two took the event beyond the seriousness that most other younger friends would have, otherwise.    

But the interesting thing was – they were never both nude, together. If one was nude the other was invariably covered, at least at the hip.

Being topless was something absolutely natural for both.

Sometimes Annie liked to virtually cling onto Daniel’s arms , you know literally hang from it almost pulling that side his arm down, like it was some kind of a pole or something, or sometimes whack Daniel with a virtual barrage of whacks-

Whack

Whack

Whack

Whack, whack, whack…

Whatever. They just went about it like no one existed.

Today when they were rolling on the bed, with Annie on top and Daniel refusing to wake up – it was the action of two very familiar souls, but neither looking at the potential of turning the situation into a possible session of sex.

That did not exist between them.

That wasn’t even the least possible action.

But then they were capable of wrestling for at least an hour, calling names, using cuss words, kicking, punching or simply throwing each other with such physical pressure that they even hurt each other sometimes. 

Daniel could even end up with a black eye or Annie would end up with a huge painful bump on her head or even a cut lip or a strained neck – anything was possible when they were on, mocking a fight that would often be very real and then both would end up sore and hurting.

Dan, said, with his eyes closed and face away from Annie -  

“Listen you fucking philosophical bitch allow someone to sleep when they have to, you have had your portion of rest, 1st class travel and all that, I’ve not had such luxury, that fucking ferry I took from BA to Mondthevideo churned my fucking intestines inside out and I’m fucking tired of all the intestinal tangoing around’.

"So please" . Lay off. 

Annie wasn't the least moved by the plea's. 

She said, 

"C’mon you fucking globe trotting war mongering son of a Reuters bitch, you can do better than just come over and sleep on my hostel bed, I have fucking traveled across the Atlantic just to see you, you bastard, so wake up you fucking douche bag”!!

And "whack" she would give him one mock shot on his shoulder. And that could at times hurt. 'Coz it was hit real hard. Sometimes.

Dan would say "listen you Harvard whore, go find somebody else from the streets of Montevideo, they are all there for your taking, spare me’ I’m not getting up. Not for now".

And then it happened. 

Daniel suddenly - without a warning - turned around and then simply picked up the slim frame of Annie and physically  threw her like she was some ball or something’ Annie flew out as light as a crushed paper trash and then crashed landed in a soft mock manner on to the opposite wall marginally missing the table and the reading lamp.

She stayed there for a while, breathing heavy. 

Looking horrified at Daniel and then crawled back and virtually grabbed him by her nails, screaming all the while ‘ how dare you fucking do that’ !! 

By then the shouts and screams between the two had already caught the attention of the other hostelites, many were trying peep from curtain gaps of a window facing the corridor and through the key hole.

Soon someone from the hostel management rang the bell. 

Annie gave one last whack and then got up and opened the door and then without waiting to talk or clarify simply came back and crashed beside Daniel.

Now they were both sprawled side by side on the bed, Danny looked like he had just survived a guerrilla attack, he had small scratches on his face, mild traces of blood too, his long hair looked like it had been through a storm. 

Annie looked fresh, she had tied her hair and she was wearing denim shorts and a cotton Boston Globe T.

Both looked at the crowd that walked in. Both did not attempt to say anything, they simply stared at the people. The people who walked in too did not know what to do, they were confused at the reaction of the two, they were expecting one of them to ask for help or some such thing. When they found no such reaction. They waited for a while, kept looking at the two.

And then simply closed the door and walked out. Shaking heads.

Dan and Annie stayed in the same position for a while until Dan got up and said –

Ok. Let’s go.

 And yanked Annie out of bed.

Soon they both stepped out. Backpack, guitar and all that. Annie had her hand clinging to that of Dan’s as they checked out. The people at the hostel continued to keep a narrow eye on the two.

But Annie and Daniel, did not even notice. They just stepped out. The Montevideo night breeze was cool and pleasant.

It was just about 7 in the evening and no South American city rocked before midnight. 

In fact it had to be a few hours past midnight for Montevideo to really rock. 

The South Americans, esp. those outside Rio or Sao Paulo partied from 1AM to 6 AM and then slept until Lunch and then they worked until they dropped dead. And then they rested for a while before getting ready to party again once it was past midnight.

Welcome to South America. They were so naturally nocturnal. Everyone partied well into dawn. 

Dan scored some pot through some known sources on the way, they bought a local newspaper, hired a car, a Chevy Optra MUV 2011, it was a classic crossover between a hatchback and an SUV , it had large baggage and leg space and an excellent music system, it was one of Chevy’s very special designs for the South Americas.

Once the car was in hand, both headed straight to the Montevideo ocean front. After driving a while they reached a spot they liked, on a road called the Rambla Mahatma Gandhi, a road named after Gandhi, while neither really suffered from any patriotic pangs, they did feel good to know there was one Indian who had such a world wide impact.

The Rambla was clean, spacious and had a long winding ocean front.  

They parked the car facing the ocean, Dan rolled two separate pot smokes and then lit the two himself before handing over one to Annie.

And then they got talking.       

thesocratespot: LV Montevideo 2.0

thesocratespot: LV Montevideo 2.0: Annie, couldn't connect to Daniel, on landing at Montevideo, and she was far too drained to take a ferry on her own and reach Buenos...

LV Montevideo 2.0

Annie, couldn't connect to Daniel, on landing at Montevideo, and she was far too drained to take a ferry on her own and reach Buenos Aires, so She just checked into a $20 youth hostel, and crashed.

Knowing, Daniel will reach her, no matter what. She ensured she put a message of her whereabouts before sleeping. And that was enough for Daniel to reach.

Somewhere in her head she regretted having had sex with Schreidhorn, in Lisbon, the whole thing, her quick and short, 2 nights stand with the German, continued to gnaw her head. But the filament of time, space and jet travel has an ability to make life look sub real, here I’m in Lisbon, there I’m in Montevideo in a few hours and then I’ll be in Buenos Aires in another few and then I’m back in Boston all through I see things, I do things, and soon its flashback world.

Decadent, surreal, past imperfect.

She was glad She grew out of Schreidhorn, pretty quick. Perhaps it was just a way in her mind to get over Richard.

At least it wasn’t as melodramatic.

The Shrek was still asleep, when she had stepped out, of their Lisbon youth hostel room. 

She just left a note and then She was off to the airport and off to Montevideo. 

Shrek had called when She was somewhere above the Atlantic, just after Gibraltar, the call came in carried by the Levante, She had answered the call, exchanged courtesies, lied a bit and promised to try and catch up again and hung up.      

 By the time Annie woke up, She found that Daniel had called several times – on her mobile – in fact his last call was at 7 in the evening, which means She was as good as dead for nearly 8 hours. Annie, was now desperate, She called Daniel, he wouldn’t pick, She then left a message, he did not respond.

Half an hour later, She heard a knock – She was then staring up at the ceiling, counting out the patches on her Montevideo youth hostel ceiling, that just had a bed and nothing else, even the washroom was common, but despite all its limitations it was clean, fresh and had a zeal to it that she liked – She opened the door – And there he stood.

Her Daniel. The Bastard.

She just flew into his arms, as he smiled, holding out some silly flower, just a single branch, that she knew he might have just plucked on his way up to meet her. As she hugged him, She was glad, She had taken the effort, She always felt comfortable, with Daniel around.

He then stepped in and said that the tide wasn’t very friendly at that point of time and so he thought the ferry ride to BA could be choppy and avoidable, so he suggested that they should park themselves for the night in Montevideo and then move to BA or wherever in the morning.

Daniel had already checked out of his hotel at BA.

He was now free to travel.

Free will. Free Direction. Free mind.

Freedom.

Free.

Just free.

He placed his guitar against his backpack. And threw himself on the bed.

Annie, had stepped into the washroom.

Daniel looked at the ceiling and soon was napping.

thesocratespot: LIV - Her favorite bastard

thesocratespot: LIV - Her favorite bastard: Annie reached Montevideo, Uruguay from Lisbon. Her flight had taken her through the feisty easterly winds that blow across the Strai...

LIV - Her favorite bastard

Annie reached Montevideo, Uruguay from Lisbon.

Her flight had taken her through the feisty easterly winds that blow across the Strait of Gibraltar, the Viento de Levante, from the other side of the Atlantic and landed just underneath the North Atlantic, wind sailing in a midsize airship, across the Mediterranean past the entire Atlantic Ocean, all through the flight she just slept, while the weather outside went from fiery wind and storm to rain and thunder, giving the Pilots some pretty good test of their flying skills, the one thing She wasn’t ready when she stepped out of her aircraft is the 9 degree chill, it was about 18 degrees in Lisbon, when she left – the experience in Lisbon had left her lungs with very little air, all she wanted was to close her eyes and inhale, devour in some energy.

With the help of sleep, more sleep and sleep.

The fact that it was a long 19hr flight did help. And the American Airline crew did try their best to underplay and quieten things down to the extent possible despite the usual Spanish penchant for revelry. So it was like a well controlled silent movie trailer under yellow lights , people talking in low tones, some clutter of cutlery here and there, with a low singular Saxophone playing Creedence Clearwater Revival’s classic ‘as long as I can see the light’.

She flew 1^st class.

But despite all her want, for a mind blanked out, Annie’s mind kept throwing up things, visuals, stories, sounds, trailers of conjured up events, in one instance she had this grizzly dog like animal creeping up her legs, softly, trying its best not to wake her up, but she did wake up with a shudder before going back to sleep, then there were scenes of brutal screams and howls, all muffled inside dreams but seeming real even as the jet plane sped past clouds of grey and white.

Even as the Pilot looked at 2 Suns and 2 moons.   

While sleeping Annie went through a mindlife akin to a vague digital remix – a shout fight with Burke - Edmund – and his friends who were outlining some theories on aesthetics, then she had a visit from Nietzsche and Husserl and then Kant came knocking to debate on Free will and the science of time , space and Impressionism. She thought She howled and moaned and screamed and talked and walked and flung a fork in disgust but none really happened.

She just thought, and She knew.

But that’s how thought works. Worked .  

All of it happened while she was high in the sky, about 35,000 feet high.

Now She was back to the ground earth and wanting to reach Buenos Aires asap.

But now that her mind was awake, a new version of a poem of an old poem by Kuvempu - a poet of Indian renaissance from Mysore, India, that She was inspired by during her days in Ooty, when She used to visit Mysore quiet often - kept going back and forth in her mind, this time with her own innovations and intonations.

O Nanna Chetana Agu nee aniketana.

“be Unhoused O My soul,

the infinite is your only goal”.

transcend

transcend

transcend

no boundaries

bind you

look beyond

jump

blind

you’ll stay alive

Walk outside the line

You’ll stay alive

As usual the verse came in stutters and monotones, singular sounds, that had no meter, no rhythm, no symphony but that was how she liked it – simple words dropped out , rhetoric synchrony was all that that mattered -  each word dropped, like pearls and individual stones by children at play.

Annie wasn’t into music as a technician or as an artist.

But , beware , She was a Connoisseur of sorts, alright? may not be in the truest sense, but She could appreciate a complex and subtle ‘Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor’ rendition for its poetic brilliance and sheer magic and skill of the musicians and then walk out and enjoy Tiesta and Depeche Mode past midnight , go into a headbangers ball loosening her hair and all that with a passion and enthusiasm of her youth at 3AM and wind up again with a sobered song of the dawn.

And then walk fresh, straight into a debate session, seminar on Theodore Levitt, at Harvard or Oxford or Cambridge or Berlin or Istanbul, where - invariably - She would have been the lead presenter and then walked out with an encore as if it was like just sipping glass of water.

Performance, art, music, Philosophy, Literature.

Quatum Physics, Economics, Chemistry.

She could just keep jumping different squares.

With aplomb.      

That was Annie.

But you try treating her like she’s an object or just a chilled out young woman, you’ll be in for a shock – She was a thinker - and she considered that part of hers as her core. 

Clear and distinct. 

Thinker, not as some feminist or political science student or some such branch – for her She was a master thinker, with a mastery on several subjects and with authority.

So when Annie spoke Schopenhauer or She met someone who was willing to talk on a topic on Phenomenology or then shift some small digression on Organic Chemistry and then something on some new programming language meant to simplify super computing – She would be in with clear knowledge, or else she would take note and then update herself with a vengeance.

She was loose

She was firm

She was

A mind .

In Lisbon, it started as a wonderful British romance, they were joking, laughing, arguing, debating – Schreidhorn and Annie – Schreidhorn had mastered the art of Charisma and he had the physic, the aesthetic and even the intellect , the knowledge - so much that he could dazzle even Annie.

But by the time they reached Lisbon, Annie found ‘Shrek’ - as he liked to call himself – a highly self centered, forever, non stop, motor mouth – who could talk about ideas upon ideas centered upon a theory that he could singularly transform the world.

Provided the world heard him.

He did seem to have an audience made of his own cronies and friends and a few wide eyed electrified people.

And he was typically a person who could easily talk for 8 hours non stop, in a closed room, all about something to do with himself or some philosophy he loved. Needing nothing, no water, tea, coffee or air.

Disciplined, Sycophants acting as critical debaters was all that was required.

The rest Shrek took care.  

Annie soon found him hollow, power mongering, greedy, political and as a person who spoke beyond the length of his nose but never really meant to ever risk anything beyond even his little paper edge on a metro rail door.     

He was obsessed, about himself, his Charisma and his huge ideas to change the world.

But when it came to the real thing intellectual originality, strength, depth etc.

He could test your levels of being bearable.

Annie and Shrek did manage to see the Tiesta + Depeche Mode concert and then kiss and have sex but by the 4^th Day it was clear, Annie just couldn’t take the trash.

Annie Called Daniel. It was going into several rings and calls and there was no answer .

Until finally Daniel came on line.

It was a spiritual scream.

Where the fuck are you ?

You bastard ?

You there ?