SONGS THAT MELT MY HEART

 

I don’t know if I could ever have qualified to be amongst “Hearts (Made) Of Stone” as the Fontaine Sisters sang in my youthful days. But I know that with age, my heart seems to be transforming into butter with an ever decreasing melting point which reaches its lowest with music and certain songs. The songs don’t need to be sad nor are my tears that of sorrow. It is just that some emotional chord gets touched by some tunes, lyrics and nostalgia.

Lately, the song which has been stirring my emotions is Louis ‘Satchmo’ Armstrong’s “We Have All The Time In The World”. I have always loved that song but its revival with the movie “No Time To Die” has brought it back in my thoughts. It was very touching to learn how its composer John Barry specially sought the ailing Satchmo to record virtually the latter’s last song. Satchmo was not even able to play the trumpet which was typical of most of his songs and the instrument was played by a member of the orchestra. The lyrics of the song are great but it is the trumpet piece ending the song which keeps blowing my mind.

Another John Barry composition that I find extremely touching is “You Only Live Twice”. Its opening bars leading to Nancy Sinatra’s superb vocal rendition make it irresistible. Its intriguing lyrics say, “You only live twice…. one life for yourself and one for your dreams. You drift through the years and life seems tame, till one dream appears and love is its name.” Love may be dangerous but if you think of the danger, the dream will be gone and you will continue to live only one tame life!

Two Christmas songs sung by ‘the old groaner’ Bing Crosby have always overwhelmed me. ‘White Christmas’ is pure nostalgia and ‘Silent Night, Holy Night’ movingly emotional. These songs transport me back to my school days and I can picture old Father Mackessack, my class teacher when I first joined St. Xavier's Jaipur, teaching us these songs.

Another old song that never fails to choke my throat is “If I Loved You” from the musical “Carousel”. Two lovers, Julie and Billy, ponder over what life would be like if they were in love but are hesitant to admit the attraction they feel for each other. “If I loved you, ….Words wouldn’t come in an easy way, round in circles I’d go….Soon you’d leave me, never never to know, how I loved you, if I loved you”.

In early 60s came the movie “Lovers Must Learn” with “Al Di La” hypnotisingly sung by Emilio Pericoli in a restaurant in which Troy Donahue and Susanne Pleshette walk in. I would like to think that it was this song that made them fall in love in real life and get married. I find the song touchingly romantic.

One of my personal favourites is “Feelings” originally sung by the Brazilian singer Morris Albert in 1974 and further popularized by Shirley Bassey and a host of top artistes from Frank Sinatra to Julio Iglesias. Despite its popularity, its lyrics have been criticized by many as insignificant. I, however, find them moving, aided by the way the song is sung. Its theme is the singer’s inability in ‘trying to forget my feelings of love’ followed by ‘feelings like I’ve never lost you, and feelings like I’ve never have you again in my arms’.

Most people are moved by the song “Memory” from the musical “Cats”. The original was by Elaine Paige but a very popular version is by Barbara Streisand. The famous Andrew Lloyd Webber composed the music while its hugely emotional lyrics by Trevor Nunn were based on poems of TS Eliot. I often listen to it driving from Delhi to Jaipur making efforts to keep composed with Akhila watching silently as she is quite used to this by now and has stopped inquiring if something is wrong! Let me recap a few lines:

“Memory, All alone in the moonlight,

I can smile at the old days, I was beautiful then,

I remember the time I knew what happiness was,

Let the memory, live again.

Daylight, I must wait for the sunrise

I must think of a new life....

When the dawn comes, tonight will be a memory too

And a new day will begin....

If you touch me, you'll understand what happiness is,

Look, a new day has begun."

Like I said in an earlier post, most songs by ABBA tug at the heartstrings because of their emotional lyrics. Here, I will confine myself to two which are touching for the resolve, hope and urge to look at the brighter side of life. The first one is “Chiquitita” which is about supporting a friend and exhorting her to get over her heartache. The lyrics would melt the hardest of hearts-

‘Chiquitita…. You’re enchained by your own sorrow’

In your eyes there is no hope for tomorrow….

I’m a shoulder to cry on, your best friend , I’m the one you must rely on….

Heartaches come and they go and the scars they are leaving….

But the sun is still in the sky and shining above you,

Try once more like you did before, sing a new song, Chiquitita.’ 

In the second song, “I Have A Dream”, the singer is determined to getting over life’s difficulties and reach the desired destination at the right time:

‘I have a dream, a fantasy,

To help me through reality,

And my destination, makes it worth the while,

Pushing through the darkness, yet another mile,

I believe in angels, something good in every thing I see….

I believe in angels, when I know the time is right for me,

I’ll cross the stream, I have a dream.’

In addition to the vocals, what stimulates the tear ducts is the brilliant instrumentation at the beginning of “I Have A Dream” and towards the end of both songs.

We were in Singapore when the movie “Top Gun” was released in 1986. Its theme song was “Take My Breath Away”. The sweet melody is particularly touching when the characters superbly played by Tom Cruise and Kelly McGillis have a misunderstanding and make up soon after. Whenever I hear the song, it takes me back to the wonderful years we spent in Singapore watching Ruchir and Shumita grow up from kids to their teens.

Then there is the Demis Roussos classic “Goodbye My Love Goodbye”. Beautifully sung in his romantic, sentimental style, its lyrics are hugely emotional:

“Goodbye my love goodbye, Goodbye and au revoir,

As long as you remember me I’ll never be too far.

Goodbye my love goodbye, I always will be true,

So hold me in your dreams ‘til I come back to you.”

There are more such songs but for now, my hanky is wet- I’ll go get a towel!

 

P.S. Surfing through YouTube on the TV, I chanced upon Dana Winner- ‘One Moment In Time’ performed live. The audience consisted of very young people and everyone was in tears entranced by the song. I found it reassuring- it is not only old geezers like me but the youth too who get emotionally affected by songs!

COLOUR BLIND PASSES COLOUR VISION TEST WITH FLYING COLOURS

 

Talk about a sailor less qualified, here is an amazing true story.

I was undergoing my Sub Lt’s courses in Cochin in 1960 and was on duty one evening under the Officer of the Day (OOD), Lt BR Bakshi. The duty room was facing the Ernakulam Channel and I noticed a vessel displaying some coloured lights passing by. I pointed this out to Lt Bakshi and asked him if he knew whether the lights signified anything or were just for decoration. His reply, “I can only see white!”

I was a bit flabbergasted and asked him if he could not see the colours and he replied “No, I can’t.” I then asked him how he managed to be in the Navy and that too in the Executive Branch where colour vision is of the utmost importance for night watches at sea where the entire Rules of the Road (Sea traffic rules) are based on distinguishing between colours particularly red and green. Here is Lt Bakshi’s story.

Bakshi joined the Navy as a non-commissioned sailor. He was very intelligent and his talents were recognized early by his seniors. He was made a CW (Commission Worthy) candidate and he passed all tests required to qualify to become an officer of the Executive branch. Finally, there was the medical examination which included a colour vision test.

To recap how a colour vision test is conducted, the doctor has a book of about 50-60 pages. On each page which are as usual numbered in black and white, there is a diagram of multi-coloured dots enclosing a random number in one particular colour which the candidate has to read out.  If the reader is colour blind, he would not be able to discern the number.

Bakshi knew he was colour blind. So he got hold of the book that was going to be used for his test and got someone to write the coloured number and memorized it corresponding to the page number. For example, he committed to memory that on page 15, the coloured number was, say, 23. During the test, he read the page number and rattled off the memorized coloured number! As you would appreciate, an excellent memory was required to perform this task which Bakshi obviously possessed and he passed the test with ease.

The cat was out of the bag when Bakshi was posted on a ship for his watchkeeping ticket. He had then to confess that he could not see colours. I guess the Navy could have dismissed him but recognizing his other good qualities and taking a benevolent view, the authorities decided to use his talents elsewhere. So Bakshi was not sent to sea and branched off to become a Physical Training Instructor ashore.

WE HAVE ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD-NO TIME TO DIE

In February 2020, Akhila and I saw "Little Women" in Jaipur. Then the pandemic struck, cinema halls were forced to close down and an about-to-be released "No Time To Die", the latest James Bond movie, had to wait as, quite rightly, such a movie had to be seen in a theatre and not on the telly screen. After 18 months, picture halls have opened up again and James Bond is back. So we plucked up courage and went to see it back in Jaipur as that is where we are now. In a hall of 400 capacity, I counted 14 viewers including us. That would meet the approval of Mr. Modi as far as sosal distancing or 'do gaj ki doori' is concerned.

In an extraordinary coincidence as the movie well-preceded the outbreak of Covid, the story revolves around the theft of an engineered DNA through which the villain wants to develop a weapon of mass destruction. Talk of the theory propounded by many that Covid broke out of a Chinese lab!

The movie is typical modern James Bond stuff: technical brilliance, exquisite cinematography with a lot of scenic Italy and icescape, breathtaking car sequences, innovative gadgets developed by Q and almost non-stop action portraying the apparent invincibility of Bond though with a little more than usual emotional scenes of love, trust and family on the part of the normally stoic 007. Lasting over two and three quarter hours, it sets a record for being the longest Bond movie. Largely, critics have praised it as a fitting finale to Daniel Craig as he has declared that this is the last Bond movie he is doing. Remains to be seen if like Sean Connery he may be reminded in future "Never Say Never Again"!

Frankly, we did not think that highly of the movie. Maybe we are a bit old for this kind of stuff and prefer something simple and romantic like "The Last Letter From Your Lover", for me the best movie I have seen in recent times. But I did love Bond movies of old made even more enjoyable with the music of my top favourite movie music composer, John Barry. Again, I guess age comes into play for I know that my daughter and grandchildren love Billie Eilish's rendition of the theme song "No Time To Die". But for the life of me, I cannot imagine it merits comparison with Shirley Bassey's "Goldfinger" and "Diamonds Are Forever", Tom Jones' "Thunderball", Nancy Sinatra's "You Only Live Twice" or "Louis 'Satchmo' Armstrong's "We Have All The Time In The World".

Even the makers of the latest movie have harked back to the past by reviving the last named song. Not only is the song played in full during the final credits but is referred to a number of times in the dialogues. For instance, Bond's love interest Madeleine asks him in a car drive to go faster eliciting his reply, "We have all the time in the world". In another scene, Madeleine says, "We need more time" only to be told by James, "You have all the time in the world".

That is the big irony of it: in the end, neither James Bond nor Daniel Craig playing his last Bond film has time on his side! This irony has its origin in the movie "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" in 1969 with Louis Armstrong singing the song while a tearful Bond cradles his dying young wife in his arms. "We have all the time in the world" are also Bond's final words both in the book and the movie.

But the biggest irony was in real life. John Barry homed in on Louis Armstrong because he felt that only the latter could deliver the lines with the required irony. By that time, Satchmo was very ill and the song had to be recorded in a single session. Satchmo was too weak to pick up his trumpet which was then played by a substitute in an enchanting refrain. Satchmo was running out of time and this was his last recording session as he died shortly after. John Barry fondly recalled the pleasure of working with Satchmo and himself considered it the finest piece of music he wrote for a Bond movie.  

So tell me, do we really have all the time in the world or is it just a self-delusion?

P.S. A dear friend told me after one of my blogs, "Ravi, I now know what you are; you are a romantic." Careful not to hurt my feelings, a qualifying adjective like 'pseudo' was conveniently omitted!

ABBA- BITTERSWEET LYRICS THAT TUG AT THE HEARTSTRINGS

 

An announcement made the other day has thrilled music lovers – a new album of ABBA, ‘Voyage’, will be released on 5 November. To our delight, two songs from the album have been pre-released and have hit the music world by a storm. The songs are ‘I Still Have Faith In You’ and ‘Don’t Shut Me Down’, classic ABBA titles indicative of their emotional appeal. Soon after the announcement, on just one music channel, YouTube, the former song had over 12 million views. And immediately on joining Tik-Tok last week, they had 5 million followers. Shows the cross-generational appeal of ABBA even after 40 years of their break-up in 1982.

What is so fascinating about ABBA’s music? I recall this question was asked of an old man in the 1977 film, ‘ABBA The Movie’ and his reply was something like this, “Well, they are different, fresh, clean”. That is the summary of a number of factors including the enchanting singing of the beautiful singers Agnetha Faltskog and Anni-Frid ‘Frida’ Lyngstad (A..A), the lush orchestration led by Benny Andersson on the keyboard and Bjorn Ulvaeus (ABBA) on the guitar, and the songwriting of Benny and Bjorn with lyrics simple and easy to sing along, sad yet spurring hope and happiness with feelgood vibes and a feeling of falling in love. 

For me, the magic of ABBA is really in their highly emotional lyrics that tug incessantly at the heartstrings. The lyrics are true to life as a result of their own life experiences of breakups and separations and also, some turbulence in childhood, which gives a depth to the songs hinting at deep sadness.

Let’s look at the lyrics and start with what is one of the greatest break-up songs ever, ‘One Of Us’, appropriately written when both the couples had separated:

‘One of us is crying, one of us is lying in a lonely bed…

One of us is lonely, one of us is only waiting for a call,

Wishing she had never left at all’.

Another breakup song is ‘Knowing Me Knowing You’:

‘Memories, good days, bad days, they’ll be with me always,

Knowing me knowing you, there’s nothing we can do’.

‘The Winner Takes All’ is a sad song reeking of fatalism in which the singer has been left for someone else but sadly has to accept it:

‘Nothing more to say, no more ace to play,

So the winner takes it all, and the loser has to fall’.

But things really come to a head causing the singer to resort to the international distress signal, ‘S.O.S.:

‘Where are those happy days, they seem so hard to find,

I tried to reach for you but you have closed your mind,

The love you gave me, nothing else can save me, S.O.S.,

When you are gone, how can I even try to go on’.

Hoping for the tide to turn on ‘a dark and dreary night’ leads to ‘Ring, Ring, Ring’:

‘Staring at the phone on the wall,

Ring, ring, why don’t you give me a call,

Ring, ring, the happiest sound of them all’.

Maybe a call came to give a chance to plead ‘Lay All Your Love On Me’:

‘I wasn’t jealous before we met,

Now every woman I see is a potential threat, 

Don’t go wasting your emotion,

Lay all your love on me,

Don’t go sharing your devotion.

Lay all your love on me’.

One step further is the invitation to ‘Take A Chance On Me’:

‘If you change your mind, 

I’m the first in line,

Honey I’m still free,

Take a chance on me’.

And so came what many think is the perfect falling in love song, ‘The Name Of The Game’:

‘Your smile and the sound of your voice,

Got a feeling, you gave me no choice, but it means a lot,

What’s the name of the game?

Does it mean anything to you?

But I think I can see in your face that it means a lot’.

Time off from self to offer a shoulder to cry on and someone to rely on to ‘Chiquitita’ which is Spanish for ‘little one’. The latter has suffered heartaches and scars so her spirits are sought to be raised with:

‘ You’ll be dancing once again and the pain will end,

You will have no time for grieving….

Try once more as you did before,

Sing a new song, Chiquitita’.

From heartaches and love to a song full of hope and resolve, ‘I Have A Dream’. Some think the song has a deeper meaning hinting to a life beyond the present one but I am content to think it is all about courage and optimism to overcome strife and tribulations in this very life:

‘I have a dream, a song to sing,

To help me cope, with anything,

If you see the wonder, of a fairy tale,

You can take the future, even if you fail….

I have a dream, a fantasy,

To help me through, reality,

And my destination, makes it worth the while,

Pushin’ through the darkness, still another mile,

I believe in angels, something good in everything I see,

I believe in angels, when I know the time is right for me,

I’ll cross the stream,

I have a dream’.

The lyrics of the two new songs seem intently personal and reflect the desire of the two couples and the group for a reunion and a fresh start. In ‘Don’t Shut Me Down’, the singer pleads to be accepted as she has changed: 

‘And now you see another me, I’ve been reloaded….

I’m like a dream within a dream that’s been decoded….

I’m not the one you knew, I’m now and then combined….

I’m not the same this time around,

I’m fired up, don’t shut me down.’

Having gone through the ups and downs of life and the breakup, the realization of the preciousness of the relationship is the theme of the powerful song ‘I Still Have Faith In You’:

‘I still have faith in you,

It stands above the crazy things we did,

There was a union of heart and mind, 

The likes of which are rare and oh-so hard to find,

It all comes down to love…

We do have it in us, new spirit has arrived,

The joy and the sorrow, we have a story

And it survived.’

Finally, as they themselves often do, I end with ‘Thank You For The Music’:

‘So I say thank you for the music, the songs I’m singing,

Thanks for all the joy they are bringing,

….Thank you for the music, for giving it to me’.

ABBA’s four are in their 70s now. But the heartening fact is they have reunited. One hopes they will continue to stay together and keep tugging at our heartstrings for many more years before they eventually ‘cross the stream’.

A SAILOR LESS QUALIFIED

 

The other day I chanced upon a well-made documentary on the Indian Naval Academy, Ezhimala. It showed in detail the training the naval cadets are imparted and the tests they have to clear before graduating from the Academy. It suddenly dawned on me that if my instructors had insisted on my clearing all those tests, I would never have made a naval officer.

To start with, swimming. I have disclosed in an earlier post that I can’t swim, period! Passing a swimming test was compulsory even in the National Defence Academy, Kharakvasla, where I did my cadet training. To recount briefly, here is what happened. One day while learning to dive, I developed a severe headache. The headache reappeared in all its ferocity the next time I went into the pool. Bravely, I went to the pool again after a few days when the swimming instructor looked at his sheet and informed me that the records showed I had already passed the test. A fast, happy retreat to my cabin never to attempt to swim again! How and when a tick appeared against my name is a mystery that will never be solved.

Fortunately, in my 30 years in the Navy, I never needed to swim. There was one occasion, though, when I fell from a boat into the sea off the Andaman Islands. Providentially, there was another boat secured to our ship right next to where I fell and as soon as I came up for the first time, I saw the boat and climbed into it, safe and sound!

Was I ever scared that I could not swim? No, I had faith in my ships and never ever thought that the ship would sink and I would need to swim to save myself.

Next, sailing. The term here refers to a sailboat with no engine. Sailing is compulsory in the Naval Academy but in our NDA days, it was not so and it was treated more as a hobby. Aware of my inability to swim, I was hesitant to sail as these small boats are notorious for capsizing. Of course, we had to learn the theory of sailing and in that field I was quite proficient as I could tell the difference between a mainsail and a spinnaker. I was au fait with sailing terms too and knew a bit about port and starboard tacks, being ‘in irons’ and running free!

Thirdly, knots. Cadets have to learn to tie a whole lot of knots - reef knot, sheepshank, clove hitch, this hitch, that hitch! My main hitch was that I could not tie a knot; all I could do with a rope in my hands would be to get all knotted up. My knot tying skill is limited to tying an elementary one in my pajamas and shoelaces. If they ever get knotty, I need help! As an important part of our marriage customs, just before the ‘pheras’, a ‘bua’ or a sister ties a thread called ‘kangana’ on the wrists of the bride and the groom. Once the ceremony is complete, the groom is supposed to unknot the bride’s kangana and vice versa. Well, I could not unknot my wife’s and quietly pleaded with her to do it herself. Nobody saw us so the legality of the marriage was never questioned.

Back to our cadet days and, yes, there was a practical test for knots. How did I pass the test? My memory is not very clear on this and I can only guess a few possibilities. Perhaps I was next to an adept knotter who would quickly tie the desired knot on his rope, surreptitiously exchange ropes with me and tie the knot again on the new rope. The examiner either didn’t notice or decided to take a benevolent view and ignore it. Or maybe the theory and practical marks of Seamanship were combined and I obtained pass marks overall.

One other disqualification. Not having a girl in every port.

THE ALLURE OF SPAIN

 

Right from my young days, I was fascinated by two countries, Italy and Spain, and had always desired to visit them. The Navy was kind to find some work for me in Italy which I visited thrice on official work. I had enough time to visit various places in the country so much so that in 2004, I took Akhila on an extensive tour to Italy with no aid from a tour operator or a guide. Spain remained.

Why was Spain so alluring to me? To start with, Spanish beauty. Ravishing Spanish women have been the subject of many songs and operas. Popular songs include the adorable ‘Lady of Spain’ and blue ’Spanish Eyes’. Bizet’s Carmen’ is a well-known opera about a captivating Spanish gypsy girl. Then there is the music of Spain which I find enormously appealing. Tune in to Ravel’s pulsating ‘Bolero’ or Rimsky-Korsakov’s lively ‘Capriccio Espagnol’ based on Spanish folk songs and you would be tempted to see the land to which the music belongs. (Curiously, all the composers of these works are not from Spain; Bizet and Ravel were French and Rimsky-Korsakov, a Russian!) There is also the exciting ‘Corrida’ music which brings the bullring to you. Ernest Hemingway’s books ‘For Whom The Bell Tolls’ and ‘The Sun Also Rises’ with their bullfighting stories had also evoked my interest in that sport supported by the movie ‘Blood And Sand’ with the handsome, swashbuckling Tyrone Power as the matador and the voluptuous and seductive ‘Lady Goddess’ Rita Hayworth as his love interest. Both actors were Americans but they played their Spanish roles to perfection. In fact, Rita Hayworth’s father was originally Spanish hailing from a small town near Seville and Rita’s real name was Margarita Carmen Cansino!

So in 2010, Akhila and I decided to visit Spain on our way back from New York where we had gone to spend the summer with Ruchir. We reckoned that to see the country properly, we should stay in three places. Barcelona was an automatic choice given its connectivity, popularity and modern architecture. As a beach resort, Mallorca was chosen thanks to the song ‘Majorca, Isle of Love’. We decided that the third city had to be one from the south. Two contenders came to mind: Granada backed by Mario Lanza’s song and Seville prompted by Rossini’s ‘Barber of Seville’ and Bizet’s ‘Carmen’ the characters of which are based in Seville. Finally, the two operas beat one song and Seville it was.

Ruchir’s knowledgeable assistant, Paul Weiner, was a great help with his advice on selection of hotels and we landed in Barcelona on 3rd August. Our hotel was overlooking the waterfront with a beautiful view of the coastline, La Costa Brava. We were also within walking distance from Barcelona’s most famous street, Las Ramblas, with its shops, street artists, cafes and the colourful Mercat de la Boqueria, a large public fresh market. Nearby was the Museo Picasso with more than 3000 of the artist’s works.

Barcelona is the home of Catalan architecture and its landmark building is La Sagrada Familia, a church designed by perhaps the most famous architect of Spain, Antoni Gaudi, the greatest exponent of the movement known as Modernisme, a combination of Gothic and Art Nouveau designs. The foundation of La Sagrada was laid in 1882 and Gaudi took over the project in 1883. Though Gaudi died in 1926, the cathedral is a work in progress in accordance with his design and after many delays, the latest being the Covid pandemic, is expected to be fully completed in 2032, a full 150 years in the making! When fully finished, it will have 18 towers more than 100 metres high. We took the elevator to the top of one of the steeples to view the vast expanse of Barcelona, the sea and the surroundings. We had to climb down the narrow 300 steps which was a tough task.

Driving through the city, we saw more of Gaudi’s designs which stand out for their uniqueness.

Another landmark of the city is Camp Nou, home of the famous football club, F.C. Barcelona. The stadium is the largest in Spain and can seat nearly 1 lakh spectators. Football is so revered in Spain that visiting Camp Nou is considered akin to visiting a temple. So that had to be done and we could feel Lionel Messi’s aura around the Stadium!

After 4 days of Barcelona, we flew down to Mallorca. I have already described our activities in the island resort in detail in a preceding post. We had an exquisite hotel set in its own cove to stay in, visited many historic sites and walked through the old town with its quaint shops and cafes. The island is breathtakingly picturesque and a feast for the senses. Inadvertently, we also landed up on a nude beach and embarrassingly hurried away from it! 

We took the flight to Seville, or Sevilla as the Spanish call it, on the 9th where we were booked in a nice hotel near the river, Rio Guadalquivir, guarded by a watchtower at our end of the bridge, Puente de San Telmo. We were also close to the former Jewish quarter called Barrio de Santa Cruz with its maze of narrow streets and cafes. We visited the lavishly decorated Cathedral of Seville and the adjoining tower, La Giralda, of 12th century vintage which was once a minaret of the main mosque of Seville and in its time, the tallest building in the world! It’s a hard climb to the top but once one gets there, the view of the whole of Seville is spectacular.

Other landmarks visited were Alcazar built in the 10th century as a Muslim fortress. It is home to beautiful gardens as is another dedicated garden site, Jardines de Murillo. We loved Plaza de Espana with its fountains among buildings in ceramic tiles set in a semicircular design.

The highlight was a visit to Seville’s famous bullring, Plaza de Toros de la Real Maestranza. There were no bullfights scheduled when we were in Seville, so we were saved from the Hobson’s choice of seeing or not seeing the gory spectacle of the blood sport. A visit to where it all takes place was adequate for our experience. The bullring has a museum displaying an array of splendid costumes of matadors embroidered with gold and silver threads, capes, lances, banderillas, picadillos and swords. There were many paintings including those of Joaquim Costillares, the 18th century matador from Seville, who founded the modern style of bullfighting with cape movements and maneuvres. Just being in the bullring was an experience of a lifetime.

No trip to Spain can be complete without witnessing the Flamenco and we attended an unforgettable performance feasting our eyes and ears on the Spanish guitar, the singing and the dancing with the dancer in her shining white, flowing dress starting with slow movements and accelerating gently till the frenzy of movements, palmas (handclaps) and loud tapping of feet led to the finale.

We frequented many cafes and were delighted that there was a good variety of vegetarian tapas available. We gorged on them frequently and I indulged in an occasional Spanish Omelet. Besides, the coffee was super.

After covering Seville quite extensively, we found we had a day to spare and decided to go to Cordoba, former capital of Islamic Spain and located up river on the banks of the same Rio Guadalquivir. A fast train got us there in half an hour and we headed for the main attraction, La Mezquita, which was built as a mosque in the 8th century. In 1236, its central part was converted into a church and now both the mosque and the church exist under one roof, a remarkable feature perhaps without a parallel. The architecture is exquisite consisting of a number of two-tier arches painted with red and white stripes and resting on columns resembling palm trees.

We also visited a fortress, Alcazar de los Reyes Cristianos, and Juderia, a Jewish quarter similar to but much smaller than the one in Seville, with its own set of narrow lanes many with blind alleys. The lanes were lined with cute houses with pretty and colourful flowers on the patios.

We could do all this by lunch so we decided to go to Madrid which so far had not been on our itinerary. Another fast train and we were there in an hour and 45 minutes. We reckoned that the best way to see Madrid in the time available would be by taking a Ho-Ho (Hop on-Hop off bus) which took us all around Madrid and allowed us to drop off and see what we fancied. So we covered this city of vast plazas and lush green parks and saw Patacio Real, the official residence of the then King Juan Carlos, Catedral de la Almudena built in the 19th century, Monumento a Miguel de Cervantez with a stone statue of the famous author and bronze statues of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, and the busy Plaza Mayor with a statue of Felipe III on horseback and cafes all-round. We also found time to visit Museo Nacional del Prado to view paintings of Goya and Velazquez.

A two and a half hour late evening fast train ride brought us back to Seville. The next day we bade adios to Spain flying back to Delhi with a day’s break in London where we visited Greenwich and stood astride the 0* Meridian with one foot in the East and one in the West!

Only regret, we missed ‘Lisbon Antigua’ perhaps because it was not ‘April in Portugal’!

Looking back, my defining moment in Spain was standing in the bullring in Seville, closing my eyes, imagining the bugles announcing the beginning of a bullfight, trumpets blaring, drums beating, castanets clicking, the band striking the fiery ‘Espana Cani’, the matador in his splendid costume waiting in the centre of the ring, the bull entering and charging for the matador who waves the blood red cape and deftly sidesteps and pirouettes so that the bull passes harmlessly by and the crowd led by the matador’s senorita roars a huge ‘Ole’.

FADING MEMORIES OF AUGUST 1947

 

I was all of 8 years in Bharatpur when August 1947 arrived. The atmosphere was one of excitement and joy as 15 August approached. There was also an air of uncertainty and anxiety at home- Pitaji and Mataji were wondering what the future held for them? What would happen to Pitaji’s job as a Judge in Bharatpur High Court? What would happen to the state of Bharatpur and its Maharaja?

There was tension too because of the communal riots. Although we were far from the border, there was some violence in Bharatpur which had a sizeable population of a Muslim sect known as Meo (Mev). I remember that on one afternoon when I was walking back alone from School, I saw a group of men with spears coming in my direction. I had heard that Hindus identified people by the ‘chutiya’ (pigtail) and I didn’t have one. So I quickly hid behind some bushes while they passed by. After they disappeared, I wondered whether that was the correct thing to do- if they had discovered me, would they have taken this as a sign of guilt? I had no proof of my identity!

One day, a few Army tanks passed by our house. That was the first time I saw a tank and the track marks were visible on the road for a long time to come. The tanks probably had a dual role; firstly to quell the riots and secondly, to warn the Maharaja of any wild thought he might have indulged of his own independence!

A few friends of mine from Punjab have recounted their ghastly experiences of witnessing the killing of their close relatives and details of their bold and dangerous escapes from what became Pakistan. Those accounts are chilling and make one’s hairs stand even now.

15 August came and we lost ourselves in celebrations. Pandit Nehru’s famous ‘Tryst With Destiny’ was played on the radio again and again and was splashed on all newspapers. It was truly an emotional and inspired speech.

Happy Independence Day!