The Tete a Tete

Triingggg...Tringggggg

"who is it??" I said in a small voice. Silence..."who is it?" This time I detect a note of trepidation in my tone and as I tiptoe downstairs and peep into the eye hole, I see a blur of colors, but not the face." Who is it? what do you want?". "Cant you recognize me? how can you forget that today we were supposed to meet? you were the one who invited me over, don't you remember?" Somehow the voice sounds familiar and then it hits me. "Ahhh its you Bambi!! please come in come in".. I eagerly unlock the door and the swirl of colors rush past me and takes a seat at my favorite seat by the window. "Whew it was a tough journey, and made even tougher by you not letting me in. But you know me, I am a tough nut. I dont give up easily". Bambi smiled, but I was not paying attention to whatever was being said. I was too mesmerized seeing the details of the brilliant hues that Bambi was wearing, the brightness of the face made all the more brilliant by the sun rays coming in from the window. In the midst of my trancelike state Bambi interrupted me gently. "When's princess Fui coming??".."is she coming at all?". I detect a peculiar tone in Bambi's voice..something akin to derision mixed with sympathy. To confirm my thoughts, Bambi continued. "You know I can never understand what that Fui is up to at times. Sometimes she is happy as a bee sometimes she is glum, sometimes she is lost. What is wrong with her?". I nod my head indicating that I too am as lost as Bambi regaridng this matter. "Well, all said and done I have been looking forward to this tete a tete for quite sometime. You know we have lost touch with each other and its always good to reconnect. And all because of you". Bambi smiled. I blushed. I have never thought that praise could sound so sweet and genuine, and looking at those sparkling eyes, it was hard to believe that Bambi was feigning. Just then we heard a knock on the door. "O why cant Fui use the doorbell, its louder and clearer!! really that one needs a good shaking", Bambi commented in an exasperated voice and before I could move my feet, bounded across the living room and opened the front door. "There you are!! but Oh dear what a mess!!" I heard Bambi's shocked exclamation and hurried to join her. There stood Fui with her hair all unswept and she looking weatherbeaten. From the looks of her swollen red eyes, there was no imagining that she had been crying for quite some time and the way she clutched her bag and held on to the door was enough indication that she had gone through a terrible ordeal. "Whats teh matter princess? what happened?" I tried to sound sympathetic, but to my own ears my words sounded hollow and lacking in genuinity. "I..I....I...ddoooon't knnooww whhaatt happpened..i-i-i-mm sso....hic...connfuuu-hic...sed". With great difficulty thus spoke Fui. Bambi and I exchanged looks, mine worried and troubled, bambi's- exasperated and amused. "Well well, dont start crying standing in the front door. At least come in and sit down". Before I could say anything Bambi had taken charge. she took Fui's expensive bag from her hand and led her to the living room. Fui sat down on the black leather sofa and looked glum and Bambi sit down in her previous seat. I sat between them, thinking whether it was a good idea to call all of them for this gathering...was I better off having lost touch with them? I looked at the two of them hoping to gain some solace, but saw all of them lost in thought. To end the UNCOMFORTABLE silence I cleared my throat and began.....


To be continued...........

The Archetypes and the Divas

Over the past several months I have been musing over whether to write this blog or not, since the contents of this blog have particularly made me thoughtful for quite sometime. The concept of archetypes has always been a great fascination for me since the time I read Jung. An archetype is a model of a person, personality, or behavior. Archetype refers to a generic version of a personality. In this sense "mother figure" may be considered an archetype and may be identified in various characters with otherwise distinct (non-generic) personalities. The various archetypes such as the self, the shadow (the opposite of what our ego tries to present, which we normally try to suppress, but nevertheless posess), the anima (the feminine image in a man’s psyche) or the Animus (the masculine image in a female’s psyche) are certain things which will not fail to surprise man, and through and through makes me marvel how complex human nature is. At the cost of sounding like a true feminist, I could not help but reflect that in literature so many authors of different genres, eras and languages have modelled their leading ladies on different types of archetypes, so much so that they have become timeless legends by themselves and have, through the course of their writing, assumed such complexity of character, which defied all social norms, and which tarnished the concept of a “lady”. The three characters that immediately come to my mind are Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth (Macbeth), Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina (Anna Karenina) and Tagore’s Binodini (Chokher Bali). Note that these characters have displayed so many layers of emotion, passion, anger, guilt, rage, defiance, dignity, that they have become boundless, timeless and fathomless not only for the readers but for the authors too. Tagore had always regretted the ending of Chokher Bali and why not?? There are many commonly known archetypal images that we have such as the Child, the Hero, the Great Mother, etc, but where would one place these legendary characters? What kind of image do they fit in?? They had passion, they had poise, and they were intelligent bordering on cunningness, yet a certain inner conflict, turmoil as a result of the oppressive society. They were bold and they were loving. Whenever someone talks about archetypes and literature, the first name that comes to mind is Hamlet, the quintessential example of a person suffering from inner self conflict and who epitomizes the initiation archetype of separation, transformation and return. But somehow I feel that more than Hamlet, it is lady Macbeth who is more interesting in terms of characterization. Perhaps it is a result of the status of women in the Elizabethan period that prompted Shakespeare to show the immense bout of guilt that she suffered after choosing her passion over duty. Perhaps it was again the status of women and the sociopolitical issues affecting Russia at the latter half of the 19th century that prompted Tolstoy to make Anna commit suicide so brutally. And again perhaps it was the uprising of the Indians against the British and the still ongoing strict laws of widowhood that prompted Tagore to feel dissatisfied with the ending of his Chokher Bali. So what does it tell us? How do these women reflect society through the ages? Each of these women stepped out from the suffocating laws of society to follow their love, to pursue their desire, their unfulfilled lust and need and craving. They defied duty to become slaves to their passion, to think about themselves and not the world to which they belong. And everytime they did, they met with a sad end….it makes me sad but it makes me respect these characters more, so much so that I want to read them again and again, to make them come to life in my mind with my own ending to each of their passionate tale…they are the ultimate DIVAs.