The vintage love

Vintage Love

It is a great pity that in the name of progress many cities have become concrete jungles. Huge trees are being axed mercilessly to accommodate high rise buildings. Intensive deforestation is driving away wild animals deep into the forests or making them endangered species. Take Chennai for example. In my school days, tiny sparrows outnumbered the crows and they always could be seen constantly chattering unlike the crows which cawed only at meal time or to forewarn us about the possible arrival of a guest. If I see a sparrow today, I call my grandchildren to have a look at them. I even remember an old Tamil film song in which the heroine confides in a sparrow of her anguish about her husband who has not returned home. (Chittu kuruvi, chittu kuruvi sedhi teriyuma?) In another movie, the heroine is very suggestive in revealing her thoughts about her lover singing about the sparrows engaged in kissing and making love. (Chittu kuruvi mutham kuduthu sernthida kandene!) Inspired by the love making capabilities of the tiny sparrows, I even remember a famous quack from Palani striking it rich by making an aphrodisiac called ‘Chittu kuruvi lehiyam’!

The threat of extinction of animals like cheetah, Javan rhino, tiger, blue whale and the like does not bother me as much as the depletion in the population of sparrows. You may be wondering about my special liking for the tiny sparrows. I shall, therefore, come to the point straightaway instead of digressing further as is my wont. When I was very young and fit enough to fall in and out of love, sparrows used to be a great inspiration. They were like a free and viable substitute for the love birds. It used to be fun watching them communicating love to each other. While these romantic birds preferred to sit on the branch of a quiet tree for exchanging sweet nothings, the human lovers too had a great preference for trees, not for perching on the tree tops but for running around them. I remember vividly how lovers who never ran around trees but confined themselves to the beach or restaurants were always looked down upon. That was a time when movies of Tarzan who specialized in hopping from tree to tree with his Jane were in great demand.

We always sat spellbound watching bulky heroes and equally bulky heroines running around trees singing some full-throated songs without a trace of strain. When I once asked an experienced friend of mine about how these people could run around trees without panting, he told me that it was the effect of love they felt for each other. He pointed out that it was more effective in keeping people healthy than all the multivitamin tablets! It is a great pity that such familiar scenes of the 1960’s could be seen only in black and white movies or movies in faded ‘geva colour’.

Just as the effect of the changing landscape on love, age also has a pronounced effect on the way love is felt and communicated. In youth, love is more action-packed. In the famous movie, ‘My fair lady’, the heroine Elisa Dolittle, who was once a flower vendor but got transformed into an awesome society belle` thanks to the efforts of Prof.Higgins, tells the vagabond Freddy who keeps bragging about his love for her to stop talking. She is extremely fierce when she exhorts him,
‘Don’t talk of stars burning above,
If you’re in love show me!’
Talking was the life line of love stories in those days even among youngsters unlike today. When the lovers get married and with the efflux of time, love is replaced by a strong feeling of companionship. All the talking gets replaced by an intense feeling for each other and the heart is filled with deep concern for each other. This concern is beautifully portrayed by the late Sanjeev Kumar in the 1976 movie, Arjun Pandit, which centers around the travails of an old man who is forced to live away from his wife to suit the convenience of children.

Recently I came across a moving episode of an old man and his wife while browsing through the web. This old man comes to a hospital to have some sutures removed and appears to be in a mighty hurry. He becomes increasingly restless as the time ticks by. A medico takes pity on him and offers to get him reviewed immediately. As the medico removes the sutures, he asks the man who is around 80+ the cause for his hurry. The old man replies that he has a breakfast appointment with his wife in another half an hour in a nursing home where she is lodged. When the medico asks him about the nature of her ailment, the old man reveals that she is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and cannot recognize anyone including himself. The surprised medico asks him if she cannot recognize him, why should he hurry to keep up his breakfast engagement with her. The old man replies with a smile, ‘She cannot recognize me yes but I can recognize her’.

This is the quintessence of love which may have had its humble beginning in running around trees but when it transcends from the physical to the spiritual, it reaches a sublimity that defies words.

 

Re: Just some love talk!

Dear Indhu
It is so flattering to me that you read my threads with such intensity and comment on them so benevolently. It is no exaggeration if I tell you that I look forward to your FBs and they make me feel special!

Coming to the little sparrows, I miss them badly. We are all only too familiar with the terms 'endangered species' 'extinct animals' etc but within my life time, I have seen thousands of sparrows, that made our surrounding so delightfully musical and alive, have deserted my city and vanished without a trace.

The story of that old man and his intense love for his ailing wife is hopefully a true one. It is strange that when we hear of such people, we tend to ask first if the story is real. Obviously such intense love is confined only to fiction!
Sri

 

Re: Just some love talk!

My dear Vidya
An awesome FB really!
Last year on the Alzheimer’s Day, I attended a speech by a renowned ‘Headshrinker’, as Wodehouse would call them, at a Rotary Club Meeting. It was a usual 20-minute meeting where the speakers would be forewarned that there was no problem if they exceeded the time limit except that the members had the option to leave the Speaker to himself! Thus warned, the Doctor made a brief but a moving speech about the travails of the Alzheimer patients or to be precise their near and dear ones. Unlike in other ailments, Alzheimer patients would require delicate and patient handling. They will be in a world of their own and can be as inscrutable as a new born. The only palliative for the Alzheimer patients who suffer a lot without knowing anything about it is an abundant supply of love and concern as we saw in my thread. I mentioned this episode in my thread without a direct reference to the Alzheimer’s Day for the reason that the people who happen to be administering to the unexpressed needs of Alzheimer patients should never become aware even inadvertently that they are serving these special people.

I can relate to the person in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comffice:smarttags" /><st1:City><st1lace>Trivandrum</st1lace></st1:City> that you are referring to. I have come across a couple of them in Chennai who deal with a similar situation, namely a wife who suffers from dementia and cannot just remember anything. It is such a heart-warming scene to see them showering the ailing partners with so much of love that it makes us think that if that kind of love would be the reward, it would certainly be worthwhile to be a victim of Alzheimer’s. In an age when cheating and betrayal of partners in life are becoming rampant, it is so reassuring to see such caring husbands and wives particularly when the partner lives in a world of his/her own. They are like an oasis in a vast desert of arid hearts.

Of all the versions of “Love is a many splendored thing”, my greatest favourite is the one sung by Nat King Cole. With the perfect voice to suit the mood d’ amor, he has rendered many such lilting songs like The Autumn Leaves and The Day We were Wed. But the running around the trees and such acrobatic acts are essentially the unique features of oriental love making. I wouldn’t even say ‘oriental’ as immortal directors like Akira Kurosawa might turn uncomfortably in their graves!

Love really touches its peak when it is time to part from the world!
Sri

 

Re: Just some love talk!

Dear LS
Chennai has now several multiplexes but during my college days, there was only one called the Safire Complex. It had three theatres, Safire, Blue Diamond and Emerald. Blue Diamond was quite a hit with students because it was the only theatre in the city to have continuous shows from 11A.M. You could purchase a ticket and get into the theatre anytime and get out anytime. You could even sit from 11A.M. to midnight and watch the movie any number of times! Seeing its popularity the Leo of the MIdland group copied it. My sub forum is like Blue Diamond. You can walk in any time and stay as long as you want. No need to offer any explanation for not coming in. I know that one needs to have both time and inclination to spend time here. When you have time, you may not have the inclination and vice versa!

Incidentally, when someone gets drowned in the river of love, he is not going to pop up once in a way shouting for help as your smiley shows! Enna solre?

Married life is like wine or an antique. The older it gets, the more valuable it becomes. I have seen husbands in their eighties ruing over all the fights they had with their wives when they were young!
Sri