CHILDREN OF MARX & COCA-COLA

I had met you for the first time in Zurich, Switzerland

It had been easy to want to fall in love back then

Amidst the postcard picturesque snow,

Elvis Presley in our heads

And of course,

We were eight

Our brownness seemed to connect us like some unarguable bond

You were the only girl in our detective agency

As we spent three of summers together

Today, they don't quite feel enough

Playing hide and seek, building card castles, imagining mysteries

Reveling in the chaos we left behind

I remember-

The day, we went swimming at the icy cold lake behind Mrs Henrik's house

Where I saw you naked

For the first time

You had seemed like an angel back then

The shared love for homemade bittersweet lime pickles and abridged Tolstoy

The tenderness of your arms which held me whenever I wept into your shoulder

After every cycle accident and every B minus

You could make everything all right

By blowing softly over scraped knees

Yes, for years, you were the only girl on the planet

I remain thankful for your unexpected friendship then, that seemed immortal

We met again, again unexpectedly, around twelve years later

In our old, ancestral house in London in 1967

I remember the year clearly

For our great grandmother had died that autumn, thus causing the family reunion

For I had taken you to Godard's “Week End” at the Ritz, the following weekend

I couldn't help noticing that you'd become incredibly sexy

The same limpid turquoise blue eyes

Now accompanied by unforeseen breasts

I wanted to be a novelist; you an actress

It was the Summer of love,

Free sex

Hallucinogenics

Nouvelle Vague

And a cultural phenomenon, called, “The Beatles”.

Anything seemed possible

Later, of course, Vietnam happened

JLG stopped making good films

The Fab Four retreated to the Maharishi

Our heroes became older men with ordinary problems

One of those days, outside the Ritz,

You'd confessed to falling in love with me

And I, in a moment of rebellious thoughtlessness,

Had turned you down

I should reveal that I was secretly looking forward to seeing you

In December winter cold war hit Tashkent, Russia

Six years later

India had won another war

One day cricket was a thing of the future

I was covering the covert activities of the CIA and the KGB

And you were shooting for Coke

But now, more than ever, you felt like a stranger

Perhaps out of revenge then

That after ruthlessly sleeping with me, twice,

You didn't leave me your number

Then, for eleven long years, we did not see each other

Until I ran into you, one very early morning in Shimla

That year

Fiat cars and silk scarves were in vogue

Michael Jackson burst onto the scene

Union Carbide killed twenty thousand

You had worn dark sunglasses to remain incognito

I had taken a sabbatical to become famous

According to the tabloid I'd worked for

The divorce had come through six months ago

You had seemed at once pleased and disturbed, seeing me

I didn't see you

As an aging model, whose moment of glory had long passed her by

But as the young girl I once knew

Now, Gigantic paychecks, cover features, masturbating fans, glowing reviews, ......

Yet, sadness embroidered your cashmere

Too afraid to go out

Except during your four a.m. strolls

When the salty-sweet fragrance of the wild valley flowers strolled with you

Chrysanthemums, I think

I called you up out of the blue, one day

From New York in 1991

When Russia was disintegrating

The Berlin wall had collapsed

Cold war was over

Gulf War had started

Back home,

Mandal Commission ended

Babri Masjid still stood

Cobain had arrived

I had just won the Booker

I had taken you hostage to the ceremony

Couldn't think of anyone else

The same evening, over chicken wings and Jack Daniels on the Fifth Avenue

You agreed to marry me

We returned to NY for our tenth anniversary

Temples touched by silver

We spent a night of Viagra- induced vigor

The next morning, just as I awoke

Aiming my revolver right at me and putting your finger on the trigger,

You said saucily,

“And now, baby,

Suppose I pull the trigger?”

And then-

Then my dear,

You pulled it!