METAL

But of course

She's heard the song before

In garages,

On unmade dorm beds,

Over pepperoni pizzas at one a.m,

Over reheated pepperoni pizzas at three thirty;

Outside shower curtains,

(Sometimes inside),

In snatches,

In coherent hums,

In his eyes,

Instrumental,

In memories,

Sped up, slowed down, played backwards, remixed

She doesn't quite remember the song after that one

But “Maggie Noodles” wasn't only a song

Looking back, it was a moment in her life

When one possible future ended and another started

And she let it pass her by

Only once again in her life,

Years later,

Would she witness something as amazing

But even more painful

Years later, she would hear this song again

On the grainy VHS Reva is taping this in;

Strangely then, she would also smell the misty, dusty, library books

Rumki and her glass bangle laugh....

Watching the tape now

The florescent lights still make her eyes squint from their memory

She can still taste the vodka (it had too much ice) camouflaged in the Nescafe cup

She remembers being tickled slightly

By Maqbool's warm, sweet breath around her neck

Earlier that semester

The unmistakable Imperial Leather in his palms

That cupped her ears to keep them warm

She remembers having had a pimple on her upper lip

Having been afraid that he would never kiss her again

She had been wrong

…............

Life, Calcutta, that moment in February;

Vineeta turns the corner near the Admin block

She carries the burden of Joyce under her arm

And the love leftovers in her eyes

Into the freezing cold of the night

It's the time of the night when its at its darkest, most mysterious

1:30 a.m

She's late

But she's there

She stands on tiptoes, to catch a glimpse of 'Youthinasia'

(Such a corny name, in retrospect)

Her shirt is faded; her jeans too tight

Baby, you're old fashioned

But the boys haven't really changed-

Aniruddha, the cute one,

Akshay, the smart one,

Nakul, the funny one,

Maqbool, the one.

Anir starts it as a slow ballad

With his Frank Sinatra impersonation voice-

“People often ask me about Maggie

It's true that there is no one

There would never be anyone

Quite like her

I miss her unformed nose

Her upturned earlobes

Her chipped front tooth

I miss the way we were....”

And this is the portion where Max and Anir trade licks

On their Rickenbackers

She wonders why Max hasn't started singing yet

Wasn't the first stanza supposed to be his?

Why did they change the name?

The bashful, the mysterious;

In his long hair and raspy voice....

Maqbool has seen her

The lights dance on her face like ocean waves

Now, he just can't sing

His thoughts that moment flicker in her eyes

Like the crackling voice from a distant FM station

They jam beautifully for a whole minute

And then, when Nakul joins them on the percussions

Winnie thinks of the word, “Exhilarating”

Nakul, the skinhead, in his military prints

Molests the drums until Anir takes over again....

“I want to be unhappy

And think I'm something profound

I have spent a lifetime playing it cool

But that doesn't really count

It has changed me and I don't know how

Tears don't come more easily now

And on some morning in the near future

I will wake up from my dream

And remember that I haven't really grieved”

He gets the last high note just right

He didn't sound this great in the rehearsals!

Half the song is over

Max still hasn't made a move

Still standing in the shadows

Fingers bleeding his heart shaped guitar

Akshay, in his black tee and rockabilly hair

Now on the keyboard

It's more Michael Nyman than Beethoven's Fifth

And then finally,

Finally,

Maqbool's voice drones the open air theater-

“You were my mother, planet, ink, tear,

word, thought, rush, savior,

habit, fire, forest, sin,

soldier, silence, shot, skin,

toy, pain, pulse, passion,

lithium, rain, dimple, fashion,

memory, painting, ache, spasm,

chocolate, soul, fake, orgasm”

The crowd has stopped swaying

They suddenly feel this interlude;

This brink of a revolution-

Greedy lips
Renaissance eyes

Love making

Under skies

Maqbool knows

They will not remember this song

They will not remember a line

Their name too will be forgotten

In the course of time

All of them

Except one

They start what would become the last stanza

Aniruddha speaking the first line

Nakul speaking the next

Akshay taking on the third line

Maqbool singing the rest-

“You had the forget me not eyes

She had the Mercedes Benz

You had all the pretty, pretty boys

She had common sense

You had Hotel California

She had the loudest grunt

But every now and then, Maggie

You could be such a c*nt””