SOMEDAY MONKEYS WILL PLAY A PIANO SONG

For a moment
For just a moment- she looks at him as if he were a stranger
And that familiar fever of melancholy catches up with him again
Whenever in the past, such moods have struck
He has pretended that they didn't really exist
But today, he lets himself travel back in time
All the way to the beginning
FIVE
It is before sunrise in Bishtupur
The darkness half-hides her face in the mosquito net
He has to catch an early morning flight to Bombay
He can sense her warm silhouette shift besides him
Lip dry
Puffy eyes
Her sleepy voice doesn't call him back
In the morning
But she turns towards him instinctively
And puts her arm lightly on his chest
As if to say
By not saying
“Don't go”
For in her sleep they are now
No longer
Strangers in the night
FOUR
It is late evening in Charring Cross
He comes in and as if by habit,
Kicks off his shoes, rolls up his sleeves and reaches for the microwave
Abruptly, he stops in his tracks
Because it's then that he notices the dining table
And the dishes and the two plates, lying upside down on it
That's when she walks in from the bedroom
She does nothing
She just stands there, looking at him
With her cups of tea for eyes
But he's overwhelmed to see her
He has not known such happiness since he heard the Beatles for the first time
And he tells her so
And she lets him kiss her all over her face
Until she starts laughing
That night, in his dream
She tells him that his snoring (something he has never admitted to)
Has the rhythm of a heartbeat
But he knows she is only
Fooling with him
THREE
It's past midnight, somewhere in Italy
Their rented '79 Beetle has broken down in the pouring rain
Raindrops tumble down the metallic hood of the car
And slither across the windscreen, like tears
All through the drive back so far
He hasn't spoken to her
He gets out of the car to see what the problem is
And not bothering for one moment that her make up isn't waterproof
She too goes and stands besides him
He screams at her
“Didn't I tell you to stay inside the car!” (or words to that effect)
She says she wants to help
He screams at her
“Don't disturb me while I'm working!” (or words to that effect)
She asks him, on the verge of tears, why he's being so 'difficult'
And he of course, doesn't say anything
All throughout the forty minutes that he fixes the carbuerettor
He keeps on crying
For there was something in the way she didn't look at that man
The man they had met that afternoon in the revolving retaurant in Florence
That night, back in their suite
After a change of clothes and a hot bath
He experiences jealousy for the first time
TWO
It's the day after their marriage
Several matronly women stand just outside their old Rippon Street apartment
For supervising a complex ceremony that he can't be expected to follow
Only that it involves a coconut, a plate of rice
And her feet
He feels rather embarrassed in his silk clothes in the summer
Just then she arrives, in layers and layers of Benarasi silk
The winner of two beauty contests as a child
The owner of a color changing pair of eyes
As she enters his life officially
She, under the directions of the matronly women
Ensures that she places her
Right foot first
ONE
It's early afternoon in Ekdalia Road, Calcutta (Salil Kaku's place)
He's just seen her for the first time
And her eyes that like her tea, could be sometimes brown
Sometimes, just black
As he's talking to her
He notices her pupils; the dual colors of them
Take on a far-seeing sharpness
It's as if she is in the middle of a paperback
Or wondering whether she switched off the porch lights or not
And then perhaps he says something funny
Because he looks up and notices
That for the first time that afternoon
She is smiling
Selfishly he pretends he doesn't notice
That the smile doesn't reach her eyes
And for that whole night, back in his room,
He imagines her naked
ZERO
For a moment
For just a moment- she looks at the man she doesn't love
He looks more incongruous than ever
But it was a different her back then
She has changed now
She thinks someday
She'll fall in love with him
Someday
There will be peace in the world
Someday
Monkeys will play a piano song
Yes
Someday.....