Rooftop ragas...
14. Manu’s midnight wonderings..
Manu lay in bed, staring up at the ceiling. The trees below swished in the breeze, and lights faded in and out and cast shadows in his room. It had been a long and interesting day, interesting because he had started that same day wondering about Kirtana, only to meet her a few hours later. It all seemed too good to be true. He wanted to get to know her better. This woman had something to her…
Monkey lay in his box, lined with soft cloth and light padding, he had made it his ‘bed’, and he was sleeping, or so Manu thought. Manu felt himself fall asleep…feeling the heaviness of his eyelids and the immense comfort of his bed and its covers envelope him in a cocoon of dreams and sound sleep…
Manu dreamt often. He had dreams about being in a boat in the middle of a lake, and when he looked below, he could see a large dark body, just below the surface, coming swiftly towards his boat, rocking it from underneath. He would wake up with a start, feeling almost as though he had just surfaced form the water. Other times he dreamt, he was on his way to an event and had to encounter so many delays, that he, in his dream, felt doomed never to reach his destination. At times he had far more pleasant dreams, and other times he woke up feeling as though he had been listening to some loud song all night, and he had a weird echo in his head, that every little sound jarred, like as though he had kept his head too close to loud speakers all night. But Manu loved his dreams. He felt that since he had them and remembered them; he was deeply in touch with his soul… everyone’s allowed their theories.
Manu dreamt that night too… it began with him, walking on the roof of his building…the cold wind of the night blew on his face and he felt his eyes water with the chill of the breeze. Not far from where he stood, was an old record player… there was tune playing on it, ever so faintly at first, but then as he approached it the beats grew louder…it was a tune with a combination of percussion and string instruments…it was his dream, it did not make complete sense…but then he realized, two girls were at the far end of the roof. Both were dancing, there was no definite style or routine they were following, they both moved together yet separately to the music, one with graceful movements and gestures, the other moving with odd jerks and movements as though rooted to one spot, and moving only her arms and shoulders. He could not make out their faces but watched as they danced, not stopping for a moment…he was moved and alarmed by their performance…
He woke up the next morning with that tune haunting him. He was in a trance…awake but not yet functional in ‘reality’….the phone rang, just as Manu was trying work out the meaning of his puzzling dream…”Hello..” he said, still half asleep..”Good Morning Manu…it’s Kirtana. Sorry to call you so early… did I wake you? I wanted to catch you before I head out for work..” said Kirtana. “No Kirtana, you didn’t wake me, go ahead..”
Kirtana told him, she had thought about his ‘proposal’. What she did not tell him was how Maliha had nearly challenged her to take on Manu. She relented and softened up, and decided to embrace this idea, and not resist it the way she usually would, before Maliha had come.
She also told Manu that he could start ‘following’ her around as early as today. He told her that he was not really too bothered about following her, but he did want to get to know her, so he could profile her, understand the unique aspects of her character. She laughed when he said this.. but accepted.
Just before going off she made two suggestions, one that he meet her for lunch at a popular restaurant not far from her office and two that they give serious thought to planning a birthday party for Mali…and him! He laughed this time, and accepted.
He was ready by noon, and sat down to gather his thoughts before he left. Each time he had the seed of an idea for a story or play he wrote it down, and circled it. He would make many such circles, before connecting them all into one ‘masterpiece’. He took out his notepad…and wrote the words..”One girl, two realities..” and circled it, as he headed out to meet Kirtana..a seed of an idea was rooting itself in his mind, a combination of the eerie dream and the not so chance meeting with Kit, had proved inspiring…Manu was about to write his best work yet!
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