Saturday, May 5, 2012

Walking on The Moon


 These days the favorite and absorbing pass time is watching movies, I must be averaging about one and one half movies a day. This has been the routine since the past few months. Perhaps I want to make good of the times in the previous years when I rarely sat through a movie.

This may also be a liaison of a kind with motion picture that I once dreamed like Alice in her journey to wonderland. That was long ago, in the teens and thereabout, when fantasies and dreams were many and running berserk. However, all that withered and may even be said to have died still born. There was also a stricture from mother that she may be forced to consider me an outcast if I assay a career in the motion picture world. I could have chosen the field of movies, there were offers from a friend who later made his name as a producer and by the father of a couple of friends who also created a niche in the creative field of cinema. It was literally taking the road often traversed that happened , while on a journey in pursuit of freedom, in 1981, I was asked by a good chum on the train while traveling together, to join him in his hunt in the tinsel world in Madras. But I chose to journey further up north opting to think of the apparent comfort of a conventional placement.And he later became a person of reckon in the film world. Perhaps my choice of the blog picture of a mountaineer standing down far below in awe at the splendour and majesty of a peak has something to do subconsciously with the distance I now will never make in life. A haunting reminder of the many dreams that would stay as pipe-dreams, that, besides the realisation of one’s insignificance in the physical laws of Nature. This is when I would wish that the Hindu philosophy of life- that a second coming, a rebirth, a second chance, reincarnation were true. Well then, I can gain without much ado, a chance to make amends, (sigh)!

I’m afraid I dither and touch on aspects I did not intend to discuss here.

A movie, I watched, “A Walk on The Moon”, gave me a re-look at a subject I often wondered about seeking a definite explanation. Mans’ proclivity in tangoing with “la affaire amour” .Someone once alleged that it was men who displayed penchant for fornication. Though it is indeed a fact, but, is it not true that it takes two to tango and there has to be a woman too?

The movie has the mother of two and a woman in her late twenties intimately involving with a traveling garment vendor. The story is placed in the swinging sixties of the Woodstock era. She was aware of the repercussions that were to follow when if the liaison came into the open. But yet, she went further into it. The family is in ship wreck. And to add to the disaster, the eldest child, a girl comes of age and is driven by rage and anger when she notices her mother’s unshackled moments with her paramour at the Woodstock festival.  She hurls herself into destructive risqué with a teenage boy. The husband who travels often for work is devastated and possessed. The family is tossed about like in the tempest in the raging seas.

Man is not unaware of the upheavals that may blow like a cataclysmic whirl wind when illicit amour surfaces to glare. Apart from the fact that socially approved moral conduct does not have such relationships in its directory, man still serenade with danger. Besides the laws of physical intimacy decreed to man and woman, have we thought why people are more inclined to dangerous liaisons?  In this movie the woman becomes mother at the young age of seventeen ,yearns for marital freedom and to banish ennui from her life. So the reason goes.

Strongly asserting that I’m not advocating unrestrained warmth in men women relationship, I would like to know why the hullabaloo and bedlam about an amorous liaison, or in common parlance- a fling? It is certainly true that Nature has only one intention when metamorphosing the sexes-procreation. It is the consciousness of human mind and his thoughts that have placed restraints and dos and do nots in relationships between man and woman. And amongst them certainly men have de novo displayed penchant for seminal acts at any given time, a proclivity to lecherous habits. A dichotomy when compared with the male of other species. Why?

Trust and faithfulness, often the two characteristics that we hear of, that are comparable and as magnificent as chivalry. And which may in equal measure be applied to man and woman. It will be fascinating to quote here the conversation a friend once had with me on a related matter. “I would not hesitate to jump for a fling if a woman fancies a relationship and I long for one.” said the guy. I said, “Well that depends upon your luck and discretion, but what if your wife thinks on similar lines?” He was full of ire. “I’ll decapitate her,” he said.

11 comments:

Meera Sundararajan said...

Anil I have not watched this movie but it sounds interesting. Physical attraction is something that one cannot really explain- sometimes it is so bizarre. There is also this theory that women are not into as we are supposedly more "stable" but I don't think so. I think we fear the repercussions of such acts a lot and therefore have better control over ourselves. Since you are now into watching movies you should watch this Hindi film "Astitiva" - it is about something similar.

Insignia said...

How appropriate to write something related to moon on the Super Moon day.

Physical intimacy or sexual urge is as strong in a woman than man but woman have lot to worry about than man. There is always a blame of 'other woman' even if the man involved is to equally blamed for..Have you ever heard of 'other man' anywhere?

Women earlier had more sexual freedom than now and to think of it; humans by nature are polygamous; its the law and culture that has tied monogamy; particularly to women

sujata sengupta said...

I think sexual urge is different in men and women. We may think otherwise till we ask ourselves a single question," Can I have sex with any man?" I think the answer will have a lot more conditions than when a man asks the same question to himself.

Its good to be back Anil. THanks for visiting.

Happy Kitten said...

Anil: I think it is still not late to venture into acting.. do give it a try if your frnds are still willing..a small role to start with.

as for affairs, women shall always be blamed and not the men so women think harder before venturing.

Balachandran V said...

Vy tthis kolaveri about Sex?

anilkurup59 said...

@ meera Sundarajan,

You are right, sometimes it defies logic. I once posted a piece on the same picking up bits and life from around and posted in the blog- If you may want to be bored check the post "aphrodite" in my blog.

@ Insignia,

Yes B, the social canons are loaded very disproportionately in favour of men.
But I wonder if you are right when you mentioned that women had more sexual freedom. I guess it is more so now. Though exceptions were there more amplified in literary creations like " Lady Chatterley's lover " and "The French Lieutenant's woman".

As for your contention that we are more polygamous - it is absolutely true. The restraints are made by self because of society.


@ Sujata,
Agreed. you are right I'm sure. men are lecherous.


@ happy Kitten,
Ha , no it was not acting , it was some very rookie kind of flirtation with the behind the camera operations . Any way that was still born.

Yes and women will have a lot to ponder before jumping into a relationship or one night stand.

@ Balachandran,

Vy tthis kolaveri about Sex?

This asking by a person such as you is astonishing. Ha what else have we more discussed than sex and women when we have had the countless number of drinking sessions.

Rama Ananth said...

We have all had dreams and aspirations, and also have had no way of actualising them. The road not taken will always haunt us till the end.
But being a believer in life after death, I am confident, that I will get to do everything in another life time, for i believe that, we cannot free ourselves from rebirths till, we have absolutely no desires, which is impossible at least in my case.
I am not the type to ask God to free me from all desires, ( like many devout Hindus do) for, to me desire is to grow, and there is so much to learn, to do, to experience, to evolve, for which one life time is certainly not enough for me.
I also saw the picture mentioned by you, it can certainly lead to a lot of disaster, pain and betrayal all for momentary pleasure.

BK Chowla, said...

Is it a coincidence?
Moon on super moon ???

Shilpa Garg said...

Interesting post!
Well, the flings, now a days are on the rise. The general belief is that only men have affairs but who do you think they are having affairs with? But yes, a woman might observe a bit more restraint than a man!

NRIGirl said...

Thank God you didn't end up at the peak! We would have missed your blogs... :)

anilkurup59 said...

@ Rama,

yes , I understand your observation.Having conviction than putative belief is good , I feel.

What is not momentary in life , both pleasure and agony are transient , aren't they? Then why do we run after?

@ BK Chowla,
Super moon, Blue moon !
Got to be coincidence.

@ Shilpa Garg,

Your observation is fully agreeable and matter of fact.

@ NRIGirl,

Ha , that is good thinking.