Desmond Morris kept an interesting outlook, as an
anthropologist who studied animal behaviour, later to discover fascinating
similarities in the species that consider it elite- Homo sapiens. But this
short story nudged me to wonder if Desmond Morris found hideous and wicked
amongst animals. The nearest, I understand from animal watchers is that some
species of primates like Chimps and Orangutans carry nefarious traits common in
man. No wonder they are our not too distant cousins!
And here is the narration that,when read made me wonder about beasts
and ask myself can it be helped if one becomes a misanthropist.
“I was not
comfortable with the estrangement that crept in amongst them. And felt that
there was nothing wrong in engineering a rapprochement and it may be a good thing
to happen. Turning around the sour relationship would make the air pleasant and
well-off. To me it seemed a sensible thought and especially so when the
subjects of the story were siblings. She being my spouse, I was privy to her
untold emotions. But she was adept in keeping matters of disaffection away from
visibility. And, at the same time I could also sense the choke point in her when
disaffection from quarters she considered her own anguished her with such
intensity previously unknown. I was dismayed and surprised at the pathetic behavior
meted out to her. I felt perhaps it was deign to even consider a rapprochement or
an offer of redress. It negates the very essence, the spirit of what is
rapprochement. Rapprochement alleviates unpleasantness that visit because of
matters that were committed but later repented. I wondered if insolence,
disdain and haughtiness may be considered such, more when there seems to
be no apparent keenness in shelving those traits.
But I felt, fleeting and fickle that life is, why harbour
ill will and bear grudge. More so when it is amongst ones close and near, by
blood and birth and even friends who bear a place in our bosom? So I decided to
let the frost thaw when the woman phoned me to ask if she would go with us for
the weekend. I saw an opportunity to bring back the old days, when it was bonhomie
with lot of apparent affection thrown in their midst. It would help to assuage hurt
feelings if she and the woman are traveling together in the car over the fair
distance we planned that weekend. Unpleasantness and hurt emotions may make way
when you are in physical proximity and in easy surrounds.
Later in the evening that weekend Friday, after we checked
in at the resort, we met at the Club house of the Hotel, atop the hill overlooking the valley - the glinting town far below. It was a perfect
retreat and entrapment with the starry sky above and glittering reflections of
the town far below- lending a heavenly state of ambience. The haunting
smoothness of the Hindustani on the stereo relaxed every sinew and
nerves from head to toe. Looking around at the full house, I felt it was
fortunate to have had the late realisation that afternoon and called the hotel
to reserve seats at the club house. The atmosphere lend by the serenity besides
the soothing effect lend by the visuals outside the glass paned windows and the
euphony inside was only gently jostled by the intermittent clanking of the
cutlery. Conversations were soft enough in hushed murmurs.
She and the woman were seated across me at the far side of
the table. I did not interrupt and let them continue with their conversations
and restrained banter. She was quite lively through the journey and seemed to
have revived the lost times of old. She chose to sit in the rear passenger area
of the car, as often the woman while she travelled with us complaints sickness
if seated in the rear and would choose to seat in the passenger seat in front
with me at the wheel. And, almost through the drive until she fell back in her
seat asleep, she was leaning forward between me and the woman and indulging in
animated chatter. Now, seated next to the woman, her visage was sprightly like old
times. I felt that it will be appropriate to convey to the woman, the guarded thoughts
and feelings that seethed in me. She must not take my spouse for a naiveté, a nitwit,
one without emotions or feelings and must accept that she has a heart that can
offer unrequited love and affection, but which throbs in deafening silence when
trampled and shunned. I began by telling the woman that emotionally she has
been alienated away from them. And these days were nothing but torment to her. It
was often, that at night she rolled about in bed unable to sleep or walked
about outside on the lawn quite disquiet. For she had much love for them, while
their lack of concern and empathy coupled with their distancing from her was
too disconcerting. And, also I told her that their attitude and conduct were to
quote, “the unkindest cut of all” and which even brought her to bear the
macabre idea of ending it all. However it
was good that she could today get to efface her anguish. The woman listened to
me with expression of much understanding and occasionally looked at her sister
in askance and astonishment, conveying the message that it was all her silly
mind and was much ado about nothing. She maintained a condescending tone and
even rebukes.
While the desserts were being served, I excused and went to
the lavatory and also to steal the comfort of a quick cigarette in the coolness
of the mountain air outside.
We left the place on the evening of the second day and I was
satisfied that the short but good time in the much pleasant climes of the hills
was doing good to her after all those days of melancholia and anguish.
It was about a month after, when I was back from a tour that
she mentioned it over breakfast. She asked me if I would recall the night at
the resort when for a short few minutes I was away from her and the woman while
the desserts were being served. I said I did. She then suggested that the woman,
her sister, may have had different agenda. I looked up at her in askance. She
told me that the woman chose the moment I was away to suggest to her that she
be careful about my ways and that I may be having an amorous relationship with
another woman. I agape, asked her why the woman had to concoct such a vicious story
and how that mattered in the context we discussed. And it then dawned on us-
the smiles, the hugs, the sweet nothings and even the occasional jerks of tear
were all artful deceit of the woman. She would want to have strife amongst us
and what else could achieve that better than a journey seeking reconciliation with
us and then a malicious story with lecherous undertones subtly planted in our
midst? A potent keg of gunpowder! ”