Anurima by Rani Dharker

Author:Rani Dharker [Roli Books Pvt. Ltd]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9788174368560
Publisher: Roli Books
Published: 2012-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

21

ICAME in one morning and stood still, frozen in the act of taking my bag off my shoulder. Something was amiss. I found myself looking around the room … it was the same, no furniture had been shifted, nothing had been added. The music … yes, that was it, it was the music. I sat down slowly. What was it that Elise had put on the system? It wasn’t Mozart. For the first time since I had started coming here I was listening to another composer. And because of my befuddled state of mind, it took me longer than it should have to identify him. Wagner. The Ring Cycle. I laughed and turned to Elise and froze again. The music was not the only thing that had changed. Elise was looking at me with a strange expression. It was not one single emotion but a compound of anger and pain and … guilt.

Shocked, I stumbled into speech. ‘The Ring Cycle! How terrific! Makes a change from Mozart.’ Elise did not answer. She kept looking at me. Completely unnerved now, not knowing what to do, knowing it was probably better not to say anything, surprising myself with my voice which had got high pitched, I spoke very fast. ‘Yesterday on the Internet – I know you don’t care for the Internet but it really gives some unusual information, I wish you’d try it – well, I read this article on Mozart … do you know his music is considered therapeutic? There are experiments in which all the patient has to do is to listen to his music and people have been cured of many ailments, even Alzheimer’s. They call it the Mozart Effect. A neurologist found his comatose patients responding and an autistic girl, who had no contact with anyone, started making friends.’

Had Elise even heard me? She had shifted her gaze from me and was staring blankly at nothing. ‘Do you want me to read?’ I mumbled. There was no response. I decided it would be better to shut up and listen to the music till she said something. To try and compose myself I tried to recall all that I knew of Wagner’s Ring Cycle: four operas, often thought of as the greatest of operas, twenty years in the writing. Wagner would take a break and write something else and come back to the Ring. Wagner even wrote his own librettos. This one had to do with gods and mortals who fight for the cursed gold ring, which would give them complete power and control, almost like Lord of the Rings. I listened to Die Walkure, its sublime music.

We had our coffee in silence. Tarabai came back to take our empty mugs. As she was going out she stumbled. The tray flew out of her hands. Tarabai’s attempt to catch one of the mugs in a clumsy motion knocked down the glass of water on the table. There was an explosion of sound: the glass and mugs made more noise in their breaking than one would have expected.

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