My darling girls, the list of whom begins with Saraswathi Akka, who is far more girlish than I and more so than even many of you,😉
I am postponing my responses to all your comments to the morrow, as I can see that there are more of them than I can cope with at 3 minutes to midnight! But tomorrow I shall try and hone my skills at precis responses, of the kind I did for senior ministers for their official meetings, and see how it goes, for I need to conserve my energies for the weekend and my post for episodes 61-65.
But Anjali my pet, a very special BIG hug for you, for not only surfacing here in such a spectacular and colourful manner - I LOVED the extensive collage, which was wonderful even by your very high standards👏- but also for posting such a lovely and very unusual message on that gorgeous birthday thread 🤗that Akka, Lashykanna and so many others had created for me.
Where on earth did you dig up that excerpt from my speech at the Montreal Council of Foreign Relations? It must have been in mid-2006. had never seen the recording myself, but then I used to make about 2 such speeches a week, so I never bothered to keep track of them. But this one I remember, for I spoke more than usual in French, to flatter the francophones of Montreal.
You must tell me all over again how to save the two videos, my poppet, for I have forgotten what you told me last year.
Folks, it is only 2:27 minutes, a snippet from what was a roughly 40 minute address, so you can take a look at it without too much effort.I never used a text for my speeches, for that makes it impossible for you to maintain eye contact with your audience, and it looks stagy, but as I had an excellent memory for facts and figures, I had no problem with carrying on for 40 minutes selling India to all comers!
https://www.indiaforums.com/forum/post/139486549
As for tonight's episode, it was nice and smooth and predictable, including the inexplicable way in which Nandini, instead of insisting in digging out the antidote as soon as she gets into the palace, lets herself be bullied by Helena and booted into the open air jail to begin with, till Mura extricates her from it just in time. Then there is Malayaketu, ruminating hopefully about Chandra's imminent demise, with his satisfaction showing in such a stupid and overt manner that it sets one's teeth on edge. The fellow has clearly never heard of putting on an act. 😡
Apaama is back at last, to become her frantic daughter's puppetmaster (mistress?). I hope the quality of her lines is as unchanged as her blue dress!😉
Ah yes, the highlight. This was a bit I truly loved, for it was so beautiful and so expressive, made so not by the lines, which were all spoken by others, but by the two principals. This was when Chandra, assailed by alternating eulogies to Nandini from the rajvaid and from Mura, too bone weary to turn his head, turns his eyes and looks at Nandini. There is a sort of confusion in the look, but also an unspoken question - Why did you do this? And a dim, dawning light - of gladness? I am not sure. He seems too tired for that.
While Chandra's expression does not change during this whole sequence, Nandini - who earlier seems literally lit up from inside, her sheer relief and gladness bubbling out in the tone of her Chandra! - first drops her eyes, and then looks down and away, as if downplaying all the praise being lavished on her. But by the end, she raises her eyes and looks Chandra full in the face for a long, long moment. There is no shyness in those eyes, no reticence, no overt rejoicing as earlier.There is only a stillness, and something else.
A kind of silent communion. Her gaze is steady and it never wavers. It is as if her eyes were clinging to his. As if, for those 30 seconds, the two of them are in a bubble all of their own, from which the external world has been shut out.
Quite extraordinary. There is nothing like a near death situation for clarifying confused feelings! The bonus: Nandini, her face seeming more soft and rounded and younger than ever before, was just perfect.
The precap was most promising, for all that the two of them were clearly talking at cross-purposes, she of her father and he of Malayaketu. But of that more tomorrow night. I am waiting to see how it really plays out.
It is now 12:34, a mathematically most pleasing time, but if I had been Cinderella, I would have had to walk home in a ball dress suddenly reduced to ashen rags!😆 Good night folks!
Shyamala/Aunty/Akka/Di
Bigg Boss 19
