Late one afternoon, in Fort Cochin, I put down The World of Yesterday, to gaze out across the beach, towards the tropic sea -
We had checked into the Old Lighthouse that morning - we would stay there for a few days before meeting up with Jane and Ken at Doctor Bagi's -
We'd sipped our welcome drink in the reception area of the hotel - the lobby was cool and spacious, open to soothing breezes - I'd admired the statue of a serene Goddess, garlanded with flowers -
Now, after swimming in the pool, I was sitting on the terrace, lamenting Stefan Zweig's suicide -
It was then, closing those sad pages, that I saw the group of school girls, perhaps on some outing after class -
I watched them, making their way over the white sands - they walked along the sea's edge, in a careful crocodile -
I remembered how I'd once watched Peter Weir's Picnic at Hanging Rock - I'd been profoundly disturbed by the beautiful mystery of the film -
What strange events were starting to happen here, I wondered - would some of these girls slip away, vanishing into the shining air?
No comments:
Post a Comment