Any visit to Paris includes a short trip to the castles built on the majestic river Loire. It is along the banks of this river that Jeanne d'Arc secured positions after breaking the siege of Orleans to later rout the English, marching onwards to Reims to stand beside Charles VII as he was crowned the King, beginning an end to the Hundred Years War between England and France.
What remains of Achan’s slides tell us that they did visit three fascinating ones. There emerges thus a true document. Achan and Amma did a tour of the chateaux in December1968 on a winter sunlit day.
Just before embracing the Atlantic, Loire river winds and unrolls with its surface unmoved by the impending conclusion. All the while hiding its emotions deep inside, it reflects the shores like a clean mirror.
The architects of those castles in their creative endeavour of translating the detailed defense structural elements of fortresses into manors quite often reclaimed the Loire for their landscaping and its power of reflection !! Hence the name Castles on the river Loire…. And how many....?
The castles, built in the best climatic domain in France, put forth certain innovative structural elements too apart from the components of defense, like the ramp for the flight of stairs in Blois castle which is considered to be the first ever ramp built
From the slides three castles stand out, which can be assumed are the ones they visited - Chateaux du Chambord, de Blois et de Cheverny. –
At home after all the four of us got married and life was going on, no one ever gave a thought to Dad’s history making trip. First enthusiasm had got over by the 70’s and then the slide projector and the slides slid into oblivion.
In Chandrika words..."What is still utterly incomprehensible to me and about which I am too concerned is the fact that I who had done a paper on the French culture part of which was a chapter on Chateaux de la Loire, set aside not even a nano second to ask my parents about their trip to the Loire Valley nor remembered it in the classes when our late Prof M. Jackie Moreau taught us the architectural details. He used to relate and dramatise the history surrounding them with gory and hilarious episodes; for example the absence of the toilets and what served in their place, the valets of the kings who had to attend to them - about Catherine de Medici’s cupboard in the Chateau de Chambord where she used to keep the vials of poison, the open rivalry for King Henry II’s attention by Catherne and Diane de Poitiers, and how finally after his death, Catherine de Medici got her revenge when she outlawed Diane from the Chenonceau Castle which was a gift to Diane from the King."
Henri II of France's royal symbol, as seen at the Château de Chenonceau
Chenoncau had been converted from a river bridge on the Cher river to a palace for Diane! King Henry had even an emblem there in which the letters H and C forms a H and D.
Each castle is also a witness to the history of France: In them are embedded and encrypted the plots, the strategies, at the political level and intense rivalries of passion and possession for people and castles.
With Castles of Chambord, and Blois, another one they visited was Cheverney. The pack of hounds the owners had been keeping there is even now a great attraction apart from its history.
At my parents’ arrival, me, Chandrika, was the one who was showing the slides on our home wall..."Nothing on the castles seemed to have registered in my mind. As I write this, my mind is full of desolate thoughts of the missed opportunities of possible dialogues between Achan and me, later in the 80’s. How I would have loved to put back the clock and hear Achan’s relating of their visit and if there was a guide, his comments probably on Her, especially if the guide was a woman."
As much as he loved Amma, he was macho too and made funny comments on women. He had labelled women from each part of Kerala the names rhyming with the location:Thirvananthapuram..ladies were “Tilottamas”(Tilottama (Sanskrit: तिलोत्तमा, romanized: Tilottamā), is an Apsara (celestial nymph) described in Hindu mythology. ... Tilottama, therefore, means the being whose smallest particle is the finest or one who is composed of the finest and highest qualities., Members of the fair sex from Kottayam were "Komalangigal" (Beautiful women) so on and so forth but his romance with Amma was unparalleled. He used to tease Amma saying he can hear the coconut shell scraping against a rock refering to her voice but he cajoled her to learn Veena to give her more chances to perform her songs while saying that he hoped she would not sing much. He made a mistake! She did sing now along with the Veena, with a never diminishing passion. Then when the first tape recorder with the spools came, Achan asked Amma to sing and and play Veena for recording. He gave a caption to the recital that sounded like the national radio name “’Akasavani”” (meaning the sounds of the sky) and while recording he lightly changed Vani to Bheeshani meaning Threat from the sky! and he laughed and Amma also laughed..she took it with a pinch of love.
Chandri, as I lovingly address her, continues regaling me with her childhood with Amma and Achan, very different from my days with them considering the ten years gap between us!..."How can I forget the days I used to run to my neighbour’s house in Kottayam when we got ready to go on a visit or just a ride with Achan in his big Studebaker car; the errand was to get a red rose which grew in plenty there. Achan would ask me to get one and I used to run there and get the roses from the kind neighbour. Achan would lovingly keep the flower in her hair though commenting that his one big mistake was that he had not seen Amma’s face when he met her the first time, as her long black hair mesmerised him! ... and if there’s an extra rose," said Chandri sheepishly, "I may or may not get it…"
Coming back to the castles, it seems Amma never had to build castles in the air, as Achan made even Amma's dreams, which she could never have woven in her imagination, a reality.
The city of Love made a deep impact on Amma for life.
Having spent her childhood in a village like any other, plucking flowers for garlands to adorn her Lord Krishna, stories about birds and bees and storks delivering babies were highly open secrets and her uncles’ whistling signals to their paramours were always shared for laughter for generations to come!
Despite women often having exclusive bathing ghats, the bathing scenes at the temple pond were a free show time for tight-lipped gentlemen with furtive glances and raucous youth jumping from the high steps into the water. Way ahead of her time, when she shifted to the city Amma had this fanciful idea, and aired it often in public in those days, that girls should wear pants and shirts to minimise extreme exposure and men’s apparel should be saris. This was a normal observation of hers, of course in which she specialised ; but people’s reactions to such comments were loud exclamations and snide laughter, entirely missing the point.
One such unforgettable incident that made my sister, a gawky teenager, totally and painfully embarrassed, bordering on hatred even, was to see our amply proportioned housemaid in shorts and shirts selling tapioca, our garden produce, on the pavement in front of our house.The costume was Amma’s precaution to keep roving eyes at bay from the maid’s Junoesque figure, which created quite a hubbub in the neighbourhood. The tapioca got sold within a jiffy, of course, all the while accompanied by stereophonic laughter of Amma and the maid.
Such prudence, however, took a severe beating at the Lido and the Montmartre toy shops. Her vigour never gave away. An unforgettable episode Achan related during the slide show: Amma, à la Jeanne d’Arc, courageously defended the chastity of Achan and his teammates. Wary of the seductive moves made by the Lido dancers around clients and tourists...Amma became super active !!!! … With vigorous self-determination, she pushed tables in front of the males in her group in order to ward off the evil menace, despite weak protests from Achan to at least leave his team mates, who did not have accompanying spouses, to enjoy !!! That is not the end of the story! Highly amused by the dances, her joy of returning home to her nest was demonstrated by the utterly hilarious theatrical show of Lido dancers peeling away their beautiful clothes one by one by one!!
Bloggers, Chandrika & Kala in front of Moulin
Rouge, Paris, 2012
I love how the narrative sways between a lesson in history, personal anecdotes and detailed descriptions of these faraway geographies, enjoyed it thoroughly!
ReplyDelete-Veda
You had taken us to those good olden days once again. Thanks for wonderful blog
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