Cities

Paris was not as intense as I had imagined it to be. I have never understood how to explain it but inspite of being the embodiment of a beautiful poem by a poet who has had the perfect amount of suffering, happiness, love, longing, torture in his life, Paris, for me, needed to be more. I wanted more. I had hoped for more. It had the capacity to make me feel pretty naked in my defense towards life but like I said, somehow, the whole experience was just a bit hollow. Each and every building asked for its soul. I was comforted by a new friendship with a fellow backpacker during the first half of my time there and Leonard Cohen in a lovely bookshop and thoughts of a very lovely boy in the second half. There is a reason why I am rambling today about this. Just read this piece on Flavorwire about what these lovely people have to say about monumental Paris and I kind of feel jealous that those emotions evaded me.

Mumbai is resplendent right now. Glistening leaves. Colorful umbrellas. Hard-working chaiwallas with their little stalls and sharp beautiful steam coming out of their aluminium almost-rusted kettles. The sound of the rain. The sights. The clattering sound on the tin rooftops at various places. The raindrops hugging the taxi or the car windows. Old silly Hindi songs on my radio while on my way to work. Schoolchildren jumping into filthy puddles. If this is not the moment to be fully alive then I don't know what is.

Travelling to this night?

     Spotted at Montmartre, Paris, 

 in November.

 

Inspired by Paris

These cobblestone walls scream in agony,
Of pleasure, of love.
The river gathers in a corner,
Like your feet in the early mornings,
Lying lazily, moving laboriously.
Every building in this city is like a tombstone,
Ironic that it has tourist graveyards too.
You never hold my hand,
While we sit in the warm cathedrals,
To save us from cold,
To save us from fear.
We meet like this city meets its people,
Fresh strangers and fresh lilies.
In the evening, we devour the structures.
Walk together on different roads,
Going towards home and far away from it.
The city sleeps early,
And we keep pace with the night. 

Coco Before Chanel and Coco Chanel

“I don't understand how a woman can leave the house without fixing herself up a little - if only out of politeness. And then, you never know, maybe that's the day she has a date with destiny. And it's best to be as pretty as possible for destiny.”  Coco Chanel

Last night, I watched a very subtle and nuanced Audrey Tatau walk into the character of Coco Before Chanel effortlessly. Since I did not know much about Gabrielle Chanel much, I was devoid of any expectations. The movie is not mind-blowing or one of the best biographical pieces that I have seen, but it has a beautiful pace and its heart is definitely in the right place. Some of the scenes are really beautifully shot (Like how the dull grey suit clad Tatau stands out at the beach amongst a riot of various colors).

The Coco Chanel spirit is subtly weaved into young Gabrielle's life when she is working on clothes, hats mainly and ostensibly dreaming about becoming a stage performing star in Paris. The movie focuses on her two most important relationships with two most important men in her life- Balson (extremely good performance by Benoît Poelvoorde) and 'Boy'. Her stubbornness, her pride, her lack of pride, her abhorrence for frilly dresses, her core elegance,  her impulses, her mask of emotional detachment, her vulnerability when she actually succumbs into the arms of love is very exquisitely captured. And like I said, Audrey Tatau is a sheer delight on the screen. Chanel's determination, often shaken up by her financial dependence and eventual falling into love with 'Boy', something that she avoided for the major part of her young life is amazingly portrayed by Tatau in the movie.

My most favourite scene in the movie is when Tatau changes her mind before leaving Balson's house the first time, dresses up as a boy and barges into his party mounted on a badly ridden horse.

I lapped up quite a lot of reading material last night on Ms Coco Chanel- The Innovator; (at the cost of using an extremely cliched term) The woman in a man's world (especially at her time); a woman who eventually knew what she wanted and always knew how to get what she wanted and most importantly, a woman in love. She confessed, as I read somewhere, of being deeply affected till the end by Boy's death which happened due to a car accident. She managed to keep her decision intact- of being nobody's wife, till the end.

“Arrogance is in everything I do. It is in my gestures, the harshness of my voice, in the glow of my gaze, in my sinewy, tormented face.”
― Coco Chanel

I would probably add pearls, black, bow-ties and cherry lipstick to my wardrobe. Drink champagne may be, for a few days. And, well, be very particular about my perfume ;)
  
“Where should one use perfume?" a young woman asked. "Wherever one wants to be kissed.”  Coco Chanel