Monday, September 18, 2006

Networking Love

Do you like fairy tales? You do? Good, you’re like me then. When I was young, my father bought me a book, Grimm’s Fairy tales, not realizing that some of it was grim indeed. Still, it didn’t do me any harm, as far as I can see, and no one had yet invented political correctness, so I was allowed to enjoy them. When I was much older, I realized that fairy tales are not just tales, they are real. Are these the ramblings of a somewhat, how shall we put it delicately, unhinged person, you’re wondering now. No, really, fairy tales are real and exist in our lives, except that we don’t think of them that way. They are everywhere, even online! So then, if have folded up that disbelief and suspended it from a high enough place, read on.

Once upon a time, I met a young man, charm_ing,
Literary élan and limpid eyes, disarming
Manner with all kinds of nice things
To say and mean; Of course that brings
In a horde of romantic women a-swarming.

Naïve woman seeking romance? Falling for him so easily in this day and age, you say. Impossible. Oh orkut, myspace, ryze and others of your kind. Surely you’ll bear witness to the possibility of the soulmate appearing in the online avatar, intriguing persona and snatches of real life accoutrements to match.

He dazzled then, in vers libre, sonnet well rhyming
Or sometimes, a good critic he would be, chiming
In to point an error, gently;
Bent over the page intently –
I pictured him, a sexy Shakespeare, a true Ming.

Aha! Sex! Is that what all this is leading to, I hear you shout. Be patient though, gentle reader. (Much patience is required of he who reads poetry, or she, though the poets would never admit to that, but let us leave those old arguments about prose and poetry aside for now).

We stalked each other’s work, conjured up love, roaming
Freely on the body written, Passion foaming
Up through our sturdy keyboard wands
Messaging private but the bonds
Visible to all, from Worli to Wyoming.

So, it’s not just a you-and-me love story then. There are others, and oh, what glorious others, much in the manner of the sleeping beauty’s thirteen good fairies, clustered around the message board, nodding wisely, drinking their potions creative, seeing everything in gulps of quiet little hints.

On one fine day though (unlike the movie cloying)
The persona fled, its romance shed, left toying
For an owner, on the clueless
Board, but everyone was blameless;
Who never was named could not be called annoying.

This fairy tale ends rather abruptly, as prince charming rides off alone into the real world darkness. There is no sunset no happy no ever no after. Still, it is a fairy tale with all the ingredients of one. Love, magic and inexplicability. What more could I ask for?


Note : Mahendra Rathod's Love in the Caferati bushes acted as a kind of stimulus to this piece. However it was intended as a sort of commentary on relationships that develop online; It is not directed at any individuals per se.

5 comments:

Kanwal K Mookhey said...

I've been on those networks for a while, never seen any "horde of romantic women a-swarming!"...Lol! Truly fiction, but nice nevertheless.

The ramblings of a shoe fiend said...

Lovely! Applause.

Srihari said...

Where fairies tails get wings from wind-up birds,
Kings and queens play treasure chess with gems and gold coins,
Where prose by another name becomes poet tree,
Such a garden then,is apusworld, never disappoints.

apu said...

Intrepid, I suspect your profile on those networks is not quite charm_ing - you need to work on it :)

Shoefie, thank you (*takes a bow*)
and Sri, that was very generous indeed - than you very much...

Kanwal K Mookhey said...

Ah, that must be what it is then! Cause and effect, you say. Will give it a lookover some time then. Until then its back to Sgt. Pepper and his Lonely Hearts Club. :)