SHARON AND THE BIRDS

(The enchanting sounds of a tiny tot and some flying musicians)




One day I was standing on a sidewalk talking to a friend when we were jolted out of our skins by the ear-piercing air horn of a minibus that went past us belching out raucous music. And I noticed that almost every vehicle on the road was horning loudly for no particular reason. Motorcyclists zigzagged past pedestrians and vehicles sounding loud horns. Autorickshaws honked incessantly in their off-key manner, and even cyclists rang their bells with frantic haste.



Noises Aplenty

One never could tell what made all this horning necessary. Anyway it was noisy pandemonium everywhere. Excessive noise has become part of the atmosphere we have to live in.



Another day I saw a car parked near Apollo Hospital. The driver was pressing a finger on the horn, causing a continuous noise. No one knew why he did that. Perhaps it was his hobby. Even the auto drivers were irritated.



And then there were those who clung to their cell-phones and yelled into them at the top of their voices. Some have small earphones and when they carry on a loud conversation people turn to look at them wondering whether they are madmen talking to themselves. And of course there were strident loudspeakers in every private or public function.



So it is noise, noise, noise everywhere. Getting tired of all this noise one goes home and turns on the TV, hoping to listen to some soothing music. And there is the jumping jack of a hero gyrating like mad and leaping about like a wounded deer and thirty or forty men bouncing about along with him as “music” blares forth setting one’s teeth on edge. Or it is the heroine and her friends jerking their hips about in time to screeching music.



Goo-goos and Giggles

And as one starts feeling that the world has become an unpleasantly noisy place, some sounds come from the neighbouring apartment that soothes one and brings a smile to one’s lips. These are the gurgling and burbling sounds made by Sharon, a six-month old baby girl. She is in form in the mornings and we have made it a point to sit and listen to her. It is a pleasant change from the noises that beset us everywhere. She is particularly enthusiastic in her dove-like cooing when her father comes home from work. The zest with which she greets him can warm the cockles of one’s heart. And as the proud parents take turns petting her, the babyish music continues. What a change from the noises elsewhere !



After she finishes her concert, we go to the balcony on the western side of our flat from where we can hear the birds. There are a lot of trees there and lots of birds. I usually sit at the balcony reading the newspaper. And this is accompanied by tweeting choruses of a host of birds. There are parrots, mynahs, seven sisters, kingfishers and some other unidentifiable birds. Some birds like the parrots make their twittering sound like a conversation conducted in cooing tremolos. So we enjoyed some of the pleasantest sounds in the mornings. Sharon and the birds kept us enthralled.



And then a policeman living in a nearby building decided to rear and train some dogs. Came the dogs, barking and yelping at all odd hours of the day and night. The policeman kept yelling at them “Yey!”, which was his idea of training. This was worse than the dog noises. The four dogs had different kinds of barking, making one think of bass, baritone, tenor and alto. Fortunately he has not acquired a soprano so far. And together the dogs and their trainer succeeded in bringing the noise levels up in a residential area making it worse than the most congested traffic junction. So we were disturbed right in our apartment at all hours of the day and night.



All this has made us feel that in this noisy place the only pleasant sounds worth hearing are those made by Sharon and the birds.

STAR TANTRUMS

Some unscripted lines on stage






There was an American lady who acted in a couple of the plays I put up many years ago. She was a very good actress. But she was very touchy about interruptions. If there was even the smallest disturbance from the audience she would toss her head and flounce off the stage disdainfully. We had to quickly lower the curtain, and then some of us went front to explain to the audience that there would be a slight delay, while some others rushed to the green room and tried to cajole the actress into resuming her role.

And when she finally agreed to ascend the stage, she gave a flawless performance while we kept our fingers crossed that there will be no more disturbances.

Impromptu


There was another actor who had a meaty role in one of the plays I put up in Madras Christian College. He was a haughty person who looked down upon most of us, but did play a few roles on stage where he portrayed gentle and sensitive characters. On one occasion he was supposed to deliver a soul-searching speech.

He paused periodically for dramatic effect. When one of these pauses stretched a bit too long, the prompter thought that the actor needed prompting and so he spoke the next line, not once but twice since the actor didn’t seem to have heard it.

But then the actor turned to the prompter and yelled, “I know that”. And then he went on with his speech, paralyzing the prompter for quite some time.

Very famous actors too have had this temperamental fits. John Barrymore was a famous Shakespearean actor. He was once acting as “Richard III”. King Richard is a remarkable character whom only the genius of Shakespeare could have created. He was a hunchback and quite plain looking, but had a charming and persuasive tongue.

He once had a man killed and then took part in the funeral. The man’s widow tries to ignore him and insult him. But King Richard keeps talking to her in such a charming way that soon she agrees to marry him. Such were the persuasive powers of the hunchback king. So, later when his troops start retreating during a war Richard just has to go and talk to them, and they would willingly come back to fight. But he can’t reach them since his horse has been killed. If only he had had the horse he could have met his men and turned the tide of war. In great anguish he says, “A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse.” John Barrymore put everything he had into that line. The audience was tense and thrilled as Barrymore delivered the line except for one man who started laughing.

Barrymore looked at the offending viewer and said, “An ass will do”. And the theatre erupted into laughter. Barrymore didn’t bother to maintain the mood of the scene, but was more particular about putting that man down.

Temperamental


I was once watching the shooting of a Tamil film in a studio in Kodambakkam.

A famous actress who was also a great dancer was playing a simple scene. I was a film reporter at that time, and along with me there were a few more film journalists.

And there were also some other guests who were friends of the director or producer. The scene called for the actress to enter the room, sit on the floor and say a few sentences. “Vaangamma” said director Bhimsingh, and the actress came in.

She stopped short when she saw the crowd of visitors, and then quickly turned and went out. A few assistant directors rushed to her side. “I can’t go on with so many people gaping at me” she said in a rude tone.

The assistant directors came back to us and begged us to wait outside the set, which we did immediately. They were hesitant to ask the guests of the producer and director to go.

But the guests themselves, sensing the problem, quickly left the scene. And then the heroine resumed shooting. After all this fuss the scene turned out to be an ordinary one.

It all seemed much ado about nothing.