THE BLUE BOUQUET

Octavio Paz (Author of the Story )

Great Mexican Poet and Nobel Prize winner for 1990. His Poem 'Sunstone' is considered as one of the ten greatest poems in Latin American literature. He was the Ambassador of Mexico to India from 1962- 1968 and was an ardent admirer of India's priceless cultural Heritage and had special interest in Tantricism. He last came to India in 1994 to present Jnanpith Award to the renowned Malayalam writer 'Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai' of 'Chemmeen' fame. He had close relationship with many Indian writers and artists like Raja Rao, Srikanth Verma, Vivian Sundaram, Jayanth Mohapatra etc. His last prose work  titled 'Light on India' is an amazingly accessible treatise on the legacy of India. Paz passed away in 1998.

THE BLUE BOUQUET

There are abundant situations in everyday life where your dear life is in the hands of a maniac who wants to kill you or molest you to satisfy his flimsy fancies or desires. The villain of the following story is such a character who is in search of blue eyes to present a  bouquet of blue eyes to his beloved. It shows the extent of idiocy and cruelty that senseless love and passion can sometimes entail. The story also makes us to ponder over suspended terror in everyday life. An apparently calm moment can turn sinister and stage macabre scenes. A bouquet of flowers can turn into a bomb to annihilate us (Remembering Rajiv Gandhi). A cozy trip can culminate in a traumatic incident to stab our memory. This story beautifully captures this angst that pervades in our everyday life

A disheveled man wakes from a sweat-drenching nightmare, furiously shaking his shirt and pants free of possible small jungle creatures, and hastily dresses to face the utterly dreamlike reality of remote Mexico, a torpid limbo. He is a lost soul from the American middle-class, middle aged and unmoored, now alone in a squalid hotel. The owner of the makeshift inn, one-eyed man, warns him to stay put for his own safety. Disregarding this the man  takes a brief, circular walk through the alley and he is suddenly set upon by a stranger. The predatory figure bears a machete and a slender knife, which he will use to cut the eyes from his head in order to present this penitent, macabre offering of “a bouquet of blue eyes” to his bewitching lover. The fervor of the man's obsessed mission, his dizzying persuasiveness to grab the sacrificial price that might reunite him with her, and his menacing wit and insight, push the victim's wit to its limits.

The story is rich in ironic pathos, humor, cruelty and metaphor.

We know almost nothing about the man threatened with the loss of his eyes, since the crux of the story is not biography but confrontation- that moment of danger in which the man finds himself, a moment such as any of us could experience. Faced with such danger, he loses whatever fragment of individuality he may have for us, and all that matters is the color of his eyes.

THE MAN WHO SHOUTED TERESA

THE MAN WHO SHOUTED TERESA

One night a man stood in the street shouting at the top stories of the block: ”Teresa!” And then another man came to help him. They even counted to three and then shouted: “Tereeeesaaa!” Meanwhile a small group was passing by and saw the two men shouting. They joined them and counted to three and then everybody together shouted: “Te-ree-saaa!” Every now and then somebody new passing by joined them . Around twenty people there helped him shout Teresa. They even thought of a way to shout efficiently-- ’T’ should be shouted low and long, the ‘R’ high and long, the ‘sa’ low and short. Suddenly one of them asked him; ’Are you sure she’s at home? ’ The man answered ‘No.’ Another one said:’ Did you forget the key?’ The man replied he didn't live there. And he was asked who lived in the top stories and why he was standing down below calling Teresa. The man said that they could call another name or try somewhere else. “It is no big deal.“ He felt embarrassed at that moment and said so . Finally, someone said they should try one last time and then everybody would go home. They did. Still no one answered. So everyone was leaving , including the man. Just when the man was turning into a square, he heard somebody still calling: ’Tee-ree-sa!’

The description above is from the two page story named “The Man Who Shouted Teresa”, written by Italo Calvino in 1943 , at age twenty. Even now it is still humorous and original. In this absurd story, the man initates some ridiculous behaviour , and more and more people follow him blindly without knowing the reason . Even when they had realized the truth, they still wanted to try the last time! However ‘Teresa’ even doesn't exist! So what is the point for them doing this? How ironic it is ! Calvino intentionally has his character dismiss the guy first who questioned the situation as having a “ freckly face” , and implies he is the only conscience in our society, so he will not be liked or be welcomed by those "initiators. " Blind obedience is not only found in this story but also in our history and real life . For instance, in the Second World War, weren't those who believed in Hitler’s leadership or the Japanese government just like those followers who shouted Teresa ? They just believed in them, but didn't really know the reason.

This story is interesting , but it also cruelly revels the ignorance and stupidity of human beings . Because the story never ends, like a endless circle, there will always be someone stubborn standing there trying to call Teresa , like in the end of the story, and this person will replace the man shouting first, and more and more people will join him. Thus, he will also be replaced.

Italo Calvino

Italo Calvino
Italo Calvino, on the cover of Lezioni americane: Sei proposte per il prossimo millennio
Born	15 October 1923 Santiago de Las Vegas, Cuba
Died	19 September 1985 (aged 61) Siena, Italy
Occupation	Journalist, short story writer, novelist, essayist
Nationality	Italian
Literary movement	Neorealism, Postmodernism
Notable work(s)	The Baron in the Trees Invisible Cities If on a winter's night a traveler Six Memos for the Next Millennium

Italo Calvino (15 October 1923 – 19 September 1985) (Italian pronunciation: [ˈiːtalo kalˈviːno]) was an Italian journalist and writer of short stories and novels. His best known works include the Our Ancestors trilogy (1952–1959), the Cosmicomics collection of short stories (1965), and the novels Invisible Cities (1972) and If on a winter's night a traveler (1979).
Lionised in Britain and the United States, he was the most-translated contemporary Italian writer at the time of his death, and a noted contender for the Nobel Prize for Literature.^[1]

once upon a time - videos

 

 

ONCE UPON A TIME

Once Upon a Time – Gabriel Okara

This is a poem by the Nigerian poet Gabriel Okara, in which he laments the lost innocence of youth. In it he condemns the hypocrisy of adults – hemmed in and constrained by rules and conventions – adopting masks for different occasions: for lying, cheating and betraying – whereas childhood is portrayed as a time of honest laughter, and spontaneity.

Once Upon a Time
 
Once upon a time, son,
they used to laugh with their hearts
and laugh with their eyes:
but now they only laugh with their teeth,
while their ice-block-cold eyes
search behind my shadow.

There was a time indeed
they used to shake hands with their hearts:
but that’s gone, son.
Now they shake hands without hearts
while their left hands search
my empty pockets.

‘Feel at home!’ ‘Come again’:
they say, and when I come
again and feel
at home, once, twice,
there will be no thrice-
for then I find doors shut on me.

So I have learned many things, son.
I have learned to wear many faces
like dresses – homeface,
officeface, streetface, hostface,
cocktailface, with all their conforming smiles
like a fixed portrait smile.

And I have learned too
to laugh with only me teeth
and shake hands without my heart.
I have also learned to say,’Goodbye’,
when I mean ‘Good-riddance’:
to say ‘Glad to meet you’,
without being glad; and to say ‘It’s been
nice talking to you’, after being bored.

But believe me, son.
I want to be what I used to be
when I was like you. I want
to unlearn all these muting things.
Most of all, I want to relearn
how to laugh, for my laugh in the mirror
shows only my teeth like a snake’s bare fangs!

So show me, son,
how to laugh; show me how
I used to laugh and smile
once upon a time when I was like you.

Gabriel Okara

ONCE UPON A TIME

“Once Upon a Time” is an emotional poem about the story of a grown up man—who once was an innocent child.
His adult world has lost the charm of his childhood years. The poet describes how the process of growing up transforms the innocence of childhood. After entering the adult world, the young adults will gradually forget how to “laugh with their hearts.”
 
While growing up, the cold world intimidated our main character. He used to sense people’s insincerity and their superficial laughs, because “they only laugh[ed] with theirteeth,/while their ice-block-cold eyes/search[ed] behind [his] shadow” 
 
It is a vicious circle: once someone has entered the adult world, he will change—then change others. Our character will learn how to say things that he doesn’t really mean: “I have also learned to say, “Goodbye,”/when I mean “Goodriddance”;/to say “Glad to meet
you,”/without being glad; and to say “It’s been/nice talking to you,” after being bored”

2
Like everyone else, our main character was forced to grow up—in order to adapt to the adult world: “I have learned to wear many faces/like dresses—home face,/office face,street face, host face, cock-/tail face, with all their conforming smiles/like a fixed portrait
smile” 
 
In this selfish world, our character learned how to adapt; he adapted a little too well. He now can play the adult role without any problem.However, once he became a parent, parenthood seems to have helped him to remember the innocent world of his childhood. Because of his son, he wants to re-learn how to be sincere. His son holds the key to this old, forgotten world.
 
What a wonderful poem! It presents in such a simple manner, such a complicated subject:the pain of growing up, and the loss of innocence

Night of the scorpion

GAMES AT TWILIGHT

INTERVIEW - ANITA DESAI