A PERFECT DAY FOR A LAZY BONG

I woke up on Saturday morning to find Łodz all yellow and gold. It was the warmest day so far since our arrival here. We had to turn off the heater in our sun-drenched bedroom and just fresh from a tropical country, that was quite an achievement.

I love sunshine. Have I ever said that before on my blog? I don’t think so. But O yes!…I luuuv sunshine. It makes me walk with a spring in my step…adds a zing to my life. With no fixed agenda for the day, I decided to take over and planned the perfect day for Darby and myself. My Friday night’s date with Chopin’s Nocturne in C Sharp Minor (currently, I am into most things Polish, including music composers), left me craving for more even in the morning. But this time I planned to listen to good ol’ Bocelli. As I googled for Bocelli, I also came across ‘Cinema Paradiso’ with English subtitles on You Tube. Perfect! Sure…I was going to have my kind of day. Feet up on the table and a bowl of yogurt and wheat flakes in hand, I began my cinematic adventure. And boy…I was hooked. Once again last Saturday I fell in love with the movies. It was interesting watching Phillipe Noiret in ‘Cinema Paradiso’ as the lovable and encouraging cinema projectionist in a Sicilian village, whose death makes a film maker return to his roots after 30 years of self-imposed exile. If you love movies, you will share the characters’ palpable passion for the magic called movies. Why do I say that it was interesting watching Noiret in this 1988 movie? The death of his character, Alfredo, the film projectionist, forces the return of Salvatore to his village and sets him on a journey to his childhood. The last film I fell in love with back in Kolkata was ‘Il Postino’ in which Noiret plays the Chilean poet Neruda who returns to the land of his exile, Italy, and hears of the death of the postman, Mario Ruoppolo, played by Massimo Troisi. Watching ‘Cinema Paradiso’ was thus, in a sense, like coming full circle. I can watch these two movies again and again and yet again because I find in these bittersweet tales a reaffirmation of my faith in the transcending power of art, friendship and human goodness. And, because ‘Cinema Paradiso’ tells me that sometimes you have to go back, no matter how painful it is, so that you can finally let go…because sometimes only going back can ensure liberation… because liberation is a wiser option than escapism.

My morning was a triumph. I had planned lunch outside. We had Chinese at a not-so-great place called ‘Ha Long’ on Piotrkowska. We have had a meal there only once earlier and already the joke about it is, ‘Ha Long until you stop dining here for ever?’ I would have preferred ‘The Wook’ but I wanted to save some money for my weekly indulgence—coffee and cheesecake at Café Verte. I absolutely adore this place. Tucked away in a dark courtyard off Piotrkowska, it is esoteric in spirit and generally the hub of people from the local theatre scene, although there are plenty like us who frequent it. If I were some ‘dhuandhaar aantel’, I would have done up my home in exactly the way Verte’s interiors have been done up. Its dirty rose walls are complemented by what is, to my taste, rather postmodern monochromatic photographs mounted on black frames. The whole effect is eerily semi-erotic, slightly oppressive in a very European way. In fact, semi-erotic in terms of design is something they do really well in Łodz. They even have the club ‘Łodz Kaliska’ to boast of. However, since Verte is not a club where PDA is rampant, it is even more intoxicating. The photographs on the wall test your self-control in a public place where you have just come to have some coffee. The furniture is all wood and very, very pretty, complemented by lace and candles. Quite a yin-yang place, I would say, setting off the feminine against the masculine. If any of my readers plans to visit Łodz, the Café Verte experience should be on your must-see list, particularly if you are all arty-arty. And how can I not mention Verte’s absolutely adorable waiters and waitresses, probably just four in all…all of them as cute as buttons; or the music they play there. Till date I have listened to Miles Davis, Joni Mitchell and songs from ‘West Side Story’. Joan says, ‘Not bad…not bad at all!’