Losing my Sangrinity

Enough of nostalgia in my last several posts. Sometimes the compulsion of the Present moment is so strong, it overpowers all sense of sensibility, decorum, and commonsense. In my defense, however, it was not all as it seemed, and here lies the story of how I lost my Sangrinity. 

After waking up to a sunny and sparkling New Year's day, Lisbon displayed a sullen hangover on January the 2nd. It was cold, cloudy, and overcast. All day. It was also the only day we had, to go to Belem, and we did. 

Belem offers a lot of outdoor activities. In better weather, the very things we did, would have added a different flavor to our enjoyment. I'm talking serious shopping at the outdoor markets, AND eating Pasteis de Nata with other sweet and savories, at two of the top-rated outlets that serve them, including at Pasteis de Belem, circa 1837, where the queue forms out the door because this place has purchased and uses the original secret recipe from the nuns who started the tradition of Portugal's famous, well, Pasteis de nata.

Now to the fiasco, that was my undoing. Continuing, however, in my defense, imagine being lucky enough, to get a rather last minute dinner reservation at a wildly popular, white table cloth restaurant. It is warm and welcoming inside, and after a cold, dreary day spent mostly outdoors, that in itself is a bit intoxicating because you let your guard down, or wait..was it my guard that let me down? Was it? Hmm...with deception involved, to a large degree? Yes, and it wasn't just with an apple, there was a whole lot of fruit involved. Very colorful too. Is there a Bollywood-Esqueness to this tale? Finding shelter from the rain..was it inevitable, albeit a different kind of seduction, with the loss of one's sangrinity? 

So here we were, our group was seated immediately on arrival, at the fine restaurant, while a crowd of hopefuls lingered around the entrance, within touching distance of the fine drizzle. 

Our server came immediately and one of our party, who had been here before, asked around to get a headcount for the restaurant's highly prized Sangria. Of course, yours truly, on finding out it was alcoholic, vehemently declined. 

Everything happened so quickly then. We feasted on crisp salad and complimentary house nibbles. The mains and the fruit-filled elegant decanter came almost together. The fragrant vase-like beverage holder with its easy to grasp slim neck was placed right by my side. Now, nothing comes between fresh fruit and this mama. I queerly regarded the astonished looks in my direction and paid little heed to the crestfallen faces as more and more of the delicious white liquid fell into my glass, in my earnest attempts to get the fruit to oblige and budge. It was so very good, mmmm! The deliciousness of all the fruits- the kiwis, pineapple, grapes, mango, strawberries, and everything else with it, was so much subtler, and gentler and sweeter, for being soaked in the smoothness of whatever it was. I kept dunking more and more in my glass, and the liquid was just uncontrollable!

Soon the accusatory looks cast in my direction bordered on alarm. I think I may have realized that it was the famed sangria that I was chugging down, but everyone else, unlike me, mindful of their dining etiquette, made me doubt I could be so rude. I couldn't, now...could I? Was it the alcohol, with its sweet deception, disguised in a jar laden with fruit that compelled me, on that disquieting rainy night? Or was it something more mundane, like an innocent longing for the fresh fruit? I will never really know, except on that rainy night, at a hugely popular restaurant in Lisbon, this is how I lost my sangrinity.

(From a draft waiting to be finalized, since January). 

The Gifts we can give to ourselves

For the past several weeks, the Evening star, Venus has been shining very brightly in the western sky. It has shifted positions slightly, but the intensity of its brightness has not diminished, instead it's grown, and the star looks bigger and brighter.

Today, for some reason I couldn't find it, even as many, many other less shinier stars were everywhere. I guess it's new position, from where I stand, is behind some trees? Anyway, going out into the night I did see the full moon, and gazed at it, delighting and celebrating it brightness. It also reminded me that in all fairness, it was uniting me with rest of humanity as it shone brightly all across the skies, and over the rest of the world! We were all compartmentalized by this powerful force, irrespective of gender, creed, color, size of house or political affiliation, as one species on this planet, impacted by the very moon, no matter where are. Even the oceans dance to its orchestration. The moon controls the tides of our times.

Had my mother been alive today, she would have called to wish me, on this Buddha Purnima, my Lunar birthday, which was today, 7th May, this year. She always celebrated my birthday by doing some charitable deeds, mainly feeding the poor and giving of alms. My day was interesting, having tumbled over from midnight, as I sat awake, in those very early hours, reading, well past my bedtime.

For a while now, I had been getting this one phrase in my mind, and from that a thought. Suddenly, this picture comes into my head, along with this one sentence, which I thought had a special sweetness to it. All I wanted to do was just write that down, because later I can forget easily, as the unfolding days of our lives engulf us in the demands of what we call living. That's when the magic happened.

The words just poured out and they painted a whole scenario of events, and I was witness to it. The story unfolded faster than I could write. I remember walking up to see pen in hand poised to write, and my eyes groggy head nodding half in obedience and half in defiance. It was finally in the last paragraph when the new title of the story revealed itself, First Words. The time was 3:15 am. I was very pleased that I persevered and completed the short story in the first sitting. That was a Gift to myself, on this, my Lunar birthday.

Hopefully, it will be unveiled tomorrow.