Tuesday 26 October 2010

K. 626

Last Saturday I went to the Church of St Martin-in-the-Fields to hear the Belmont Ensemble performing Mozart’s Requiem Mass in D Minor.

It is difficult, in any setting, not to be moved by the austere beauty of the Requiem. As the voices of the choir swelled and filled the church – the trembling supplication of Requiem aeternam, the liquid run of Kyrie eleison, the towering majesty of Rex tremendae majestatus – I would like to tell you that I was moved to the very depths of my soul, swept away by lofty and powerful emotions. But to be honest, my thoughts were on food, and a summer afternoon in Calcutta five years ago.

The day after our third semester ended, seven of us had hit the streets with a camcorder – the plan being to eat at our ten favourite places in the city, all within the span of one day and a budget of 250 rupees, and to make a film while we were at it.

Golbari – one of our favourite haunts – was closed at the time because their workers had gone on strike, but we could not imagine leaving it out. So the film had a shot of a red traffic light at the Shyambazar crossing, and then a shot of us walking solemnly past the entrance of Golbari, heads bowed. The background music was Dies Irae from Mozart’s Requiem.

Day of wrath! O day of mourning!
See fulfilled the prophets' warning,
Heaven and earth in ashes burning!
(and so on in that vein)
I am known to have a penchant for melodrama, but this was over-the-top even by my standards.

12 comments:

Abhiroop said...

My endearing memory of the incident is that of the Quakar crossing the street with a usually flabbergasted expression on his face, and for some mysterious reason, clutching his crotch for dear life.

Sonofabitch killed the shot.

Sroyon said...

@Lahiri: *enduring, *Quaker. :)

Indecision Personified said...

Ah a sroyon-esqe post at last! Liked it. Being busy at office has not been agreeing with your blogging lately.

Sroyon said...

@IP: Do you refer to the slightly reduced frequency, or do you not like work-related posts?

Anjana Talapatra said...

Is the video on the public domain? One is very intrigued!

Indecision Personified said...

@sroyon: Nothing against your work related posts in particular. Just felt that when you are busy and pre-occupied, it shows in your posts. :)

Sroyon said...

@Anjana: Unfortunately it isn't. I hope one isn't too disappointed.

Vikrant Dadawala said...

two is disappointed too

not very funny, but how could i resist?

Rara Avis said...

Upload the video!

Rara Avis said...

Keep the work-unrelated posts coming!

Sroyon said...

@Vikrant: That is truly appalling.

@Raktima: The blameless public is better off without it. :)

Anjana Talapatra said...

Indeed one is two disappointed :(