Poly

I’ve fallen in love four times now. Though I have realised that love isn’t something that can be controlled with a number. There can be a first love, but who the hell can tell about their last love with certainty. Maybe they can, I have seen it happen a lot of times in movies and read about it in books, I always thought I would be able to as well. But it’s not as simple, at least for people like I.

The first was with a South African and he said he loved me and we were both 21. We lived together for 11 months. He left and said he’d be back but he never did and never gave me an explanation. He was the first guy I ever loved. And the people who knew us resented him for this. I have heard quite a bit about what should have happened and how he was wrong, but truth to tell, I could never stop loving him. It’s not a doormat thing, at all, I wouldn’t have gone back to him, for the simple reason he treated me wrong. Forgiving is easy, forgetting is not. In the same vein then, I cannot forget my love for him.

The second was a Danish guy. Tall blue eyes. Blond. He loved me to bits. But the distance proved our undoing, when I realised I was falling in love with someone who would have to leave or at the very least, stay away from me for long periods of time. But he was different; he returned and did say he would take me to Denmark. But my pride is too strong and I couldn’t let go of family and leave the country I love.

The next one I’ve been in since 2000. It’ll be 20 years in September 2020. I’ve had my expectations from love. In every relationship, some get met with some don’t. I expected sexual fidelity for the longest while. But when he cheated on me in 2013, after 13 years of my believing in monogamy, I restructured my thought process. The self esteem that was already not very great went down a sink hole. But I didn’t let go of something that took me 13 years to build and navigate through. It’s just not in me to give up and admit complete defeat without trying everything out.

So I actually took the call and opened up the relationship and gave being open a try. And that’s what I’ve been doing. It took me a year to get into bed with another guy. I haven’t had any reason to regret the alteration. Because somewhere down the line, the guys I met actually made me see different sides of me that I didn’t know existed.

Early 2017, I met someone else who I have come to love. One very important thing I’ve realised that keeps relationships of any sort alive is honesty. So I’ve been honest about Love and he has accepted it. And so I’m in love with and was love by two guys.

In April 2020, in the height of the lockdown due to Covid-19, I had a break-up. I went into depression because of it.  Life decided to take me down the route into polyamory. I haven’t regretted this. It showed me a different facet and possibility of love. I may take some time into getting over heart break again. It may prolong into a lengthy depression. Who knows?

This is it so far and tomorrow I don’t think about.

The Road Goes On

how quickly lives can touch,
it does not take much time,
Just a bit of love, not much,
that molds a heart to mine;

there is a quaint sadness,
when time’s not on your side,
mixed with a strange gladness,
hope left behind to bide;

the road goes on, as does time,
hope moves on, the heart aches,
love promises the sublime,
but seldom gives what it takes…

Beauty and the Beast

Beauty and the Beast is a fairy tale. It was made to make one feel good. It succeeds.

I had a lovely time watching the movie. The plot is run of the mill, the execution is fun. Having a stellar cast does wonders for a film that would otherwise not particularly stand out. It begins with a prince (Dan Stevens – I still remember him as Edward from Sense and Sensibility before he gained fame from his playing the romantic Michael in Downton Abbey) and an enchantment, a pretty (I cannot in all fairness say Emma Watson is beautiful) girl caught in a provincial town, her father (the very versatile Kevin Kline) and her vain suitor (Luke Evans, Bard no more) who pursues her without remorse.

The supporting caste is the most noteworthy: Sir Ian McKellen as Cogsworth, I was expecting a bit more from him, but whatever role he had he played it superbly. Ewan McGregor as Lumière is brilliant. And Emma Thompson as Ms Potts is astounding, I love Emma Thompson but here she excels, I didn’t even know she could sing!

The songs are wonderful. Some of the old melodies greet you like good friends and you smile when they are being sung. Kevin Kline’s character, Maurice, sings a few strains of the title track sung by Celine Dion and you wilt a little and flower a little when that happens. Dark undertones simmer briefly and they then burst with light. Such a fresh retake on what has already been done. My favourite song was Emma Thompson’s rendition of “Beauty and the Beast”.

There was a controversy over the gay character, LeFou? Damn, people still have a problem with – a few quips and a possible gay encounter in the end on a dance floor, for the blink of an eye? People need to just sit back and take a chill pill.

The special effects are good, nothing like Kong, but hey, if you make a musical of a fairy tale, it should look like this. This is what I expect musicals to be… I know what was going to happen, but that didn’t make the movie any less appealing. In fact, I don’t mind going for it a second time.