Sunday, April 4, 2010

Omani uut vs. Bangali uut

"Uut ki kanta bechhe khaye?''

Era Omani Uut, Bangla-e jiggesh korechhilam bole bujhte parlo na bodhoye. Bangali uut-er shathe aalap hole jene nebokhon.

Alexandria Get-away

This talks of untold stories. Dark and cosy back-lane in hedonistic Alexandria, the crumbling, sea-salted playground of Islamic Egypt. A man and (his?) woman caught out in the prying headlights.
Shall I be sensible and opt for the "elderly couple taking a shortcut to the main road on the way to the rail station'' story? Or is it the star-crossed lovers running away from unreasonable families, the way ravishing bengali belles fly to freedom with smoking hot kashmiri shawl-wallahs? Or do they anymore?
Or is it a prelude to the last action stand of the rebel, running from the swarming government forces?
For now, they will keep this picture alive, and the possibilities would remain tantalising.

p.s: the drama gets heightened when I think of the place the picture was taken from - a tiny balcony of the legendary Cecil Hotel in Alexandria, wartime headquarters of the British Secret Service, time and again haunted by the likes of Winston Churchill, Somerset Maugham, Lawrence Durrell, etc. on a balmy night of the Mediterranean summer.