mid week stress buster - juhu beach massage. turel

since there happens to be no letting up on the mad marks mayhem in the school; and since the first years insist that juhu beach instills tranquility in the soul much to nikhils scoffs; yesterday post furious calculations and discussions; took a break- first at brio over a long pasta lunch, then a nap at the studio. when mukul came we decided to test the tranquility out and walked on juhu beach for a while amid throngs of people and balloon monkeys above us.

the tide was in and the thin strip of land leftover was filled to the brim with sari clad pav bhaji eaters, skinny banian clad swimmers, burka clad groups of muslim women who doused themselves in the waves with gusto. for the first time in my life i got me a massage on the beach from this bhaiya masseuse who wrung my neck and twisted my back violently. all my bones cracked.

at the upmarket beach side bar of the citizen hotel, mukul and me were given company over cocktails by a scene from sleaze hell. on the table near us a huge flirtation drama was under way between two elderly gujarati businessmen who seemed like they were from out of town and a young, very drunk bengali sari clad woman who seemed like a hooker. they kept pawing at her, urging her to use bad words and she responded by getting more and more tipsy and flirting away with one – the younger man and fighting with the older man, who was at least 65. gross.

and late at night saw turel, sunils new play that twists the violence in manipur with a drama about gender ambiguity. reminded me a little of ‘the crying game’. though the death of grandfather seemed like unnecessary plot complications to me, i liked the idea that an atypical relationship was tolerated in the blurred space of tolerance until a rape forces a fact to the fore- and suddenly makes things one way or the other.