school days and Yeats
I never quite explained why I chose this particular url for my blog. The fact is it is something taken out of one of my favorite verses by Yeats: "Tread softly because you tread upon my dreams". It was one of the most romantic and sensitive lines I had come upon and I've held it close to me for many years. It has this vulnerability that defies everything else.
I cannot recall these lines without remembering SM. SM and I were in school together and were the best of friends during our 'plus 2' days at Loreto House. The funny thing was SM and I had been in school together since we were kids but we had not really interacted much until we entered the portals of Loreto House after the Class 10 boards. She was probably the best thing that happened to me in those two years. We became friends real fast, we shared the same passion for books and music, and we could talk endlessly on anything and everything. We told each other our deepest secrets and shared each other's success and failures. I think one of the most memorable times we spent together was a school trip to Chandipur where we lived, ate, slept together for two days and vowed to stay friends for the rest of our lives.
SM fell in love with a guy who lived two houses down the road from where she lived, except she was not sure whether this guy had any feelings for her. They were neighbors and family friends but he never showed any overt interest in her which made it all the more difficult to fathom whether he would reciprocate her affection. She decided to send him a card for Valentines Day. I distinctly remember us sitting down together in the LH library deciding what to put into the card. She was sure he would know her handwriting, so she made me write in the card and all I could think of was that line from Yeats and so that was it...tread softly because you tread upon my dreams. She dabbed some of her favorite perfume onto the envelope and posted the letter. He received it, had no idea who had sent it, and wondered....while she continued making blank calls to his house on the phone (this was before the days of caller id). On one such (fortunate) occassion when she had given him a blank call and had him on the other end trying to cajole the silent admirer into revealing her identity, a car drove past honking away, the way cars do in Kolkata. Mr M heard the car through the phone and the next minute he heard it right outside his window and knew right away! The rest is history. For those who would like to know how the story ends, SM married Mr M and they are living happily ever after.
So this post is for my friend SM and our wonderful days in school and yes, Mr. Yeats for giving young romantics a new meaning to love.
I cannot recall these lines without remembering SM. SM and I were in school together and were the best of friends during our 'plus 2' days at Loreto House. The funny thing was SM and I had been in school together since we were kids but we had not really interacted much until we entered the portals of Loreto House after the Class 10 boards. She was probably the best thing that happened to me in those two years. We became friends real fast, we shared the same passion for books and music, and we could talk endlessly on anything and everything. We told each other our deepest secrets and shared each other's success and failures. I think one of the most memorable times we spent together was a school trip to Chandipur where we lived, ate, slept together for two days and vowed to stay friends for the rest of our lives.
SM fell in love with a guy who lived two houses down the road from where she lived, except she was not sure whether this guy had any feelings for her. They were neighbors and family friends but he never showed any overt interest in her which made it all the more difficult to fathom whether he would reciprocate her affection. She decided to send him a card for Valentines Day. I distinctly remember us sitting down together in the LH library deciding what to put into the card. She was sure he would know her handwriting, so she made me write in the card and all I could think of was that line from Yeats and so that was it...tread softly because you tread upon my dreams. She dabbed some of her favorite perfume onto the envelope and posted the letter. He received it, had no idea who had sent it, and wondered....while she continued making blank calls to his house on the phone (this was before the days of caller id). On one such (fortunate) occassion when she had given him a blank call and had him on the other end trying to cajole the silent admirer into revealing her identity, a car drove past honking away, the way cars do in Kolkata. Mr M heard the car through the phone and the next minute he heard it right outside his window and knew right away! The rest is history. For those who would like to know how the story ends, SM married Mr M and they are living happily ever after.
So this post is for my friend SM and our wonderful days in school and yes, Mr. Yeats for giving young romantics a new meaning to love.
posted by M (tread softly upon) at 11:10 PM
11 Comments:
Nice story:) It reminded me of all those Hallmark cards that I wasted on without Yeats lines;)
sighhhhh was JUST listening to " our lives" by The Calling.. while reading you post.. right now... felt SO good!!! such warm fuzzy memories eh!!!
:D..aint life grand!!
@ satchisgod you said it! Thanks!
@ ratna cannot tell for sure if it was the Yeats at work or something else ;) but did work out for the best!
@grafxgurl thank you. My school days are some of my most treasured memories.
Nice. I'm sure you also like Adam's Curse, and Rose Upon the Rood of Time..
Nicely written. feel glad that it worked out well for your friend :)
@ kaashyapeya Adam's curse is a beautiful poem. I adore the lines "That you were beautiful, and that I strove
To love you in the old high way of love"
Thanks for guiding me to the Rose upon the Rood of Time....
@ karthik I'm glad too and they still call me Cupid :))Thanks for visiting.
yup,
But given what I am, the lines that move me the most are:
"we watched the last embers of the daylight die/ and in the trembling blue green of the sky/ a moon, pale, and hollow as a shell/ washed by times waters as they rose and fell/ about the stars and broke in days and years....," and of course the last line: "...that we'd grown/ As weary hearted as that hollow moon."
Sorry for the long comment, and about rose upon the rood of time..., my pleasure
Niiiice post. Unfortunately, when I had that schoolboy crush thingie, I let "I dare not" wait upon "I would" like the old cat i' the adage.
Sigh...
Wow! Now my reverence for Yeats' has climbed a few notches :)
Your story reminded me off all that we used to do in collge in the name of 'love'...we should have believed in Yeats more than we did in Frost(Meeting & passing) & Keats :)
wow..how romantic... *sighing wistfully*...
Dear M, have you stopped blogging? I used to be a regular visitor here until 2 years back. After that I moved countries, got busy with school and the afterlife and blogspot became a distant memory. Today i revisited your blog after all this time and started re-reading from post 1. I had to stop at this point and tell you again how much I have loved your posts and how nostaligic they make me. I really wish you would write again. There is magic in your fingers and thoughts..there really is. Hope you are always happy.
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