AFVOA Newsletter 03 of 2020

Section 5 - Memoirs CV 2 No. 03 / 2020 Page 114 of 167 12 Down Memory Lane of Movies Late Mrs Chitkala Govindaswamy Genre: Personal Experiences t was one of those days during the monsoon……. wet drizzling days following one after another with hardly a glimpse of the sun. The compound was a slushy mass of mud and clay; the whole atmosphere smelt damp and musty; one had to remain indoors most of the time. My husband never one to “live it up” even during the best of weather, adamantly refused to take out the car for an informal visit to some friends. The children, undaunted by the vagaries and whims of Lord Varuna, had gone out with their crowd of youngsters. With my better-half immersed in his “homework” – a pile of files that followed him in what we christened jokingly as the “Royal Red Leather Box” (actually nothing more than the typical Army folders that had seen better days) – I was left to amuse myself as best as I could. Well, I thought to myself, this is about the only occasion to play some of the old records we have. Normally when the kids are at home, they turn on the stereo full blast and it churns out the mad, mad cacophony that goes under the name of mod, mod music. Digging out the old records, I picked out at random and started the music…. What a treat it was to hear the soft sweet notes of old-time hits! The strains of the theme song of “Love in the Afternoon” couldn’t fail to drag out my husband from the study to join me…. And that evening was filled with pleasurable nostalgia for times past and an era gone by; for the great names and faces of Hollywood, who’s very thought conjured up visions of glamour and brought back a flood of memories that poured forth in an unending deluge. It was a journey down memory lane of momentous movies, the like of which one hardly comes across nowadays. “What a cast ‘Love in the Afternoon’ had”, exclaimed my husband. Maurice Chevalier, Gary Cooper and Audrey Hepburn.” “But for Audrey, the others are no more,” I lamented. “Why don’t we see any more such pictures these days?” “Well, for one reason most of that generation of stars are either too old or dead,” said my husband, picking up another record. “Secondly, a cast with that kind of looks may not I