The French Connection

1.   Saturday – One walks into a room where the only European language one recognizes is French: a language one is familiar with but doesn’t really understand when spoken at the speed of lightning; a language one refuses to speak out loud as one is sure it sounds more Chinese when one speaks it (Unlike the mellifluous sound one hears in one’s head!).

2.   Still Saturday - The French effect begins to work its magic. The result?  The following monologue of sorts.

Indian mad hatter: She is from Kerala and she speaks a language called Malayalam. Do you know the connection between Napoléon and Malayalam?

(The French and Indians look equally puzzled)

Indian mad hatter: You do know what Napoléon supposedly said when he was exiled to the island of Elba, right?

(The French and Indians nod)

Indian mad hatter continues:  He said, “Able was I ere I saw Elba.”

*dramatic pause*

Indian mad hatter continues:  Well, that’s a palindrome and the word Malayalam is a palindrome too!

3.   Sunday – The French connection continues as one gets a lucky last minute pass to a Richard Clayderman-Rahul Sharma concert.  One has always loved this French pianist and voila, he appears out of the blue to make an old dream come true. One sentence in French is all it takes to remind one of the barriers of communication but then, the music rises in a sublime crescendo, flowing past barriers and walls until Babylon is one.

4.   Monday morning: One stares groggily at the ATM machine in the office building when one hears voices approaching; voices speaking a language that’s familiar yet strange, a language one knows yet doesn’t, a language called - French!

All this to say that one is now wasting precious time pondering the meaning of The Signs; signs that come with “FRENCH” attached to it!