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| Sunday, 18 August 2002 |
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The whole forest was agog; the party had begun. Everyone had been invited to the Parade to end all Parades. A right Royal one stretching for miles on end with the best people in town in it. Only Bottom was rather sad-but that is his way at most times. He was depressed, he said because he didn't have anything suitable to wear. But that's what he said. He had plenty of things to wear but his problem was that he couldn't get the appropriate colours together-that is, blue and gold. Oberon and I have lots of clothes in those colours but that's because we are royal; poor Bottom isn't, you see. In fact'we are seriously thinking of raising our whole staff to the peerage. We cant,of course, make them royal, but at least they could wear tiaras and coronets. Imagine Bottom in a coronet! He'd love it, no doubt. But now there is no time for such investitures as it is all very ceremonial, what with swords having to be polished and all the accoutrements having to be hired and so on. Puck is very inventive. He was going to deck himself out in bluebells and daffodils to get the right colour mix-with, of course, a body stocking to go under although he has the skin of a baby and, like a baby, can really manage with very little on. Quince was the busiest of us all, rushing about like a major domo,getting all the travel arrangements going and at the same time, not neglecting his own apparel for the grand day. As for the rest, they were all bustling about, shouting out loud at each other until the forest-at least our part of it-became almost like Billingsgate. It was to be an overnight journey as everyone was going and it would have attracted too much attention in daylight. It would have looked as though we were staging our own parade and that would be in very bad taste. The blithe spirits of the night were all decked out in different shades of blue, from royal to sky, but someone pointed out that royal blue is never sky blue. Point taken; Starveling got busy with needle and thread and had to replece sky blue with sapphire blue which is more like royal blue. From somewhere came the strains of a song called Blue Moon; it was Bottom-we should have guessed it-singing the onetime popular hit now given the reggae treatment thereby improving it, with a lot of feeling, as local music critics like to say when they dont know what to say. Bottom was blue alright, so we had to do something to see that he got out of his blue mood before we floated off to Colombo-far-off Colombo-for the Parade. Ob felt really sorry for poor Bot so he instructed Starveling to tell Quince to E-mail one of the best clothes shops in town for something really snazzy in blue and gold. Quince being efficient with a capital E, did just that and because it was a royal order, the outfit was delivered COD before you could say royal. We wanted to surprise Bottom, he was so miserable, so Ob sent someone out to get him. He arrived in a bad state of depression, and sat at the bottom of Oberon's tree. Ob himself came down the tree with the new clothes all tastefully wrapped in blue and gold, and presented the parcel to Bot who was so overcome that he went off into a fresh bout of crying. In minutes, Bottom was all decked out in his new Parade suit in the right colours, prancing about in great joy and we were able to get ready for instructions to float off. It was a great trip in the midnight blue of the sky, with icy breezes wafting us along. With hardly a shut-eye, we floated down to Colombo just as the Parade was about to get under way. It was like something out of a fairytale; a parade fit for a king, Oberon said. So he called for his orb and sceptre, having decided to carry them on the Walk. After all, it was a royal Parade. There were hundreds and hundreds of royalists in the procession, all of them wearing and carrying the colours. There were Past and Present royalists, to-be royalists and Puck swore, even non royalists trying to pass for royalists. It didn't really matter because everyone was in a party mood and danced rather than walked their way along the streets of Colombo, stopping the traffic and being saluted by policemen. Everyone who was anyone was there. Oberon being a right royalist walked at the head of the Parade carrying his orb and sceptre and looking every inch royal in his shimmering blue and gold robes and sapphire-studded crown around which Starveling had wound a laurel wreath. Being invisible, no one knew we were actually in the procession; they only knew we had been invited, but as meandering is our way,we managed to weavein and out of the procession. Puck was having the time of his life rushing in and out and tweaking an ankle here and a bootlace there, without tripping up anyone, of course. There were bands playing marches and bands playing the traditional baila which the Portuguese had introduced to the island 500 years ago. It was the grandest mobile carnival we had ever seen, with elephants and horses also joining in the fun. Quince had to give Puck a call on his tiny mobile to warn him not to try to mount one of the horses, which he loves doing, because policemen were riding them and we couldn't afford to end up in the police station. But Puck being Puck, said that his presence wouldn't even be felt as he would not sit in the saddle. Quince rushed up to Ob to tell him about Puck's plan and back went a stern message: Puck would be left behind in Sri Lanka if he did not listen to reason. That did it. He resumed his little game of playing Puck-harmless Puck- among the walkers. Bringing up the rear was Bottom with-would you believe it-a glass of vodka in his hand. Now, where on earth did he get that from, we wondered. No questions, please, he said, adding,'this is a party. Fair's fair.' |
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