Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Engelbert Am I that easy to forget - 2009


Am I That Easy To Forget

Well I took a drive to Waterlily or what route familiar to take to reach the old dangdut club and of which bore many epithets before Waterlily came into being and upon reaching or what that I can gather of the old place except that everything has changed. Luck that the old old block housing the establishment is still around but painted and renovated to look gentrified and there was also an impressive lodging house in front - all prim and proper and looking at least three stars! Imagine that! Where were the Tomyam stalls when at prior were many and with customers coming and going in the hundreds regard less at witching or the wee hours? But they are still there even though arranged neatly and systematically 100 meters up ahead and sparkling clean cum wholesomely attractive. It was early about ten past ten pm but no sight of the old signboard or archetypes of signboards I was very familiar with but a state of the art and contemporary neon and huge notice board displaying "Waterlily Club and Karaoke Lounge" without any of the term  Dangdut mentioned! There I stood undecided whether to enter or not until a well dressed bloke in white sports jacket took a peep out of the front door and it was an ordinary wooden one normal sized and not wide and extravagant that one expects a famous establishment. Immediately he called to me to come in but I was rather perplexed and not really sure because the main epithet that should be displayed fully was not. Noticing I was hesitating he asked whether I was waiting for someone, I wasn't really so I asked whether Dierdre was inside? He gave a nod and a light chuckle and opened the door all the way for me. I entered the club that was dimly lit as usual but saw Dierdre in front, pretty as ever but this time attired in jeans and a light colored blouse denoting a utilitarian outlook or the clothes fit for a busy Club Mummy. She came close to me or to be near in order to converse or to hear clearly words uttered amidst music so loud and lively. I wasted no time in asking for a Hostess that can dance. She pointed at two or three girls still available that I chose the one looking the most energetic and built more to a dancer's physique. We sat down upon a nice couch ample for two persons and comfortable to be spacious for three. We talked on general topics yet not saying anything but typical of such rendezvous when the couch in front seated a lonely patron, waiting, until a girl arrived and immediately both gave each other mouth to mouth resuscitation! Ah! A couple in love and what a spectacle of them passionately kissing except invoking moments of physical embrace and at the same time exploring each other most deep and secretive domains. Something stirred in me but not enough to launch a projectile since so long not becoming spontaneously aroused. Besides there was no viagra in my possession and I came for the dance not sex whence dance is invigoratingly art - philosophically and sentimentally but sex is just plain physical, brazen and harsh. Perchance the couple in front is in love and what can love be but deep cum enigmatic! However its good to be heated up for such unplanned reason! Hohohohohohoho! A cha cha number arrived and I earnestly asked Lila or the sobriquet or the peculiar words utilized for her good and prodigious nomenclature or in other words - her admirable name. There we were on the dance concourse and I gave cue by swirling to the four steps starting with left two followed right two but Lila was stiff all over and her legs benumbed and not responding! She can't dance! Immediately my thoughts came to Dierdre plus why and in heavens name that she passed me this girl when I specifically asked for one who can or more than can - sway! Surely she knows the girls if not all of them and why's that she recommended three who's supposed to prance excellence and all apparently worst off wiggling! Perhaps there aren't such women anymore because dangdut is actually not like before and disappearing and inasmuch gone when its death should be earlier. A dangdut number after the cha cha but I continue the four step just to feel once more the mighty dangdut however salsa ing alone with a partner so dumbfounded and unresponsive! Yaya mentioned that she need be inebriated to joyously move but its really more the Malay adage of " Tak tahu menari tapi kata papan jongkang jongkit" or one who cannot dance blames the uneven dance floor! We went back to our seating arrangement and I courteously waited for a while but a second later asked for the bill and drove home after which.. I feel despair much like Emile Cioran's poem of perpetual despair when mountains don't laugh and birds don't sing yet the philosopher and Schopenhauer - a fellow logician were  perennially woe betide for a world so desolate and unfeeling marking her existence only; without concern for anything living upon and below her surface. Could be that they deride God for being indifferent and aloof most times, yet, God is most merciful and compassionate if men took to care the world and mother nature and of whom are God's own alongside men.. Platitudes can be cheesy but God is his own, already existing before nothing whence Cioran felt nothingness only in hopelessness and not eagerness in God's embrace. Descartes also concludes that perception is passive which of course it can be when one observes from afar without exploring not unlike dance when it is viewed only and not danced. Around the concourse and full and complete with all the twirls and swirls and spectacular dips at the end and in the middle! Hohohohoho! Yet, there I was outside the club, perplexed, bewildered and bemused with words of The sage Lao Tzu spinning around that the only constant is change, yet, I still pine for the old dangdut knowing fully well it could not be when dangdut becomes and becomes to no longer be. Leaving me all in all a dangdut aficionado dangdut forgets! Hihihi!