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CHAPTER 09: Peggy the Goose stalks French guests at the Wayfarers Inn

08 Mar 2021

“The Bonsoir Diaries” by Kumar de Silva is a cocktail of chapters, bursting at their seams with pithy asides, a trail of faux pas, and tit-bits from behind the scenes, marinated with anecdotes and drizzled with nostalgia, revealing everything you never saw on your favourite television show…from the ‘80s through the ‘90s into 2000.  Daughter of the celebrated Mrs. Olga de Livera, Ramya de Livera Perera is a well-known pianist and violinist, and a much sought after performer and teacher. She has also been one of the lead violinists of the Symphony Orchestra of Sri Lanka for several years. Always the quiet and unassuming person, Ramya and her husband Christel run a charming little guest house – Wayfarers Inn. It is a very peaceful and salubrious locale, indeed an oasis down Rosemead Place.  Ramya has, over the years, had an assortment of pets, from dogs to geese to swans, and whatever else in between. There were 10 dogs at one time. Their weekly bath was a ritual, with all of them lining up for the identical special treatment. Peggy is a long-stay guest at the Wayfarers Inn. By the way, Peggy is not a “she”. She is a “he”. It was all Ramya’s fault for not checking him, and giving him a boy’s name, which would have been in order. And Ramya justifiably still feels very bad about this gross error. Whether it is by choice or by sheer compulsion one will never know, since Peggy cannot talk, but Peggy loves classical music. He is very blind at 37 years, but still waddles up and hangs out beneath the window where Ramya does her music lessons, and then waddles away as the students leave. Wayfarers Inn has attracted a varied European clientele over the years and more often than not, has had a very steady stream of French guests.  As fate would have it, and at different intervals, some of those French guests have gone off their rocker, leaving poor Ramya and Christel in a quandary. “How on earth are we to know child? They are perfectly normal when they arrive… and then suddenly they go bonkers,” Ramya once said, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. They really didn’t know what to do, since none of their guests had ever gone mad in their years of running the Wayfarer’s Inn.  As fortune would have it, the French Embassy was shouting distance down the road, and so authentic French help was very close at hand. What a convenient mix of fate and fortune, I thought to myself at that time. Providence! Providence!  We do know that music, just like the moon, has an effect on the human mind. In fact, the power of music to affect memory is quite intriguing. It has also been established that slow music slows the heartbeat and the breathing rate, as well as bringing down blood pressure, whereas faster music was found to speed up these same body measurements.  One shining example of the power of order in music is King George I of England. He is said to have had problems with memory loss and stress management. He had read in the Bible that King Saul had experienced the identical type of problems that he had, and had overcome them by using special music.  With this story in mind, King George asked George Frederick Handel to write some special music for him that would help him in the same way that music helped Saul. Handel wrote his Water Music for this purpose.  Back to Rosemead Place... music is also all pervasive at No. 77 – the piano and the violin – with Ramya playing, practising, or teaching, in whichever order. The different composers are virtually brought back to life at various times of the day, interspersed with arpeggios, chords – major and minor – and scales – harmonic and melodic. In as much as it has a calming and soothing effect on the human mind, I have often wondered if it was Ramya’s music OR Peggy’s silent stalking which triggered off the latent lunacy in those guests ? Only they will know…   “And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.” - Friedrich Nietzsche   The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect those of this publication.  

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