Chapter 43

She noticed her having her dinner, she remembered his earlier conversation with her and excused himself from where he was and walked towards the table she was sitting. He was fluent in western classics from the thirteenth century motet to the twentieth century Stravinsky. He enjoyed the Classic style of Haydn and Mozart, the romantic compositions of Mendelssohn and Chopin; and the extended harmonic and formal practices of Strauss and Schonberg. Well very few knew that he could even play some of their small pieces; he loved their music so much he had actually learned some when he was in Oxford.

She was happy to let him join her since she was really finding it very boring to eat alone and wanted to take him up on his earlier offer with a couple of questions. She just waited a couple of minutes before asking him any questions, and she realized that he had hardly spoken a word and noticed that he was enjoying the music very much. She felt it would be rude and impolite to interrupt and just smiled at him and continued with her salad. The second note that was being played didn’t impress him much and he was not concentrating on the music anymore.

He remembered their earlier conversation and apologized to her for being interrupted earlier; she was happy that, now she could ask the questions she had on her mind, but somehow couldn’t bring herself to ask him. Instead, ended up saying “looks like you enjoy classical music a lot”. He was happy that she did not interrupt him earlier and answered her after finishing the food in his mouth and drinking some water, that he loves classical music. She was hardly interested and knew about what he was talking about but she was very much interested in keeping the conversation going and liked the way his eyes lit up when he talked.