Love Stories

It was a marathon of shows for me on Saturday. I watched The Curious Case of Benjamin Button in the morning (I found I still love Brad Pitt!) and then rushed over to watch Puteri Gunung Ledang: The Musical at Istana Budaya. Sorry friends, I just knew I’d arrive just in time.

I didn’t have any expectation on PGL and was pleasantly surprised that it was pretty good. The props, the music, the special effects were all superb (my only complaint is that sometimes the dialogue and songs were at times spoken and sung too loudly that I was not able to catch the words/lyrics). I was already sniffling through the Curious Case movie and my sniffles continued throughout PGL. Even my non-Malay friends told me they thought PGL was as good as any Broadway shows.

In case you don’t know, this version of PGL tells the tale of a Majapahit princess who fell in love at first sight with Hang Tuah, the great warrior of Malacca. They promised to meet at Mount Ophir and when Hang Tuah led a delegation to warn against Demak, Majapahit’s enemy, the princess set sail and went to Mount Ophir to wait for him. However, the Sultan also wanted to marry her and ordered Hang Tuah to seek for her hand. She finally agreed but set seven impossible conditions first. Some versions of the legend say that the Sultan was not able to fulfil any of these requests, while others say that he was able to fulfil the first six requests (thus causing the ruin of the Malacca Sultanate) but could not fulfil the final request which would have required him to kill his son.

I had to read the electronic board to understand the story line as sometimes the dialogue was not clear to me and the singing was too loud at times (as I have mentioned above). And I also had to interrupt Mrs. A’s viewing (hope I didn’t ruin your time Mrs. A!) to seek clarification about some of the storyline. For example, when she said she would pursue him, I thought she was going to Demak after him. And how on earth did she expect Hang Tuah to know she had left her palace and went to Mount Ophir to wait for him? When Hang Tuah came on wearing only a sleeveless t-shirt (which he wore into the forest and up Mount Ophir), I even asked Mrs. A if there was a wardrobe malfunction for surely that was a hardly appropriate wear what with the mosquitoes and forest thorns (she told me he wore the same in the first season too).

Both shows that I watched on Saturday didn’t have a happy ending. And the conclusions that I gather are that some love are just not meant to be. Some love affairs like mine are just doomed. And even though both parties love each other and make great effort and sacrifice to be with each other (leaving one’s homeland as in her case and questioning himself about following his heart or continuing being loyal to the Sultan in his case), love alone will not see it through and there is no guarantee of a happily-ever-after ending for anyone, not even if one is a princess or a great warrior. And it is as true now as it was hundreds of years ago.

How sad. How tragic.

And I am somehow reminded of this quote from George Bernard Shaw: ‘There are two tragedies in life. One is not to get your heart’s desire. The other is to get it.’

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A brief update of my bag: I received a voicemail message while I was watching PGL (no reception in the Istana Budaya theatre hall) saying that my bag was ready for collection. I’m confused now, I really am. Will wait until Friday or the weekend before I collect it though.

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Arsenal hosted Sunderland on Saturday. I was happy to see Shava make his debut but not happy with the overall lethargic lacklustre display. The Gunners were firing blanks and simply not flying at the Emirates. Like we could afford to drop more points? I was so angry that I went to bed seething and fuming.

Cesc’s return can’t come soon enough. He has plenty of reasons for a speedy recovery. He had said he expected to be able to kick a ball soon but I know he has already started training with his team-mates in Colney on 19 and 21 February 2009.