DP Daily Prompt: Seat Guru

July 13, 2014

You get to plan a dinner party for 4 –8 favorite writers/artists/musicians/other notable figures, whether dead or alive. Who do you seat next to whom in order to inspire the most fun evening?

This will be an interesting prompt for me to do. My guests are :Allama Iqbal,Jalal ud-din Rumi, Rabindranath Tagore, William Wordsworth, Hemant Kumar, Waheed Murad, Mohammad Rafi and Roger and Hammerstein.

Now the seating arrangement has to be special for my honorable guests.  I’ll put Allama Iqbal beside Rumi; Tagore and William Wordsworth would be comfortable beside each other;  Waheed Murad and Mohammad Rafi at his side will be awesome; Hemant Kumar the musician will fare well with Rodgers and Hammerstein the duo. Since all these are celebrities, I have decided to have catering service.

There is going to be some restrictions about food. I’ll ask for chicken and fish to be served, for beverage water is the best, it’ll keep everyone happy, for dessert I’ll order a few e.g cheese balls in syrup for Tagore and Hemant Kumar; Cheesecake for Wordsworth,Rodgers and Hammerstein; I’m hoping Waheed Murad,Rafi Iqbal and Rumi would love Persian dessert.

Dinner was a success, all the guests enjoyed the food served.  It’s time for tea or coffee, during this time the guests will be energized to speak to each other. There in the corner I can hear Rumi and Iqbal having a deep conversation,I quietly walked over, this is what Iqbal asked Rumi, “How could one make his journey towards immortality?”

This is what Rumi said, “It is like a  rebirth. Just as you arrive in this world through a birth, another birth takes you out of this world. However, this rebirth comes through the inner strength of Love. Remember, the essence of humanity is the power to see God: The body cannot hinder your flight once the power of true Love takes over the soul.”

I wanted to stay and continue to listen, but I am the host I must walk around and treat all my guests equally well. I went over to see if Tagore or Wordsworth needed anything, they didn’t even notice I was there, Wordsworth was explaining to Tagore what influenced him to write the poem “Daffodils”.

Suddenly I heard a heated dialogue between Waheed Murad and Rafi, they were discussing the song in Waheed Murad’s movie Armaan, Rafi was asking what exactly was the meaning of the song, my ears were ready to grasp the lyrics, Waheed explained it was not meant to be an ordinary love song, it talks about Love but in a different sense, between two states that were united once and split, but are trying to settle their difference spiritually. I couldn’t hear all of it.

Rodgers and Hammerstein called me, they were planning to play the music of “Edelweiss,” I was delighted I told them to go ahead, to my surprise the cast of the movie, ‘The Sound Of Music’, appeared and were ready to sing the song.

The dinner went well, they all enjoyed listening to the song. I had a great time!

https://sabethville.wordpress.com/2014/07/13/dp-daily-prompt-seat-guru/