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Ahalya's Curse SHORT STORY Ahalya’s Curse P. Raja Ahalya, of Ramayana, was the wife of Rishi Gautama. This beauty was seduced by Indra, who had to suffer the sage’s curse for his adultery. According to the epic, Indra (Lord of the Firmament) sought the help of the moon, who assumed the form of a cock and crowed at midnight. This roused Gautama to his morning devotions. When he went out, Indra went in pretending to be Gautama and made love to Ahalya. The Rishi punished both. He turned his wife into a stone and cursed Indra to have vaginas all over his body. Ahalya was restored to her natural state by Rama, the hero of the epic. Not knowing one’s limitations is cent of women in our country. It is a sin… an unpardonable one at that. destined so perhaps. Or is it a curse You married me. on our motherland? What if Brahma had given me as Brahma made you happy by your bride? You could have easily advising you to marry me. You made rejected the offer had you put your Brahma happy by obeying him. To common sense to use. Why do you you he is the Guru. And Guru’s efore you decide to curse me, men lose all your senses when it comes words are law. To him you are the let me have your audience. to woman? best among sages. He had two birds BCursed be me if I fail to Sages like you are revered by flinging a single stone. You had convince you. If you feel convinced, everywhere. People place you on a two mangoes in a single shot. then leave me to myself. To live with pedestal in their hearts and worship Neither of you seemed to care a you or go with Lord Indra is my you. They consider you as an hay for me. The butcher made the concern. intermediary between god and men. eater happy. The eater made the O Sage! You brought me up. You They think you are wise. Yet how butcher happy. But where did the sincerely and whole-heartedly shamelessly you fall for women! lamb disappear? fulfilled the wishes of Brahma, who Brahma created me. You nourished The poor lamb has lost its entrusted me with you. I am grateful me. What are you both to me if not identity. From lovely lamb to meat, fathers? None of you ever seemed to to you as a daughter would be to from mutton to food, from delectable have any respect for the woman in me. dish to faeces and from foul-smelling her father. You were a mother, too, to To both of you I should have looked faeces to earth again. me, for I have learnt to distinguish like a commodity. A commodity can In the case of the helpless lamb, between affection and love. You never have any opinion of its own. it had the satisfaction of becoming taught me everything that an And so both of you never bothered food for someone who appreciated impartial guru would to his about my wishes. And your decisions it as it melted on one’s tongue. But illustrious disciple. were final. me? Sage Gautama’s wife… That’s You should have stopped there, Brahma if asked would have given how the world began to identify me. O Sage! You should have stopped a slippery answer: Where can I find I was Ahalya, no more. From there. It is out of greed that you for you a better being than Gautama? childhood to girlhood, from girlhood played the fourth role. It is You for your turn would have said: to wifehood, from wifehood to unexpected of you. All calamities in You will be safe in my hands. motherhood, from motherhood to … life are caused by greed. Greed is the I became your wife. Rather I was Oh! The several offspring of over-confidence. We made your wife even before I could -hoods of women, they are destined develop this sort of confidence once ask myself whether I liked it or not. to pass before they become dust we fail to understand our limitations. Such a thing happens to ninety per with dust. 42 MANUSHI Brahma gave a body to my soul. magnetism failed. One who has waved my hand smiling at him all the He gave me to you. But you saw only conquered all his senses can never time. He, too, smiled back and the soul and ignored the body. be a man. disappeared. I am Brahma’s daughter. I am In all these years of married life, The next day when I was bathing, I beauty incarnate. I am special to the I’ve been living just like a stone, a dead heard a voice from behind the bushy great creator. He told me once that he wood. I doubt if you ever knew what a trees that said, “ No tongue can paint made much use of sandal paste to wretched life I was leading. It was a your beauty.” mould my body. death-in-life-existence. I was happy at heart. I jumped for O Sage! Have you ever looked at I needed a saviour who could joy. All because someone has seen me me at close quarters? Who in all the look at me with lust-filled eyes. This is and found that I am a beauty beyond seven worlds has such a shapely and what every woman worth her salt ever words. Neither a lexicographer nor a well-chiselled nose as mine? wants her man to do. It is only lust fertile poet can ever express in words It is the nose that speaks for the that leads to love, and never the joy I experienced on that day, at face. And mine is the most beautiful love to lust. that hour. one. It is unique in its own way. Lust is the essence of life…the I looked around and asked, ”Who Have you ever noticed my eyes… only means of satisfying the biological is it?” Indra showed up as if he were my swimming eyes? What beauty in urge. Without it there can be no waiting for my words of permission. any part of the world has them? creation. Brahma would have to sit idle I smiled. My long tresses were Well? I am a stupid woman talking only to be forgotten once and for all. hiding the front of my body, and I didn’t of beauty to you. All my make any attempt to hide it words will sound nonsensical with my hands. Neither did I to you. When you can’t even go down into the water. see and admire my face which Instead I stood hip deep. is an open book, what use can Indra came closer to me there be if I speak of the on the bank. His words told hidden treasures that my me that I am tall and graceful father took pains to bless me and that my magnificent hair with? cascades in profusion from Devas and Asuras would my shapely head. have vied with each other to Beneath my arching sing of my frame in glorifying eyebrows, I learnt only from terms. Poetasters, too, would him that my eyes like twin have come out with genuine stars shine forth with a lines of pure poetry. brilliancy only softened by A good woman inspires a long, black, curving lashes man; a brilliant one interests him; a Indra, the lustful lad of the that veil them. beautiful one fascinates him; and a firmament, is really my prayer It is not that I do not know how sympathetic one gets him. I know I answered. delicately and finely my features are am all the four rolled into one. Yet I Just try to recollect what happened moulded. But when he continued, I fell failed to get you. in the morning, a short while ago. I in love with myself. He spoke at length I spent several days, months, and know you are not in that mood now. of the winning sweetness of my smile then years in trying to know the root So I will do that for you. and certified that the tender lines of my of my failure. Then one day I The cock crowed. You woke up. lovely mouth personify the gentleness understood that it was not my failure. You went out to take your morning of my nature. It dawned on me that you are not a bath. You never knew that you were He was all praise for my complexion. man. tricked by a human voice. People call Deliciously creamy, he said, with a It was a late realization, of course. you sage. But how gullible are you? transparent yet perfectly healthy You have no feeling for me. Fine! But I knew it. I knew it was not a texture that never wearies one’s eyes you have no feeling for any other rooster’s voice. I was also certain that and becomes insipid. woman either. my saviour had come. He stopped awhile as I admired him Perhaps you have outgrown all A few days ago when I was half- and his words of praise. He stepped such human feelings, which you clad and bathing in the river, Indra into the water and embraced me. would call human weakness. This is speeding in his vehicle amidst the It was really a man’s touch, a touch one solid case in which body clouds, eyed me and slowed down.
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