Indira Bai by Gulvadi Venkata Rao

Author:Gulvadi Venkata Rao [Rao, Gulvadi Venkata]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: OUP India
Published: 2019-06-10T00:00:00+00:00

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1 Yakshagana performance about the ten incarnations of Lord Vishnu.

2 A virtuous wife who vows to be devoted to her husband.

31

A few months passed. Now Indira had grown intelligent enough to occasionally think about her husband’s character. Her friends, girls of her age, would often tease her about him, which was hurtful. They would go on taunting her, “Indira, how many wives does Krishna have? Maybe because he was born in Gokula, he is named ‘Gokuli’? Or is it the name of one of his wives? Isn’t Krishna very fond of gulabi, the rose? Or is it the name of yet another of his wives?”

Deeply pained by their taunts, she would not respond to them. But one day, she broached the topic with her mother: “Avva, these girls tease me saying all kinds of things. How can I bear it? Using some pretext or the other, they bring up the names of Gulabi and Gokuli. When I avoid their eyes without reacting to their questions, they hold the edge of their sarees to their mouths and laugh. Why should I tolerate all this?” Her mother tried to console her, “Relax. People in town speak as they like. We should not listen to all that. As the saying goes, ‘If the dog barks, would heaven get defiled?’ From now on, don’t spend time with such girls. Stay home and learn some songs, ‘abhangs’, hymns, or chants. Your husband is an only son. With God’s grace, there is no dearth of money for a comfortable life. All that matters is your husband’s well-being. With time, he’ll realize his follies. Stop worrying now.”

Though Indira was a small girl, she could not be convinced about her husband’s conduct and character, and would brood over it when she went to bed and pray, “Oh God, please give my husband some good sense and protect us from trouble in the future.” As she was often troubled by these thoughts, she would go across to their neighbour Rama Raya’s house to be with their daughter Sharada, who was studying in a girls’ school. She would spend her time there reading The Edicts of Women Kind (Stree Dharma Neeti), Aesop’s Fables, Panchatantra, or The Story of Sathyavathi. When Bhima Raya and Amba Bai came to know about it, they felt concerned that she was reading books printed by foreign missionaries which were meant to defile their caste and this did not bode well. So, one day, Amba Bai called her into her bedroom and said, “Indira, you’re visiting Sharada’s house too often. Is it proper for a young married woman to be visiting the house of others?”

“Avva, Sharada has an independent room where she sits and studies. I too pick up some book, sit there and read. No one comes to that place; nor do we go out. We shut the door and stay inside.”

“But what will people say?”

“But we shouldn’t care about what people say. You said so yourself.”

“What kind of books do you read there?”

“Until yesterday, I was reading Stree Dharma Neeti.

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