A Tale of Wonder by A N D Haksar

Author:A N D Haksar [Haksar, A.N.D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9789353054878
Publisher: Penguin Random House India Private Limited
Published: 2019-03-07T00:00:00+00:00

7

Her Reception and Later Lament

Though they may find some relief in idle talk, wise people are generally surprised and angry upon seeing that they have taken a wrong road. The mind, earlier focused by some illusion on hope, is then much pained at its loss. Will the sweet fruit they had earlier enjoyed soon be seen again? Or has it turned bitter? (1–3)

Thus was Ajajamesra, as he awoke the next morning and entered his city with the others. That doe-eyed girl too awakened full of worry. ‘Do something, Mother,’ she told her nurse anxiously, ‘so that I may see my beloved and have fulfilment. Even if one dying of thirst finds water, that person can do nothing without a cup. That is my condition without seeing him.’ (4–7)

Anxious to see her loved one, that girl then found a way. She made a hole in the wall which was just large enough for her eyes, and thus did she see Ajajamesra. Then the princess said with a deep sigh: ‘What a marvellous form has the Creator given him, O Mother. But mine is the opposite and only provides misery. Such is my misfortune. What extraordinary pain has destiny ordained for me? Before a house is put up, how can its wall collapse?’ (8–11)

‘The one I saw in my dream is the world’s fairest,’ she continued. ‘It is for him that I did all this. He did not take me by force. I was turned on by some miraculous magic. Even after seeing him, I could not have been so maddened as to forget my name and country. Alas, my fortune is a shame. My fate lacks happiness. My birth, filled with anxiety, is to be blamed. I planted a date palm tree to get its fruit. But all I get is thorns. It was my wish to plant seeds of joy in the field of my mind. How then, O Mother, do I have this pain as the fruit?’ (12–17)

‘Being someone small and wretched,’ she added, ‘I did all this for finding a shelter. But how could I fall into a shelter that had a snake? I went into a garden to gather flowers. I got none but was hurt by the thorns. Moving heat-stricken through a desert, with my throat, mouth and tongue all parched, I am now sick with worry. Even if I fall and then get up on being lucky enough to see some clean water, it turns muddy by the time I get to it. If I pick up even a rabbit for sport, it becomes a lion for me. So I am drowning in a pool of grief. I try to come up, but again go down. Even my mind is overwrought.’ (18–23)

‘In this sea of sorrow,’ she thought further, ‘if, by chance, there was even a glimpse of hope, I would be glad at its fulfilment. In the past I was delighted at the closeness to my beloved in a dream, and still think of that repeatedly.

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