Thus She was…
By JIRARA
© JIRARA, April 2021
Published by JIRARA
On matrubharti.com
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Disclaimer: This is the work of fiction as far as all the characters, their names and the names of all the events are concerned and all these are imaginary and hence any resemblance to the persons (and their lives) dead or alive, and any places are coincidental. Even if a few events might look realistic/’real’, these are fictionalised and the associated names are changed in order to maintain their privacy, honour, and security. No intention whatsoever is meant to hurt any feelings of whosoever, irrespective of their personal/cultural beliefs, social or political inclinations, religion-orientations/practicing/philosophy, life styles, and work/business. The ‘I’, ‘my’, ‘me’, and ‘mine’ (if any used) do not necessarily mean the author of this book, and these and other such pronouns: her, hers, his, he, she, him, you, your, yours, ours, theirs…; are used for effective personification and dramatization, and the readers should not take these on their ‘own persons’.
Please note: The readers should take these stories/verses/thoughts with/in good spirit. The presented ideas and material are based, where feasible, on readings and (thought-) analyses of scientific/other open literature (which seemed most profound and trustworthy), with as much care as possibly taken. The readers are requested to verify these notions on their own, and use their own discretion. However, these stories/verses/thoughts/ideas (mostly original) are expressed here with an intention of increasing awareness of the readers with a hope that in an overall sense, their (and ours) consciousness would be heightened (in all and multiple directions), so that we all can live our lives on this planet with true happiness, ever-lasting peace and real joy (irrespective of our orientations). The author and the publisher will not be responsible for any negative effects/situations arising as a result of reading these stories/verses and/or following the suggestions if any. No discussions/dispute of any kind will be entertained at any time and in any way, manner, and/or forum; because the dictum is that if you like(-d) you read, otherwise ignore, what is the point in making a fuss about it?; anyway you are independent to judge the messages in the stories and utilize for your benefits if found useful, since here the idea is in the direction of ‘consciousness raising’. JIRARA.
*****
Thus She was…
She was the first wife of the king of a village in the most industrial state of the country. And they had three daughters and these were still growing, but her husband wanted to marry again since they did not have a son! So, he took the permission of her two brothers and then got married second time, and then the king got a son from his new wife and subsequently one daughter.
But, since his first wife was elder, she had a good hold in the house-family; she was in a way the most senior lady in the house-hold and was lovingly known as Bashib, and was addressed as Buji, which was quite a cute and an apt-catchy name.
She was more close to her younger brother Atansi, since her another brother used to stay far away and due to his transferrable job they rarely used to meet; but she had equally good feelings for the both, but since Atansi was staying in a nearby town, they used to meet often if any works she wanted to get done, she would seek help from Atansi, who was incidentally a lawyer also; and most of the times he would visit her sister’s place, as was customary and an old convention.
***
It was in the same village a lady was married to a man in a close relation of the king, and this lady in fact was from the same town of the king’s first wife, i.e. Basahib (in short also called and addressed as Basa), she was as such a cousin sister of the Basa. This was a good thing to happen for both the ladies, so that they could often meet, and invariably it was the younger cousin who used to visit Basa almost two or three times in a week.
In her native town back, the new lady was called as Shengari who had a younger brother and his family: wife, two daughters, and a son; however, the family used to stay in the city Madavada where the brother Aratha was employed as a supervisor in a popular Madavada cotton mills. He was then in the bracket of nearly lower middle-class, despite he had some ancestor’s property mainly the farm land, which was looked after and cultivated by his father and another brother. So, it was just a tight life for Aratha and his family especially that his two daughters were to be educated up to at least the high/matriculation school level, and then get them married. This was a very difficult proposition for Aratha.
Aratha had some discussion on this aspect with Shengari who had sort of assured him that she would find a groom at least for one niece of her in the family where she herself was married, and also get some bargain in the matter of the dowry to be given; and she had also indicated that she might be able to find some more resources if it worked out feasibly, to which the brother was very agreeable and was relaxed a bit.
***
Basa had always one or the other need, especially to run and manage her huge family in her husband’s village, and hence she used to visit the city Madavada that happened to be a good closest one to her village. Since, she only knew Aratha very well, and that his sister Shengari was also her relative from both the sides: one as a cousin from her own native place, and secondly a relative in her husband’s village, Basa always stayed with Aratha’s family, where she was taken care extremely well, and of course she was never a burden to Aratha’s family for she would present appropriate gifts to all the members of this family; and she used to stay only for maximum two or three days just to see that her work was completed during her stay only; much of the work being purchases of saaris, dresses, and ornaments.
***
In the family of Basa there in the village, some marriage function was in offing, and it became necessary to get her all the silver and gold ornaments cleaned properly, and some were to be repaired and touched up and this was not possible to be done in the village, and hence she had to visit Madavada for that work to be done, and that too under the proper supervision of someone who was trusted.
Also, since these ornaments were to be taken out to another city, Basa was not sure that her king husband would allow this act of her, so one day she took clandestinely all these with her to Madavada and stayed with Aratha for two days, and discussed the plan of works to be done on these ornaments. In this regards she had taken her brother Atansi in confidence, and also she had done this with the advice of her younger cousin sister Shengari who in fact had primarily suggested and advised Basa that the ornaments needed a great touch, since for some years these were not in use, and these need to be polished for the next upcoming function in the house of Basa.
So, these were then shown to the jeweller (in Madavada), who was known to Aratha who had earlier purchased some small jewellery for her children from the same goldsmith; all the works to be done onto the ornaments of Basa were discussed, the cost was agreed upon, and the time frame was also decided, which would be at least two weeks, and hence Basa handed over all the ornaments for polishing, repairs and touch up and then she went back to her husband’s village.
***
It was now time for Basa to visit Madavada since her ornaments must be ready as per the time given to her of two weeks, so she was there in Aratha’s house once again, and then she went with him to the goldsmith’s shop; however, she was shocked to hear that all her ornaments and even some more of the other customers were missing, in fact the goldsmith told that a few days back there was a riot in certain areas where certain other communities were staying, including his own place, and several shops, including his own were looted and destroyed; in fact he did show his partially damaged house, and felt very bad that he could not save Basa’s ornaments. Basa got very upset, angry and disgusted, but could not do anything, because the goldsmith pleaded mercy, that he could not replace the ornaments, and that he could not even pay any compensation since he was not a rich jeweller, and that he had a family of five to support.
***
Basa and Aratha came back home, did not eat lunch, and were discussing what to do in this precarious circumstances, but no solution was in offing. Even they called Atansi to Madavada to consult on this matter, and he said nothing could be done since there was not any proof that the ornaments were even handed over to the goldsmith; because he might have agreed with Basa to work on these, but in the court of law he would not agree at all, and even would tell he did not know anyone, either Basa and even Aratha. Also, it was a fact that the riots had taken place and some shops were looted and damaged; although the goldsmith had shown his own shop partially broken (a small portion of the compound wall and a window were damaged), there was a doubt whether it was looted at all; the damage could have been artificially created to save the greater interests of Aratha and the smith himself. Any lawsuit would be futile, and it would cost lot of money, and hassle for Basa to visit Madavada for the court’s proceedings, and that too she would have had to do this a number of times and without informing her husband, because initially the entire act of taking out the ornaments was carried out without his knowledge. Also, for the lawyer’s fees she would have to ask for extra allowance either from her husband or her sister-in-law’s son, i.e. her step son, and this cannot be done at all because of the secrecy of the act; and although her own brother was a lawyer he was practicing only at the taluka level and not at the high court level. Basa was in a precarious situation not because much of her own fault, but initial act was of her own. In the process she could not do anything at all, and cried the whole night, and then next day she went back to her home in the village, and lived a life as if nothing had happened.
***
The marriage function in Basa’s house-hold was coming up, and it was sort of mandatory that she puts on gold and silver ornaments, but this was nearly impossible. Of course she had only the ones she was daily wearing, but this was not enough, and if she did not wear more it would be considered that she is too miser, or too simple, or she is not taking any interest in the marriage, and not even supporting it; she was again in a fix of a peculiar kind.
So, she called her cousin Shengari to her inner room and described her situation, to which Basa was offered some ornaments of Shengari on the ‘borrowing’ basis, and Basa should promptly return these to Shengari soon as the function was over, and not even keep them for one day extra. Basa reluctantly agreed and promised that she would return all the loaned ornaments back to Shengari.
***
Basa was relieved and even happier that she had saved her face, and even the honour of the tradition and the convention of her family-fold with full-fledged glamour by wearing exotic saaris and dresses, and nearly newly refurbished ornaments, borrowed from Shengari. She attended the function with pride and all the things went very well for her. But subsequently she often went through depression, and her health got gradually deteriorated, because she was not able to forget that gory event, and the serious mistake that she had made by losing her own ornaments that her father had given in the dowry, and she often used to think how much hard work he would have done to gather and save the money to make those costly ornaments for her own wedding. Ironically, the frequent visits of Shengari to Basa were gradually reduced, who was her only trusted friend from the outside of her own King’s mansion.
***
For years to come she had developed many more health problems, some due to the old age, constant worries and the anxiety of her mistake; and in the process of time she withered away in the eternity.
It was an unfortunate situation for her, that though she had suspected that the ‘losing’ of the ornaments could be the plot and ploy of Aratha and his sister Shengari, since within a short time after the function of her own house was over, Aratha’s daughter was married in the house-hold of Shengari, Basa could not declare her suspicion to anybody. Also, she had felt that one/two of the ornaments that she had borrowed from Shengari looked like her own, but since these looked a bit different, Basa could not get this confirmed from Shengari; this might have been an insult and mistrust. Basa also had attended the marriage of Shengari’s niece only in her own nearest neighbourhood, just outside of the King’s mansion (Haveli, Bungalow), and at that time her attention was on the ornaments put on by the new bride, and Basa got more suspicion of the gory plot, because she could decipher that most of these were of her own, but since these were greatly touched up, and that she herself had not seen these ornaments after the rework done on them, could not for sure decide that these were definitely hers; she had lost sleep for several weeks on this dilemma wherein everything seemed connected: her taking away these to Madavada, handing over to the goldsmith known to Aratha, the riots, the ensuing theft, Aratha’s daughter’s marriage in the household of his sister, his earlier poor condition, and full display of the same or almost similar types, sizes, shapes, mouldings, and even the same total number of the ornaments; unfortunately she had no courage to be outspoken, and blatantly declare and blame Shengari for the unpleasant and cruel act; and the fiasco that was basically of her own making.
Basa had no other way to reconcile, and hence she thought in her mind, that she had done some favour to her cousin brother Aratha, cousin sister Shengari and as such to the cousin niece (Aratha’s daughter), but all incognito, that only the times knew, and no creature of her King-husband’s mansion ever knew.
Thus She was duped and really cheated; the mysterious are the ways of the times that nobody can ever fathom.
*****
