Monday, February 07, 2005

Pride and Prejudice (part III)

“By the way, what is your name?” he asked.
“Madhulika”, she snapped.
She was not too happy with his description of her nose (which, by the way, she thought was the most perfect one that anybody could possess).
TA saw that she looked somewhat annoyed and tried to make amends, “Ma-dhu-li-ka… what a beeeaaauuuutiful name to match a beeeeeaaaauuuuuutiful face! I think I’m falling in love with you.”
“You think?! First you say unpleasant things about my nose and now you say that you think you are falling in love with me?! Well here’s what I think: you are a damn idiot! You don’t know how to praise a lady (?!) or how to propose to her. Get out of my sight quickly, before I lose my temper!”
“But you have already lost it!” TA was greatly appalled at the turn of events.
“WHAT??!!”, Mads shrieked, “Now you are going to tell me when I’ve lost my temper??!! Get out! Get out of my sight before I throw something at you!”
“Wait, wait! Don’t be so hasty. If you marry me you’ll be rich! You’ll be the princess of Magadh – the town my pop rules over.”
“How dare you try to bribe me? Don’t you know that I’m supposed to be this proud, egoistic, conceited girl? Just get lost!”
“Okay, okay… Madhu, I came with high hopes and was so sure that you would agree to be my princess and now… now you have embarrassed me! Bye! I may return… Ouch! Ok, ok I’m leaving!”
Mads had thrown a pot at his head!
And poor TA walked away, head bent at an angle of 90°.
Smoke bellowed from Mads’ nostrils. She went back to sleep, exhausted after her ‘extreme’ outburst.

* * *


Five years passed after this certain incident. Both our lead players had fallen onto bad times.
It was the monsoon. Darkness had fallen (ouch!). Mads was sitting in her hut with a pot over her head. And in the pot, water was drip, drip, dripping from the roof above her head. Poor “Madhu”, all her pride and more than half her ego had vaporized. She was thinking, “Oh! Why didn’t I accept TA along with all his faults? At least I wouldn’t have had to sit under a leaky roof then. Or else I could have accepted Gaj’s indecent proposal, however disgusting he was and still is I guess. But no! I had to listen to Dad, who was already dead and gone; I had to live up to his rep of being a proud pain-in-the-butt! Waaaaaaa! It’s entirely your fault Dad! If you hadn’t instilled all that nonsense in me, your darling daughter would have been a queen by now!”

1 comment:

:..M..: said...

My my. I wish my Hindi teacher was there! She'd have freaked. I vaguely remember the story too. I'm waiting to see the turn of events. You ought to have written the stories for our texts, man. We'd have had a better time!