Bela and Kana
Peer and Dhuni lived in their ancestral Potter’s village. The village was surrounded by hills and had a river that marked the boundary of their village. The river had fertile black soil on both sides of its banks, hence, people of different professions, like, weavers, blacksmiths, tanners, farmers, cowherds had been living there for generations from a little distance from each other. All these villages formed one kingdom, the King lived in his palace in the capital city Amravati.

Photo by <a href=”https://freeimages.com/photographer/jonathan_n-58973">Jon Ng</a> from <a href=”https://freeimages.com">FreeImages</a>

People from various villages often met each other in the market, which was on the small island, named, Vanijya. There were no shops over there, the way we have today, but vendors brought their produce and displayed them in open space. There was no currency as yet, but a barter system. These villages had supported each other for generations, they consumed each other’s products, but marriages in between the communities were not encouraged.

Peer and Dhuni were married for a long time but had no kid. Peer was an influential man in his community, people came to him for advice and mediating between the fighting parties. He had a big house along with a big courtyard, he had ancestral Potter’s wheel on the left side of the courtyard, where he worked and sang. His wife cooked in the covered part of the courtyard, their house was always open to the guests, no beggar ever went hungry from Dhuni’s kitchen. On the north side of the courtyard was a cowshed, where four cows were tethered, the servant came in the morning to take them to open space to graze and brought them back every evening. Life had a smooth rhythm to it, except in the night when Peer and Dhuni slept under the stars, Dhuni would loudly pray to the heavens for the child and cry. Peer had made his peace with his destiny and wanted to be thankful to God for what he had in his life. He would tell Dhuni, that their love for each other is enough for them to get through this life, moreover, the children of the village were like their own children. Dhuni silently agreed with him, but her emotions were not in her control, and she couldn’t stop crying and praying.

One day, Peer heard Dhuni throwing up in the farthest part of the courtyard, he ran to her, one look in her eyes, and he knew they were going to be parents. That day, they both couldn’t do anything, they just sat together and talked, passers-by were talking about this mature couple, who were looking and behaving differently.

At a right time, a healthy baby girl was born to them. People said,

Peer and Dhuni had grown younger overnight. Now, there was a different kind of melody in Peer’s song, he thanked God profusely, and became more generous in giving alms to beggars. Dhuni’s eyes were dilated with love, people said, she had become a mother of all the village, she simply loved and smiled. They named their daughter Bela, who will bring happiness to people around her.

Bela was a healthy, happy child. For some reason, she was taller than the children of her age group. She worked with her father and mother as well. She sang like her father and looked like her mother. She loved the hills, the clouds, the river of her village. She had so much energy, that people said that they had barely ever seen her walking, she was always running. Under the clouds, when the sky got all dark, its beauty, simply soaked her soul, she ran in the streets and sang.

But, now she had entered puberty and she had grown taller than every man in the village. People wondered, which man would like to marry a woman taller than himself. But Peer and Dhuni were oblivious to this fact, they never got tired of looking at their daughter, and the thought of her marriage didn’t bother them yet.

It was spring, and the traveling troupe had come to the village, they had camped on the island where the market took place. People from all the neighboring villages provided them with food, clothes, pots, etc, and in return, troupe regaled them with their performances, night after night. At the sunset, one could see boats from various directions rowing to the island. People would bring food, along with them to eat under the moonlight. They would watch the performances, forget about their worries, and happily row back under the moonlight, to come back the next evening. They had known this river and island for generations, coming of a troupe in spring was a done thing in the life of all these surrounding villages.

The sun was high up in the sky, and the servant had not shown up to take the cows out for grazing, cows were getting restless and were trying to break free themselves, their piercing bellow could be heard from far, and something needed to be done about this. Bela asked his father if she could take them out, he smiled and let her take them. In the village, Bela was passing through the streets and singing the songs which she had heard from her father, and singers from the traveling troupe, people were running to see this strange sight, they had never seen a girl going out in the forest alone with animals, and on top of that, singing aloud, oblivious to the existence of anybody else in the world.

Bela reached a place, where, the earth was soft with green grass, and mighty hills stood there, to protect the flowing river. She sat on a boulder at the riverbank, and let the cows roam freely to graze. Soon, she heard the sound of someone playing the flute. She went in the direction of a sound and saw one boy of her age sitting under the shade of a tree, and playing flute with eyes closed.

She waited for him to open the eyes, and when he did, something changed in Bella’s body and mind, forever, for the first time, she was reaching the soul of another human being through his eyes.

“Who are you ?” She finally asked

“I am Kani, from the troupe.”

“Yes! I remember seeing you. You are the one who had asked everybody to sing along with you last night.”

“Yes, I want people to feel free to sing and dance, feel the beauty of the night and their souls.”

“That‘s a very noble thought…who taught you all this?”

“Nobody, I just feel that way.“

The day passed in singing, talking, and running around.

People saw Bela walking back with her cows, but now she was not singing anymore, her head was bent, and she was lost in her thoughts.

Day after day, she kept taking the cows out and spent time with Kani. Kani had always been on cartwheels, traveling from one village to another, he had no permanent home, only during the rainy season he returned with the troupe to a place, which they called their ancestral village; a village of entertainers. During this time, they practiced new songs, dances, mended their clothes, and repaired their houses. This was the time, which could be called leisure time, they ate whatever they had saved from their traveling.

To Bela, Kana seemed to know everything. He could make the sounds of various animals and birds. He would make certain sounds, and birds would perch on his shoulders, arm, flock close to him. On his one call, dogs, cats, cows, sheep would start surrounding him from everywhere. He would take a piece of coal and draw anything and it would come alive to Bela. She was immersed in his world. Now, four walls of her house were collapsing, the village was giving way to a bigger world, she was listening to the stories of unknown people, different food, languages, customs, Gods, mountains, rivers, oceans, valleys, earthquakes, volcanoes, her mind would fly with those stories while her body would sit still.

She started drawing on boulders, and rocks with Kana, soon, on the walls of the house, before she realized she was drawing on her father’s pots. Her pots were becoming famous, everyone wanted to possess them. People came from far and away to see her walls, they all thought, Bela, had achieved the level of calm and sublimation, which was not possible for ordinary Mortal to attain, her beauty surpassed the beauty of a queen.

Slowly, these stories reached the ears of the king, and he wanted to see this much-talked-about girl and her famous walls. King came in the guise of an ordinary merchant to Peer’s house. At once, he felt a strange peace in the house. Potter continued to work, his wife continued to cook. He was served food without a word and was asked to choose any pot he wished to choose, he picked up a pot with flowers drawn on it, and in return left the gold coin in a place, suggesting that he was a king.

The next day, the servant had returned and Bela didn’t have to take the cows anymore. She stayed back and started drawing the stories which she had been listening to from Kani. People marveled at them and wondered at Bella’s imagination.

King had a son and harbored the desire to make Bela his daughter-in-law, but the problem was that the prince was not as tall as Bela, and nobody had ever seen a couple, where the wife could be taller than her husband. When he shared his concerns with his queen she laughed and suggested,

“It’s simple, we will get special shoes with little height made from our royal cobbler for our son, and, whenever he goes in public with his queen, he can wear them, so he can look as tall as his queen, and any girl will consider herself lucky to marry a prince. “

The following day, the king went to Potter’s house to ask for his daughter’s hand in marriage for his son.

Peer and Dhanu were very elated to receive such a proposal. But Bela was very sad. Though she had not been able to meet Kana in person for days, she lived with a hope of seeing him someday in the future, moreover, now, she saw him singing and dancing from far every night, something she would not be able to do as a king’s daughter in law, in that one moment, all her hopes came crashing down to the heap of rubble.

As the days of the wedding were drawing close, Bela was looking paler by the day, some said she even looked shorter, and before anybody knew, Bela was painting Kana’s face on every pot.

Her father admonished her for what she was drawing. Mother was appalled and wrenched the stick from her hand and ordered her not to paint anymore, father told her not to leave the house till the wedding is solemnized.

Wedding celebrations were in full swing, king ordered Kana’s troupe to come to the palace and regale people with their performances throughout the moon cycle. Night after night, Bela sat in the front row with the prince to watch the performance.

One night Kana was singing a song of a hen — tailbird, who is waiting for her partner to return from day’s work, the clouds were thickening on the horizon and hen bird was fearing for the partner’s well being, she wanted him to return to the safety of their nest, before it starts pouring, and becomes difficult for the bird to come back to the arms of his beloved. That plea, universal pain made everybody in the audience cry. Human emotions reached a level where everybody feels empathy for every living being, and the tears in one’s eyes match the purity of water stored in clouds. At that very moment, Bela understood that she wanted to be with Kana and not with the prince. That night she went to Kana and hugged him. They sat under the moonlight for a long time, knowing they had always loved each other.

The next morning Bela told her parents everything.

Peer said, “Kana has nothing, which householder needs to have a regular family life, just singing and dancing is not enough, they depend on us for their sustenance. “

“But he taught me how to paint, and that’s how I came into king’s notice.”

“Yes, and his job finishes just there. “ Her mother said

“He travels all the time.” Her father said

“So, it enriches his soul, and he enriches us in return.”

“Oh, every day, they wait for us to give them milk, food, clothe, pots in alms, my daughter, can’t marry a beggar .” Her mother announced.

“Begaar ? “ Bela said with a shock.

“Yes, you marry a weaver, farmer, cobbler, or a tanner, I would reconcile, but never a person, who does not produce.”

“Does the king produce anything? “ Bela asked

“He provides us security and justice.”

“And takes part of your product in return,” Bela said.

Her parents kept quiet. There was no answer to it, but they knew, it was wise to marry a prince and stupid to marry Kana. Moreover, they had come too far in this alliance, marriage was only one day away, the whole kingdom was awaiting this day and lavish feast by the king.

That night, when the whole village was fast asleep, Bela rowed to Kana’s camp and asked him to marry her. Kana took her out in the open air, and gave his flute to her,

“This is your wedding gift. Always remember, your thoughts are free to travel, nobody can enslave them, rest is all superficial and skin deep.“

“So, you will not marry me ?”

He looked at her with those penetrating eyes, and they both made love. Moon and stars stopped in their revolution to watch, nocturnal animals didn’t hurt that night, the river could not move any further, Bela felt her body was touched in a way that never before she knew that it had existed, her soul was floating high in the air, Kana felt The Whole universe had wrapped itself up and had got confined into his arms, primordial soil under their body had come back to life.

Sun was rising in the east, and they both knew, that they both had got what they wanted.

That night Kana sang, the way nobody had ever sung before, people said that they had never seen as a beautiful bride as Bela before, there was something divine about that night, which nobody knew, why !!!
["Shashi'S Thoughts"]
['Spontaneity', 'Morality', 'Society', 'Simple Life', 'Lovestory']