I caught Ahilya as she was leaving the city gates and introduced myself. I saw a glimmer of hope in her eyes, before reason quashed it. The king obviously wouldn't send his daughter-in-law to bring her back to court. And the king's daughter-in-law wouldn't be wearing such ordinary clothes if she wasn't coming out secretly. Still she decided to speak to me. A lone soul would often seek company, even upon the flimsiest excuse.
We talked. She told me about her life at the ashram, about her children. She couldn't even collect any mementos of them before she was thrown out. She talked about Indra. She wondered if he would have healed or if his sores were the non-healing type. Then she talked about Gautam. The husband she had never opposed, never questioned was now subjected to the fiercest scrutiny and she decided that if it weren't for the children, she wouldn't even consider going back to his ashram.
I asked her of her life before marriage. She was also the child of a sage and had lived her entire girlhood in her father's ashram. The sage belonged to the old school, and had taught her everything he taught his male students. He had brought her up to be a learned lady in her own right.
How then, had she gotten married to a man like Gautam?
Gautam was her father's student. Her father had thought him to be a different man, a better man, than he really was. As simple as that.
"So what are you going to do now?", I asked.
"I will go back to the forest near my ashram. You proved to me that my husband's curse was only an angry man's rant. It cannot make me stone. Perhaps the ashram-dwellers will still treat me as being invisible. But I will always be around, around the periphery of their vision, so that they cannot forget me. Perhaps my children will have more faith in me than their father had. Perhaps they will have courage and will come to me, choose me over him."
"And what about Indra?"
She laughed,"Oh! I'll offer him food from my kitchen, like he asked. The rest is God's will"
I stared at this woman, this strong, brave and beautiful woman and I knew she would be okay.
We talked. She told me about her life at the ashram, about her children. She couldn't even collect any mementos of them before she was thrown out. She talked about Indra. She wondered if he would have healed or if his sores were the non-healing type. Then she talked about Gautam. The husband she had never opposed, never questioned was now subjected to the fiercest scrutiny and she decided that if it weren't for the children, she wouldn't even consider going back to his ashram.
I asked her of her life before marriage. She was also the child of a sage and had lived her entire girlhood in her father's ashram. The sage belonged to the old school, and had taught her everything he taught his male students. He had brought her up to be a learned lady in her own right.
How then, had she gotten married to a man like Gautam?
Gautam was her father's student. Her father had thought him to be a different man, a better man, than he really was. As simple as that.
"So what are you going to do now?", I asked.
"I will go back to the forest near my ashram. You proved to me that my husband's curse was only an angry man's rant. It cannot make me stone. Perhaps the ashram-dwellers will still treat me as being invisible. But I will always be around, around the periphery of their vision, so that they cannot forget me. Perhaps my children will have more faith in me than their father had. Perhaps they will have courage and will come to me, choose me over him."
"And what about Indra?"
She laughed,"Oh! I'll offer him food from my kitchen, like he asked. The rest is God's will"
I stared at this woman, this strong, brave and beautiful woman and I knew she would be okay.
No comments:
Post a Comment