A rustic romance

            It was vacation time and we were visiting a relative who happens to be a contractor for a public sector mining company in a small town. This relative is an intelligent man having a prominent presence locally. He possesses a severe personality along with a dare devil streak which successfully hides a soft heart. The summer days were long and languid and the children were enjoying themselves up to the hilt. It was a local weekly off and as my relative was dispensing away the labor payment a not so young couple came by to greet him. He reciprocated with appropriate blessings. It transpired that they had come after a long time since they had migrated away to en cash better opportunities. After they had left, my relative turned to me and said: ‘would you like to hear about their love story’. ‘Why not’, I responded, having nothing better to do.

            ‘This happened a few years ago when the lad used to work for me’, narrated my relative. The lad fell in love with the girl and both of them were indulging in the courtship phase. It so happened that the fathers of both the girl as well as the lad were well acquainted to me. Both of them were not happy with the alliance and came to me separately and asked me to intervene so as to put an end to the affair. I, on my part, did my best to follow the social decorum. For this I counselled the couple separately and also admonished them publicly, but to no avail. One day, upon having exhausted all alternatives I whipped out my tamancha (illegal country made pistol) and pointed it at the girl’s lateral forehead and threatened her with dire consequences if she didn't comply and return to her father’s house immediately. This drastic act of mine finally seemed to have produced the desired result. The girl, suitably chastened began to trudge back home while sobbing inconsolably. Me and a few other gathered individuals watched her as she negotiated the edges of the fields to walk back towards the village of her father’s home. This was when we were suddenly shocked to see her jump into a well! My first reaction was to run and hide my tamancha in a proper place and after that, I ran towards the well, my mind agog with umpteen possibilities about the immediate future. The situation was rapidly spiraling out of control. Huffing and puffing I reached the wretched well and peered inside to be greeted by the amazing sight of the girl swimming around in circles! After this incident, I myself prevailed upon the parents and got them to marry the couple off, for which both of them still come to me to pay respects whenever they come home.

            In this way my relative concluded the story and turned to me, only to encounter my questioning gaze. He replied with a twinkle in his eyes, ‘No, I never got around to asking the girl about what was the point of jumping in the well, when she already knew how to swim?!’