Skip to main content

Romeo and anti-Romeo


Juliet knew it was Romeo.  Who else would enter the balcony of her bedroom on the first floor at this time of the night?  Moreover, there was love in that rap on the window.  It was like the resonance of the guitar string when pulled by a master player.  Her heart throbbed like guitar strings as she went to open the window.

“Romeo, my love!” Juliet cried.  “How did you manage to come here?  There are anti-Romeo squads everywhere.”

“I defy the stars for your sake, Juliet. I defy the squads for my love.”

“Why is our fate thus, Romeo?  Why are they all against our love?  Even your father and my father, they’re like Narendra Modi and Rahul Gandhi.”

“Oh no, darling! Don’t insult your father by comparing him to Rahul.  It’s more apt to compare them to Modi and Advani.  Anyway, let’s leave politics aside; it’s so unromantic.”

Juliet opened the balcony door and they sat down together listening to the romance of the Ganga’s music as it flowed down a few yards away to join the holy confluence of Prayag.  Prayagasya Praveshshu Papam Nashwati Tatkshanam. Prayag washes away all your sins. 

“Why is love a sin?” Juliet woke up from her thoughts.  She was sitting with her head leaned against Romeo’s shoulder.

Romeo kissed her hair that smelled of shampoo.  “What is sin but the breaking of some rule made by man?”

When some powerful person wants to exert his power over more and more people he makes some rules.  Obedience to the rules you make is the greatest sign of your power.  The more rules you make and the more people you get to obey them, the more power you have.

“But why does anyone want so much power?” Juliet wondered.

“Poverty of the heart, darling,” explained Romeo.  “Love and power are mutual antitheses.  Love gives and shares and cares.  Power grabs, commands and subjugates.  Those who have no heart for loving have to fill the void within by grabbing.”

Their discussion was ruptured by the noise that rose from the road a few yards away.  There were cries and shouts.  Anger and agony.  Somebody’s anger; somebody else’s agony.  Maybe some anti-Romeo squad beating up some youngsters in love.  Maybe gau rakshaks thrashing some cow transporters. 

The Ganga flowed on.  Its rhythm didn’t change.  How much sin can it wash away so nonchalantly?

Juliet tightened her grip on Romeo.  Her face was buried in his chest.  He drew her closer to him.  Closer.  They merged into each other like the Ganga and the Yamuna did at Prayag.  Their love longed to wash away the hatred that roamed the streets assuming various political avatars.  

PS. Written for Indispire Edition 166: #AntiRomeoSquads


Comments

  1. Jyotirmoy SarkarApril 24, 2017 at 9:16 AM

    The style of presentation is amazing Sir.
    The question you have raised here is in my mind from several years..that is "why is love a sin?" and totally agree with your thought "when some powerful....some rules".
    By the way i am thinking to share my thoughts on the prompt.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalApril 24, 2017 at 9:21 AM

      I'd love to read your take on the theme.

      Thanks for the compliment here.

      Delete
  2. Durga Prasad DashApril 24, 2017 at 12:02 PM

    Nice to read the avatars of Romeo and Juliet in present day India.
    :D

    ReplyDelete
  3. Pranju chakrapaniApril 24, 2017 at 3:40 PM

    Love at the time of Yogi Raj :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Amit AgarwalApril 24, 2017 at 9:01 PM

    While I support the measures for safety of ladies from ruffians, I strongly resent naming them as Romeos. Eve teasers cannot be lovers..
    The baptizers don't know who was Romeo:(

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalApril 24, 2017 at 9:03 PM

      Moreover law and order should never be handed over to hooligans and street people.

      Delete
    2. Amit AgarwalApril 25, 2017 at 2:32 PM

      The drive is in fact aimed at ruffians teasing females on roads, but like most other things in our India it has been distorted by the police..the official orders are to NOT harass consenting couples; this has been repeated loud and clear..but we know our police..they will not let go of a chance to feign authority and make a quick buck:(

      Delete
    3. Tomichan MatheikalApril 25, 2017 at 2:47 PM

      😑

      Delete
  5. PaulApril 25, 2017 at 5:37 AM

    Romeo & Juliet each performance is an ongoing learning experience, some new discovery, some new nuance...

    Tomichan Matheikal, what do you think William Shakespeare might think of his character in the great 1998 movie: "Shakespeare In Love" ?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalApril 25, 2017 at 7:03 AM

      Shakespeare will continue to inspire people for centuries to come. That's his genius.

      Haven't watched Shakespeare in Love. Read about it. Guess it's a creative approach...

      Delete
  6. AmitaApril 25, 2017 at 10:10 AM

    Oh! I had a sad smile while reading. If only the love could wash away 'the hatred that roamed the streets assuming various political avatars'. I am sure most of those self acclaimed anti-Romeo squads have no idea about the true love and warmth of Romeo.
    Thanks for sharing this post:)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalApril 25, 2017 at 10:23 AM

      Glad you liked it.

      Those who have experienced genuine love will never become hooligans and thugs hunting lovers. One cannot be violent if one has a modicum of genuine love in the heart.

      Delete
  7. sunaina sharmaApril 26, 2017 at 6:29 PM

    Nonchalant Ganga - where is redemption!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalApril 26, 2017 at 7:20 PM

      Nonchalance is the present redemption, Sunaina. Kill without remorse, didn't Krishna say that to Arjuna in the battlefield? At least that's what the bhakts are being taught these days.

      Delete
  8. MansiApril 27, 2017 at 8:32 AM

    Sadly it's a thirst and fame of power everywhere.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl
37 comments
Read more

Everything is Politics

Politics begins to contaminate everything like an epidemic when ideology dies. Death of ideology is the most glaring fault line on the rock of present Indian democracy. Before the present regime took charge of the country, political parties were driven by certain underlying ideologies though corruption was on the rise from Indira Gandhi’s time onwards. Mahatma Gandhi’s ideology was rooted in nonviolence. Nothing could shake the Mahatma’s faith in that ideal. Nehru was a staunch secularist who longed to make India a nation of rational people who will reap the abundant benefits proffered by science and technology. Even the violent left parties had the ideal of socialism to guide them. The most heartless political theory of globalisation was driven by the ideology of wealth-creation for all. When there is no ideology whatever, politics of the foulest kind begins to corrode the very soul of the nation. And that is precisely what is happening to present India. Everything is politics
14 comments
Read more

Mango Trees and Cats

Appu and Dessie, two of our cats, love to sleep under the two mango trees in front of our house these days. During the daytime, that is, when the temperature threatens to brush 40 degrees Celsius. The shade beneath the mango trees remains a cool 28 degrees or so. Mango trees have this tremendous cooling effect. When I constructed the house, the area in front had no touch of greenery as you can see in the pic below.  Now the same area, which was totally arid then, looks like what's below:  Appu and Dessie find their bower in that coolness.  I wanted to have a lot of colours around my house. I tried growing all sorts of flower plants and failed rather miserably. The climate changes are beyond the plants’ tolerance levels. Moreover, all sorts of insects and pests come from nowhere and damage the plants. Crotons survive and even thrive. I haven’t given up hope with the others yet. There are a few adeniums, rhoeos, ixoras, zinnias and so on growing in the pots. They are trying their
7 comments
Read more

Brownie and I - a love affair

The last snap I took of Brownie That Brownie went away without giving me a hint is what makes her absence so painful. It’s nearly a month and I know now for certain that she won’t return. Worse, I know that she didn’t want to leave me. She couldn’t have. Brownie is the only creature who could make me do what she wanted. She had the liberty to walk into my bedroom at any time of the night and wake me up for a bite of her favourite food. She would sit below the bed and meow. If I didn’t get up and follow her, she would climb on the bed and meow to my face. She knew I would get up and follow her to the cupboard where bags of cat food were stored.  My Mistress in my study Brownie was not my only cat; there were three others. But none of the other three ever made the kind of demands that Brownie made. If any of them came to eat the food I served Brownie at odd hours of the night, Brownie would flatly refuse to eat with them in spite of the fact that it was she who had brought me out of
4 comments
Read more

The Little Girl

The Little Girl is a short story by Katherine Mansfield given in the class 9 English course of NCERT. Maggie gave an assignment to her students based on the story and one of her students, Athena Baby Sabu, presented a brilliant job. She converted the story into a delightful comic strip. Mansfield tells the story of Kezia who is the eponymous little girl. Kezia is scared of her father who wields a lot of control on the entire family. She is punished severely for an unwitting mistake which makes her even more scared of her father. Her grandmother is fond of her and is her emotional succour. The grandmother is away from home one day with Kezia's mother who is hospitalised. Kezia gets her usual nightmare and is terrified. There is no one at home to console her except her father from whom she does not expect any consolation. But the father rises to the occasion and lets the little girl sleep beside him that night. She rests her head on her father's chest and can feel his heart
13 comments
Read more