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

Ayodhya: Kingdom of Sorrows

T he Sarayu carried more tears than water. Ayodhya was a sad kingdom. Dasaratha was a good king. He upheld dharma – justice and morality – as best as he could. The citizens were apparently happy. Then, one day, it all changed. One person is enough to change the destiny of a whole kingdom. Who was that one person? Some say it was Kaikeyi, one of the three official wives of Dasaratha. Some others say it was Manthara, Kaikeyi’s chief maid. Manthara was a hunchback. She was the caretaker of Kaikeyi right from the latter’s childhood; foster mother, so to say, because Kaikeyi had no mother. The absence of maternal influence can distort a girl child’s personality. With a foster mother like Manthara, the distortion can be really bad. Manthara was cunning, selfish, and morally ambiguous. A severe physical deformity can make one worse than all that. Manthara was as devious and manipulative as a woman could be in a men’s world. Add to that all the jealousy and ambition that insecure peo...
39 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...
16 comments
Read more

Bharata: The Ascetic King

Bharata is disillusioned yet again. His brother, Rama the ideal man, Maryada Purushottam , is making yet another grotesque demand. Sita Devi has to prove her purity now, years after the Agni Pariksha she arranged for herself long ago in Lanka itself. Now, when she has been living for years far away from Rama with her two sons Luva and Kusha in the paternal care of no less a saint than Valmiki himself! What has happened to Rama? Bharata sits on the bank of the Sarayu with tears welling up in his eyes. Give me an answer, Sarayu, he said. Sarayu accepted Bharata’s tears too. She was used to absorbing tears. How many times has Rama come and sat upon this very same bank and wept too? Life is sorrow, Sarayu muttered to Bharata. Even if you are royal descendants of divinity itself. Rama had brought the children Luva and Kusha to Ayodhya on the day of the Ashvamedha Yagna which he was conducting in order to reaffirm his sovereignty and legitimacy over his kingdom. He didn’t know they w...
30 comments
Read more

Liberated

Fiction - parable Vijay was familiar enough with soil and the stones it turns up to realise that he had struck something rare.   It was a tiny stone, a pitch black speck not larger than the tip of his little finger. It turned up from the intestine of the earth while Vijay was digging a pit for the biogas plant. Anand, the scientist from the village, got the stone analysed in his lab and assured, “It is a rare object.   A compound of carbonic acid and magnesium.” Anand and his fellow scientists believed that it must be a fragment of a meteoroid that hit the earth millions of years ago.   “Very rare indeed,” concluded the scientist. Now, it’s plain commonsense that something that’s very rare indeed must be very valuable too. All the more so if it came from the heavens. So Vijay got the village goldsmith to set it on a gold ring.   Vijay wore the ring proudly on his ring finger. Nobody, in the village, however bothered to pay any homage to Vijay’s...
47 comments
Read more

Dharma and Destiny

  Illustration by Copilot Designer Unwavering adherence to dharma causes much suffering in the Ramayana . Dharma can mean duty, righteousness, and moral order. There are many characters in the Ramayana who stick to their dharma as best as they can and cause much pain to themselves as well as others. Dasharatha sees it as his duty as a ruler (raja-dharma) to uphold truth and justice and hence has to fulfil the promise he made to Kaikeyi and send Rama into exile in spite of the anguish it causes him and many others. Rama accepts the order following his dharma as an obedient son. Sita follows her dharma as a wife and enters the forest along with her husband. The brotherly dharma of Lakshmana makes him leave his own wife and escort Rama and Sita. It’s all not that simple, however. Which dharma makes Rama suspect Sita’s purity, later in Lanka? Which dharma makes him succumb to a societal expectation instead of upholding his personal integrity, still later in Ayodhya? “You were car...
28 comments
Read more