by welcome
Crossing the Mirage
Passing through Youth
BS Murthy
Crossing the Mirage (Revised edition)
ISBN 81-901911-8-7
Copyright © 2005 BS Murthy
Cover design by GDC creative advertising (p) ltd., Hyderabad –500 080
F-9, Nandini Mansion, 1-10-234,
Ashok Nagar, Hyderabad – 500 020
Other books of
BS Murthy -
Benign Flame (A Novel)
Jewel-less Crown (A Novel)
Glaring Shadow (A Novel)
Prey on the Prowl (Crime Novel)
Bhagvad-Gita: Treatise of self – help (A translation in verse)
Sundara Kãnda - Hanuman"s Odyssey (A translation in verse)
Dedicated to
Kanna, whom I could help in crossing the mirage of her mind.
Sign Posts to Cross
Shackles on Psyche
End of the Tether
Burden of Freedom
Onto the Turf
Respite by Death
Lessons of Life
Naivety of Love
Dilemma of Disclosure
Perils of Youth
Absurd Proposal
Crossing the Mirage
Setting the Pace
Oasis of Bliss
Busy bees in Honeycomb
Twist in the Tale
Love in the Bind
Turn for the Worse
Shadows to the Fore
Spurring to Err
Tempting the Fate
Stooping to Conquer
Fouling the Soul
Poetic Justice
Agony of Penitence
Embrace of Love
Life of a Kind
Just deserts?
Shackles on Psyche
Youth is the mirror that tends us to the reality of our looks. The reflections of our visages
that insensibly get implanted in our subconscious lend shape to our psyche to define the
course of our life.
This is the saga of Chandra"s chequered life that mirrors this phenomenon in myriad
ways.
As perceived by the deprived, he had a fortunate birth. Yadagiri, his father, was the
prominent pearl merchant in Hyderabad - Deccan, the seat of the Nizam"s power in
undivided India. The patronage of the royals and the nobles alike, helped add gloss to his
pearls making him the nawab of the trade. Besides, Princely Pearls, his outlet near the
Charminar, was a draw with the rich, out to humor their wives and adorn the mistresses.
When Anasuya, Yadagir's wife, was expecting her second issue, trouble brewed in
Telangana, the heart of the Nizam"s province. While his subjects' surge to free themselves
from his yoke clashed with the Nizam"s urge to keep his gaddi, Sardar Patel's plans for a
pan India was at odds with his designs to retain the Deccan belt as his princely pelf.
„With a go by to the nobility," Yadagiri tried to envision his future, „it could be shutters
down at the Princely Pearls."
Thus, at the prospect of the momentous merger, even as the populace got excited, he
was unnerved perceiving a slowdown in his trade. Confounding him further, as the
impending merger was on the cards, Anasuya's delivery time neared
„Should it be a girl again," he thought, „it would be only worse. Why, without a boy,
what of the surname?"
Soon, as his wife was moved to the hospital, he was rattled by the prospect of her
delivering another daughter. But, as it turned out, his fears proved to be liars on both
counts.
Anasuya delivered Chandra, the very day the Nizam, courtesy Sardar, capitulated to
the Delhi sarkar. And soon, the nouveau riche, from the business class, began to outshine the
old nobility, pearl for pearl. Buoyed by the bottom line, Yadagiri dreamt of building a pearl
empire for his son in the Republic of India. While Anasuya lavished upon Chandra the
affection due to a son born after one gave up, Vasavi, his sister, running ten then, found in
her brother a soul to dote upon. Thus, toasted by his parents and pampered by his sibling,
Chandra had a dream childhood.
But, when he entered adolescence, the realities of life began to confound him to his
discomfort. Coaxed by his father to excel at studies, he was perplexed for the lack of
aptitude. What's worse, the antics of his classmates made him hapless -- they marginalized
him at playtime, for his lack of reflexes, and, for want of grace, targeted him at fun-time.
Well, to cap it all, the snide remarks of the have-nots, that he chose his father well, induced
in him a vague sense of inadequacy.
As if all this was not enough for his tender psyche to cope up with, he had to contend
with the sternness of the paternal strictness. Thus, it was only time before the seeds of
alienation towards his father were sown in his impressionable mind. But the support he got
from his sister and the solace he felt in his mother"s lap helped soothe his ruffled feelings a
little. In time, he reached the threshold of youth, but couldn"t cross the despair of
adolescence.
Oblivious of the possibilities of life, man goes through his journey of disarray, in the
itinerary of the past, chasing the mirages of malady even amidst the sands of hope. And
that despairs him forever.
Into his puberty, as his biology induced in him sexual curiosity, owing to his
ungainliness, his youthful urge for reciprocity remained unfulfilled. Being naïve to the
feminine nuances, his eyes couldn"t comprehend the emanations of their indifference.
When in dismay, as he turned to the mirror for a clue, the reflections of his self-doubts
stared him in his face. Yet, goaded by desire, he ogled women but to no avail. And as he
went back to the mirror to reassess his self-worth, the craft of man wouldn"t oblige where
nature"s device deluded him. Thus, being in a limbo, he came to be haunted for being
unwanted.
Besides, as his sexual urge got augmented, his eyes became the instruments of
dissection of the maiden form. Though bowled over by females, he was unable to interest
them himself. Intrigued by their manner, he turned his focus onto those to whom they were
drawn. And soon he realized that though the nominators of female admiration varied, the
common denominator of male appeal appeared to be the dashing.
As a corollary to his discovery, he shed his inhibitions and psyched himself to make a
pass at a fancied lass. But in a reproach, governed by vanity, she said that she doubted his
acquaintance with the looking-glass. Sadly, that fatal tease came to shape his outlook about
his own looks to his detriment. Disdained thus, he shunned maidens and mirrors alike.
Once when his father reprimanded him for his unkempt hair, he entrusted its upkeep to
his sister"s care. And as she said, in jest, that his porcupine hair needed tins of oil to be
tamed, as a way out he went for a crew cut. Though it was in the fashion then, he invited
ridicule of all for the same reason. Belittled thus, he became a recluse.
Perturbed by his proclivities, Anasuya alerted Yadagiri who dismissed it all as the
tentativeness of youth, and advocated
patience to let it pass. Unconvinced though, Anasuya
suborned her female instinct for „action" to the „inaction" of her master"s wisdom. But, as
Chandra began to even lose his appetite, her motherly love could take it no more. Thus, she
took her son to the family physician and, on prescription, put him on Liv-52.
As that too failed to enhance her son"s appetite, the mother was at a loss, and it showed.
However, the women of the neighborhood read it all wrong and gossiped on that count.
“An unwed daughter of twenty-eight,” opined a sympathetic soul, “surely is a sore.”
“No less an eyesore,” said another.
“What can be done,” said a fair-skinned, “when the girl is so dark?”
“Don"t tell me,” said a know-all. “She got her chances but Yadagiri rode the high horse
then.”
“That"s the trouble with us,” philosophized a bluestocking. “We aspire for more than
we can hope for. Wanting the very best is a bad idea but failing to see what the best one can
get is even worse.”
Unmindful of the gossip that reached her in its magnified form, Anasuya broached the
subject of Chandra"s condition with that lady philosopher who professed herself as an
amateur psychologist. Having read the brief, the lady of letters diagnosed the malaise as a
case of ennui and as for the remedy, she prescribed a course in fiction for him.
It"s thus amidst his class books, the Zolas with the Gogols, that Anasuya slipped in,
started gracing Chandra"s study. Unable as he was to concentrate on his studies, he began
browsing through them as a way of distraction only to end up delving deep into the
fictional world pictured in them. Soon, as he was seized with novels in their scores, their
fictional aberrations helped him analyze his own shortcomings. But what really hooked
him to the novel was the ego gratification it afforded him in judging the characters
portrayed in it. What's more, the empathy he felt for the fictional figures brought the latent
sympathy he had for his sibling to the fore. This, in turn, abetted self-pity in his
consciousness.
Well, Vasavi remained single, not by choice. While nature deprived her of a whetting
visage, her upbringing failed her in imbibing aplomb. Besides, Yadagiri"s attitude towards
matchmaking didn"t help her cause either. No sooner would a well-meaning proposal come
forth than he would dismiss it on the grounds of status or pedigree and/ or both. It was as
if he came to see his own elevation in slighting others and as the well-wishers too lost
patience with him, the leads to the prospective matches got sapped one by one. All this had
dented his own efforts besides drying up the well of his daughter"s marital prospects.
On the other hand, Vasavi, having failed to induce a suitable boy on her own and with
nothing better to do, went on an acquisition spree of diplomas in assorted faculties.
Ironically, that made her progress on the marriage front even worse, as the list of eligible
bachelors on academic plane was leaner, what with the penchant of the boys to take up jobs
with their basic degrees.
When Anasuya saw the folly of it all, she started pestering Yadagiri to see the writing on
the wall. Finding there weren"t any bachelors of over thirty left on the roll of honor, he
swallowed his pride and opened his doors for all comers. However, having gone past her
prime by then, Vasavi came a cropper with every proposal that came by. But, at last, fate
seemed to test her character by tempting her into wedlock. And steeled by life, she said „no"
to the guy who said „yes" for he made his mercenary intent too apparent for her liking.
It appears that nature has double standards when it comes to endowing the sexes. Why,
it's as if, it affords the females, the charms of youth, only to attract the males to propagate
the species. Uncharitably though, so it seems, it dents the female aura on the way to
menopause, leaving her to fend for herself mid-course. On the contrary, and for the same
purpose, it vests virility with men well past their prime.
Anasuya, however, thought of a detour as she saw that they had reached a dead end.
She said that it would be an idea to let a widower lead her daughter to the altar. But
Yadagiri would have none of that for he felt it would devalue the family and demoralize
their daughter. Thus, the status quo prevailed and Vasavi, to her discomfort, remained
single.
By the time she crossed thirty, Chandra crawled into the final year of his B.Com. With
her emaciated frame and pimpled face, Vasavi seemed even more pathetic to his
sympathetic eyes. The thought that they shared the ugliness, bequeathed by their father in
equal measure, made him empathetic towards her, even as he was embittered towards his
parent on that very score.
„Oh if only we had taken after our mother!" he thought endlessly. „Why, we would"ve
inherited her beauty, wouldn"t we have?"
For its very possibility, the thought of deprivation made it all the worse for him. But, in
time, the realization that ugliness was a worse curse for women than men, evoked
sympathy for the weaker sex in his empathic soul.
Whenever he found himself in his sister"s presence, the pity he nursed for her insensibly
surfaced in his eyes. The first time she was struck by his manner, finding his stare scaring,
she gazed at him to gauge his mind. As their eyes scanned the bounds of mutual sympathy,
at length, their souls got bonded in eternal empathy. In their state of fellow-feeling, fearing
that speech might impair the purity of their emotion, they preferred to keep mum.
„How wretched it must be for her, in her condition!" he thought then. „Hasn"t she
reached the dead end, in the midst of her life? Maybe, a career would"ve provided some
distraction for her. But dad would have none of that. It"s as if, the very idea scandalizes
him. It is really stupid of him to stick on to the old times!"
Often, as he felt his own life was no less oppressive, he became melancholic to his
mother's worry. Whenever she tried to probe his mind, he put it in the wraps, lest its
exposure should burden her even more. Despite finding him dismissive of her inquiries,
she never ceased pestering him but to no avail. Thus feeling helpless, she kept an eagle eye
on him, and whenever she found him depressed, which was often, she sent him on some
errand. She had reasoned that an outing, if it did not alleviate his melancholy, would at the
least help unstring him a little.
That day, as Chandra was confined to his room for too long, Anasuya went up to him in
concern.
“What"s wrong?” she said feeling his forehead.
As their eyes met, he savored her affection.
“What a beautiful mother!” he thought. “What a pity she bore us ugly.”
Seeing his condition, she sent him on an errand to the Princely Pearls. When he was
leaving home, he found his sister playing with the kids of the neighborhood.
„How she loves children!" he thought with mixed feelings. „Won"t she be distressed for
not having one of her own? Is it as an escape from boredom that she gathers them? But
would that help her in any way! Maybe, it could be even worse for her. Why, wouldn't the
charm of their company sharpen her lacking even more? Isn"t all this misery because she is
ugly?
What an angelic soul, with life so sour! Oh, ugliness is the worst of fates, so it seems."
While he crossed the Lal Darwaza, he happened to come across two burka-clad women.
„What's this Muslim custom of wrapping up woman in burkas!" he wondered. „What is
it that is sought to be hidden behind the veil? Is it beauty or ugliness? Whatever, the veil
seems to be an ingenious leveler of the inequities of genes, at least in the public view! But,
on that score, do women really care to hide themselves behind their veils? After all, it can't
be, moreover, how can they be mad to endure the ordeal of breathing and the discomfort of
constraint in that? Then, of what avail is it to women than to cater to the male sense of
insecurity about them? Oh, how man's falsity of purpose deprives women the joys of being
her free selves? Won't the burka symbolize the hold of man over woman"s body and soul,
not to speak of her psyche? Well, the slaves were better off than these women in their veils,
why doubt that."
As he went along, feeling sad about that, he found two hamalis toiling to push a cartload
of cloth bundles.
„Why, men like these too have no way to lighten the burden of their birth," he thought,
looking at them. „To be born poor and ugly is a double jeopardy really. Oh, how the color of
the skin came to be the measure of the looks! Well, it could be that the white man owes his
dominance of the world more to his fair skin than the grey matter of his brain."
Inexplicably, he was seized by an impulse to follow the travails of the hamalis. So,
unmindful of the surrounding traffic, he kept course with the cart. As if to shorten their
arduous course, the laborers exerted themselves to accelerate their motion. Lost to them, he
came in the way of a speeding car.
Bringing the vehicle to a screeching halt, the woman at the wheel yelled at him in her
sarcastic tone, “Hi, you find life burdensome?”
Muttering an apology, as he moved away in confusion, she sped past him in irritation.
The poignancy of her insensitivity perturbed him as he lumbered along to the dismal
destination.
„Won"t it seem the color of the skin is the measure of man's worth as well?" he thought
