Shakuntala

Glossary: Hindi -> English
Ashram -> hermitage
Rishi -> sage
Baba -> father/ father-like man



Shakuntala was sitting by the door of the ashram, totally lost in thought. “That day was just like today,” she smiled. “That day too I was alone. It was the same hour. Just imagine...if today is actually like that day and he comes!” She blushed and played with her ring. Her ring which had been his before. “I say the two days are similar but how different they are! I was just a girl that day and today...I am the queen of this land! The woman who is loved by the man before whom the whole world bows! A woman! In fifteen days, I’ve become a woman! But no, silly me! What fifteen days? Just that first gaze of his was enough. Oh, how I wish today becomes that day!” She closed her eyes. “Today is that day. It really is. I can see all around. Everything is the same. The leaves are rustling gently. This slight breeze is blowing. Smell! The air has a whiff of his perfume! He is coming! Slowly, slowly, he is coming near. I can hear his footsteps- those feet that I've so longed to fall at!- but let me pretend I cannot hear them. He has seen me. He is looking at me with those love-filled eyes. He is now walking on tip-toe. There is a playful smile on his face. He is delighted at the prospect of surprising me. How handsome he looks! He has reached quite close...I open my eyes. “Oh, you came to know?” His face falls a little. I laugh. He laughs too. I am naughtier than him, he has realized. I run to him...”

“...he will forget you forever!” someone suddenly shouted somewhere. What rage there was in that voice! Shakuntala quickly opened her eyes.

In front of her was standing...Rishi...Durvasa!

How long had he been there? He looked furious! She got up and ran inside and fumbled around to fetch something to seat him on and within a moment came out with a wooden stool and placed it before him. He turned away. She came before him with a bowed head and guiltily asked if he would take water. “Stupid girl,” her mind immediately berated her. “Of course he would take water!” She scurried inside and took a tumbler, dropping two others meanwhile, poured water into it from the pot, spilled a lot of it around, wiped the outside of the tumbler with her sari and rushed out with it.

The Rishi refused it.

“Please baba, forgive me!”

Her repentance only stoked the Rishi’s fury. He strode out of the ashram. Shakuntala
was horrified. A Rishi was leaving her father’s ashram in indignation! Her father would be so embarrassed! She ran after the Rishi, pleading for his consideration. He kept walking on, his face still livid.

Not knowing what else to do, she fell at his feet and clasped them.

“Please baba, I will not let you go till you forgive me. I am sorry! I did not realize when you came.”

The Rishi tried to move on but she did not let him. He stood watching her cry, first with the same anger, then with indifference and slowly, with affection.

“Come on now, enough. Get up,” he picked her up. “It’s all right. What were you thinking about? I called you twice but you just kept sitting stubbornly, refusing to so much as open your eyes. Naturally, I felt insulted.”

Shakuntala hesitated. “Err...baba...my...err...husband...was thinking...”

“Oh,” the Rishi understood. “I cursed you for life then,” he said gravely.

Shakuntala remembered the words...“he will forget you forever!” She was filled with terror. What curse had he given?

The Rishi saw her face and felt sorry. She was like a daughter to him; he shouldn’t have lost his temper with her. “I cursed you that whoever you were thinking about at that time would forget you. I am sorry, my child, but all that I speak does come true.”

Shakuntala wailed out loudly. She had lost her husband forever! Her love had forgotten her!

“Do not worry my daughter. Nothing is lost. I bless you now that the moment your husband sees a token of love that he has given to you, he will get back all his memories of you.”

After patting Shakuntala’s head and wiping her tears, Rishi Durvasa went away.

Whenever she looked at the ring now, Shakuntala also remembered, and not with little distaste, the Rishi. She thought that it was petty of him to issue such great curses- just because he was able to- for such little crimes. “That is not how great men behave,” she told herself angrily. “They do not abuse their powers.”

No one ever agreed that Shakuntala was not to be blamed for the curse she got and that the Rishi was reproachable in any way.