The Drunkards Wife ( Aka The Village Shrew ) And The Goddess - Part 1

Stories by Grumpy Grandpa Pandemonium ... 

This story is dedicated to 

My spiritual guru Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi and all the Women in the World in recognition of the unimaginable struggles they have to go through... 🙏🏻

The Drunkards wife ( Aka the Village shrew ) and the Goddess... 

Better lower your hand or else you will have to reckon with me! 

( Part 1 of total 4 )

What a nice threatening title this story has!

A bit too long, but interesting. 

So where do we begin? 

A long long time ago, when my grandmother was trying to instill some culture in me and trying to teach me devotion towards all the pantheon of Gods and Goddesses, I remember my Grandfather telling me this story much to the chagrin of my Grandmother. Because as they say .. Sau sonar ki aur ek lohaar ki ... 

Or in English boli ... 

A hundred strokes of the goldsmith are not comparable to a single stroke of an ironsmith. Similarly, her daily untiring pious efforts and a 100 odd night time tales of saints and gods and demons to make me a good child were rendered futile by this single tale told by my grandfather on a single night on which he had me in his custody as a baby sitter.  

And So, my grandfather hell-bent on spoiling his grandkids with the right dose of healthy irreverence, to balance out my grandmother's sweet syrupy saintly stories, began his bedtime tale injected with a kinky sense of humor and a lot of pillows fighting fun. 

Once upon a time in a remote village, there lived a chronic drunkard. Just as a village had men specializing in different crafts such as a tailor, a carpenter, a temple priest, etc, this guy specialized in drinking alcohol. Unfortunately, unlike other professions, his skill in swiftly emptying one alcohol bottle after another and then lapsing into a deep meditative slumber did not go well with the rustic uncouth village people. Not only did they not pay him for such a regular display of his talent, but they would also rudely shoo him away faster than a housefly on a sweetmeat. But as they say, talent is never appreciated at home. 

Frustrated at this public rejection of his sole skill he would get angry and vent out his fury on his poor suffering wife. 

Oh yes. Did I forget to mention he had a wife? Bless me! How quickly my old mind goes grazing!

Now a few words about his wife lest we are accused of gender bias after giving so much illustrious and prime opening story space to the village drunkard. 

Though the wife is the main protagonist of this story, there needs to be a guest appearance of a sidekick who plays a brief yet pivotal role for the story to proceed further. 

Here I wish to draw the reader's attention to Madam Manthara who changes the whole placid flow of the Ramayana tale into a roller coaster ride by just a 1-night advisory role to Queen Kaikeyi. No where is Madam Manthara again mentioned in Ramayana? But her 2-minute appearance is pivotal to Ramayana. 

So coming back to our story, the drunkard's wife though she must have had a lovely personal name, it had long been obscured and forgotten and she was unanimously given the Village Honouring title of " that drunkard's wife " with extra stress on the words drunkards wife. 

I cannot resist mentioning here the Marathi translation .... aga / aho ti darudya chi baayko ..... 

So this drunkard's wife eked out her living in the village by fending herself doing menial tasks and hard daily physical labor. Of course, some of the glory of her husband rubbed off on her and for no fault of hers apart from the one of having been married off to the drunkard, she too was looked down upon and treated as an untouchable but an ever-handy and useful backup housemaid or servant for the entire village. With such a demanding role of a common village servant foisted on the poor wife due to her unenviable credentials and honor of being the drunkard's wife, she was soon conferred the other coveted title of being a " Gaav Bhavani  " ( loosely translated into English as the village shrew ) by the nitpicking village womenfolk. 

 ( end of Part 1 )

Authors note : 

Grumpy Grandpa Pandemonium is a pseudonym for Mr. Parag Raje.

Dedicated story to Shri Mataji and all women