Trapped in One's Own Trap

Pyarimohan Sahu,being tall and well-built,prided himself on his charming looks.Pyari was an undergraduate but his English was perfect and flawless.Being a writer myself,I envied him his beautiful English then.But I was a mere boy studying in the local high school.So I was attracted towards him. Pyari had an excellent mind that coined magnificent lies.However,he was not content with what he had.After his father's sudden loss, he had got his dead father's primary school teacher's job.He had an intense yearning for money and beautiful girls.He was exasperatingly choosy about the selection of a wife,and at the age of thirty was still unmarried.

For a time people saw Pyari and the wily money-lender Mangu Sahu smoking bids and spending most of their time together.This was five years before he had entered the teaching profession.Mangu was too sharp and cunning to be outwitted by any.He would always be on the lookout for cash-starved bankrupts or unlettered needy country peasants.People entertained strong abhorrence of this evil genius;yet no one dared to look him in the face.Mangu was the virtual king of his village which was fairly large.Speculation spread that Mangu's extra obese and toothy daughter Laxmi was going to be married to Pyari. This was gull and wormwood to Pyari.He scolded people who enquired,"Are you going to marry Laxmi..?" He took this for an affront considering his fair skin and handsome physical structure. "What on earth is happening to these rascals..!Meee...?Marrying that innocent little girl ..? Don't you know she was my student? A true guru in the Indian sense I am!" he would thus shout burning with rage.

Then we came to know that Pyari's father had borrowed money from Mangu and had died indebted to the astute usurer.I didn't know whether it was a rumour.It was also claimed that Pyari had got fifty thousand rupees from Mangu to find Laxmi a suitable boy.This version contained the only solid truth as was subsequently unravelled.Mangu Sahu knew that people teased him behind his back.His wife Kokila had heard women caricaturing Laxmi and hurling indignities at her father for delaying her marriage.

When Laxmi's mother Kokila was confirmed in her belief that Pyari,their well-wisher,was going to deliver them from under the ever increasing load of embarrassment and shame,she was soon her old self and aggressively handled the situation.Keeping an unmarried girl in the house those days was a source of shame.It triggered rumours and tarnished even an innocent girl's image of purity. Because of her husband's prosperity and influence,Kokila treated people with contempt.She offered her gratitude to the village goddess again and again for favouring her with a son-in-law.

On the contrary,Pyari was very much active in getting the wedding finished.He had to grab his pending fifty thousand from Mangu.He had to eulogise Mangu and his daughter to the skies to convince the lame boy Karuna of the many-sided advantages of marrying the rich money-lender's daughter.Karuna belonged to his maternal uncle's village. In the course of winning over the orphaned Karunakar Sahu to his viewpoint, Pyari had faced a lot of trouble, since the boy knew Mangu's daughter was very dark in complexion with ill-formed protuberant teeth.Pyari had argued that few girls would like to marry him with his crippled leg.

In a few weeks both the parties got ready with their preparations for the wedding. Karuna and Laxmi were delighted to start a new life together. However, Pyari was at his happiest thinking he was soon going to be richer by fifty thousand rupees..Karuna had been grooming himself with thorough attention.His friends had congratulated him on getting married.Mangu experienced great relief and felt totally unburdened.After all,the marriage was going to be held.He would now be free from the backbiting and criticism from the demented village louts.

The moment before the groom arrived was the most treasureable one for Mangu's wife Kokila. She abused the postmaster's wife in very very strong words:"That bitch..!A drunkard beggar's daughter ..!So daft a woman...!Now get ready your eyes might be blinded...?So insolent...!May thunder strike you dead...A cobra sting you to death...!"

Mangu got enraged and said:"Why are you abusing anyone...?People were not wrong..Just remember how you poked fun at Madhu Jena's daughter for her marriage being delayed..At last, fortune favoured her and look..!...

She is now married to a bank officer. It is always wise to stay away from other people's activities?A

quarrelsome woman like you is a curse."

"As if you were very wise..?Charging interests mercilessly even from your own brothers and sisters...!"

The old money-lender gnarled at the ill-fated woman saying," I know what a great giver Karna your scheming tradesman brother is..!Just shut up..!You stupid cunt....!"

Family friends and relatives harshly reprimanded the old couple for their disordered and unruly behaviour when an auspicious event was in progress in the house.

The bridegroom arrived.The marriage started. There was great rejoicing everywhere.The air was charged with euphoria and excitement. The affluent usurer's daughter marrying meant a grand feast.

In the middle of the wedding, when the bridegroom rose to take a bath as part of the marriage rituals,Laxmi rose like a venomous snake and spat out such dirty obscenities and slangs that the bystanders blocked their ears with their hands.She burst upon the people who had arranged the wedding:"How dare you find out such a lame ass for my husband..?This wedding can't proceed further...!Stop ....I say ...!Stop it."

The onlookers severely grilled Mangu for having kept from her the information that Karuna was a cripple.If the marriage stopped,Mangu was sure to face a lot of censure and harsh comments.At last,it was proved that Pyari was the villain and Laxmi was the victim.Under tremendous pressure and painful goading,Pyari,I mean the mediator was compelled to choose between his life and his hideous wife.This was how the unsightly daughter became the heroine of a most handsome man fully dedicated to be the adoration of his fiercely domineering wife since there was no other way out of the cruel predicament...