सूर्यले बादललाई सिन्दुर लगाएको त्यो साँझ
राजकुमारीझैँ सझिएकी
कोमल हातमा गुडिया बोकेकी
एउटी सानी नानीका आँखाले
आफ्नी आमासँग
प्रश्नहरू सोध्दै थिए–
“आमा घर जाने बेला भएन ?
कति खेप बोक्न बाँकी छ
ईँटा र बालुवाको भार ?
कति समय लाग्ला बनाउन
हाम्रो पनि यस्तै ठूलो घर ?”
Previously on Leave Me Alone:
Ajay and Sasha go Sasha’s house to celebrate her birthday. Ajay sees a portrait of a woman on red saree. A woman similar to that on the portrait attacks him and he runs to the police station. There he meets Dr. Shrestha, who tells him something about Sasha’s past. Ajay does not believe him. So he calls Parmila, Sasha’s maid to confirm his story. Ajay still has some questions about Sasha.
What answers will he get? In this chapter…
“I still don’t understand,” Ajay said, “why I was attacked?”
“There are some probabilities,” Dr. Shrestha replied grimly. “It is a fact known to me and my colleagues that Sasha believed within her subconscious that her mother was alive. Sasha used to have hallucinations in which her mother would talk to her. Whenever that happened, Sasha’s personality would alter. She used to be more aggressive, and used to gain immense strength. Ten men would find it difficult to calm her down.”
“So you believe Sasha’s alternate personality influenced by her dead mother in her subconscious attacked me?” Ajay intervened. “But would she?”
As if he had not heard anything Ajay said, the old doctor continued, “Using medication, we had been able to suppress the hallucinations and to some extent, the alteration of her personality. Some years ago, when she joined nursing, I recommended the medication be stopped. That was the biggest mistake I made.
“Because the medicines were not being administered, the hallucinations may have begun controlling over her for some time. Her mother might have talked to her, and convinced Sasha that you are either the one or related to someone who led into her mother’s death,” the doctor told to Ajay.
“But I am not related to any bank manager who went missing.”
“There was a lawyer who proved falsely that Sasha’s mother was mentally ill.”
Ajay was stunned. Dr. Shrestha seemed to look through him. He stammered the question that came into his mind: How do you know my father is a lawyer?
Dr. Shrestha smiled at Ajay without being surprised. “I knew your father’s name from your license last night,” the doctor replied. “I had doubted that he is the famous lawyer. You’ve confirmed my suspicions.”
“My dad can’t have done anything wrong,” Ajay said, terrified by what the doctor was trying to say to him. He stood up and looking straight at Dr. Shrestha, announced, “He might not have been involved in the case.”
“He is a professional advocate. It’s within his right to do anything to save his client. Why don’t you ask him yourself about his involvement in that case?” Dr. Shrestha replied, unclenched.
‘Was my dad involved?’ Ajay thought, his fear escalating. His mind was divided. Prior to the talk with the doctor, he could confidently bet that his father advocated the truth. However, after the doctor’s indication that his father had falsely accused Sasha’s mother of being a psycho. Trembling, he inserted his hand into his pocket, produced his cell phone and dialled his father’s number. “Ajay, where had you been all night? I’ve searched everywhere for you,” a hoarse voice asked.
“I’m at a doctor’s, dad.”
“Is everything all right?” Ajay’s father asked him.
Ajay wanted to lie by saying ‘yes’; instead, he said, “No dad, something is wrong. My girlfriend attacked me last night and her guardian says that you are related somewhere in the case. That I’ve been assaulted because she believed I was you in her state of altered personality.”
“Who attacked you? Sasha, is it? Are you all right, Ajay?” his father asked and before Ajay could reply, he continued furiously, “Anyway, don’t believe in any nonsense. How can I be involved in your girlfriend’s madness?”
“Do you remember a case twenty years ago?” Ajay said. When he received only silence in reply, he continued, “That case in which a reputed bank manager had been accused of abusing his employee. Though that woman had written the truth in her diary, the manager’s lawyer had proved in the court that she was mad and her letter could not be solid evidence against the manager. Do you remember that case, dad?”
Ajay had expected a reply but he actually received a hanging up tone in answer. He redialled the number four times but his father did not receive the call. He looked at both Dr. Shrestha and Parmila sadly. He felt weak. His legs could not keep him standing. He sat down on an empty chair and covered his face with his palms. He wanted to cry but he could not. Ajay could not believe that his father had done something that had affected him twenty years later.
Dr. Shrestha broke the silence, “You need to go to your father and talk to him. You have to ask him everything. You deserve the truth.”
“I don’t think I can bear the truth, doctor,” Ajay said bitterly.
“You have to face it, Ajay,” the doctor said, “not just for yourself but for Sasha as well.”
“Oh, I can’t,” Ajay y and stood up from his chair again. He picked his phone and dashed out. Before he reached the edge of the garden, Dr. Shrestha shouted out these words, which Ajay would clearly recall the following week: “Talk to your father, Ajay. If you don’t he might harm himself.”
Ajay did not return home for a week. He stayed most of his time at the hospital looking at his unconscious lover outside the ICU. She did not show up much improvement. Ajay was sad but was hopeful. He ate at the canteen. He made friends with the doctors, nurses and other medical staffs. When he felt extremely tired, he called his friends and slept at their houses. That was because he never felt like going back to Sasha’s place. His father called him several times during that week. Ajay picked up just twice. He had no will to talk to his father. Ajay’s father too had not been able to say anything. Silence had ruled over both the calls Ajay received.
The call, which overruled the silence, was too chaotic for Ajay. The man on the other side said, “Mr. Ajay, I am Inspector Pradhan.” After a few seconds of silence, Inspector Pradhan added with a loud sigh, “I have a bad news for you. Your father has killed himself.”
Ajay felt as if the world had collapsed. The doctor’s words rushed into his mind. ‘That doctor had the tongue of a wizard,’ he thought. For some minutes, he could not stand still. He sat on a chair covering his face. He gathered up courage and rushed down the stairs. ‘He must have left something.’ Ajay’s instincts told him that his father had not gone without letting him know the truth. He reached the street and got on to a bus that went the nearest chowk from his house. All through the journey in the bus, he thought, ‘I made a mistake in choosing to avoid myself from the truth. I should have followed Dr. Shrestha’s words. He is an experienced psychiatrist after all.’
Ajay sensed a chaotic silence when he reached his home. His mother lay unconscious because she had cried a lot. His older brother sat beside his mother in silence. Some officers were roaming around, still investigating the house. Ajay noted Inspector Pradhan giving orders to his juniors. He went up to the officer and said, “Inspector Pradhan, where is he?”
“In his own room,” the inspector said, “I’m extremely sorry at your loss.”
“Did you find anything, Inspector?” Ajay queried. “Any note he had written before his suicide?”
“Yes, we did find a note,” Inspector Pradhan said. “It was inside an envelope on his table. Your father had written on the envelope that the letter should be given to you only. I’ve ensured no one reads that before you do.”
Inspector Pradhan then produced the letter and gave it to Ajay, who tore the envelope and read instantly:
Ajay,
I had made several mistakes during the early days of my career as a lawyer. Those immoral acts, I never intended to do myself. I had been forced to.
Those days I worked as the legal advisor at a bank. The manager was, at first, friendly. He used to ask me the laws related to everything he was going to do. He paid me well. But one day, he showed his true colours. He talked to me about a lady who worked in his office. He said she was beautiful and that he lusted for her. He asked me to suggest ways so as to incite her. I was shocked by the way his true self had come out. So I resolved not to help him.
He was a reader of minds, however. He told me that if I didn’t help him, he would not pay my fees and he would get all of us into trouble by messing up with the loans I had obtained from the bank. I remembered you, Ajay. I could not let you suffer. I had to oblige to that evil man.
I had just said this, “Be her Messiah.” The manager talked to the lady about a profitable business and she told that to her husband. They took loans from the bank but the information the manager had fed into them was fake. Their business collapsed. Their house was bought in the bidding by the manager’s relatives and he took the house himself later on. And when the lady was in deep sorrow, he increased her salary, promoted her and gave back her house as a “gift”. By doing that he gained her trust.
One day, the manager expressed his feelings towards her. Because she was married and had a child, she did not accept his proposal. The manager turned mad and brutally forced her into physical intimacy. I told him that he could get into trouble but he did not listen to me. He continued his brutality and the lady suffered a lot in her mind. Some months later, she ended up her miseries herself.
The note she left before she died could get the manager into trouble. He told me to help him by calling her mad and that she could not be believed. I refused to do so. He threatened me that he would torture me and my family so much that I too would get crazy like that lady and commit suicide. I had to give in to his threats and I saved him from punishment by doing whatever he told me to do.
After he retained his post, I quit the bank and practiced in the court. I never saw the manager again but then I heard that the wicked man disappeared. He deserved such a punishment and I thank God for punishing him.
I don’t expect you to forgive me Ajay. I have committed sins by letting that manager play with the mind of the lady. Because of my deed, you have suffered. You’ll never have to face any trouble I create from now onwards.
Your dad
P.S.: A doctor took custody of Reshma’s daughter. He is the girl’s biological father.
Ajay trembled. The letter fell off his hand. He had made a mistake by not talking too his father before the latter’s death. He cried bitterly until Inspector Pradhan said, “I’m sorry, Ajay. But I am curious about something.”
‘What is it?’ Ajay asked through his gestures. The inspector pointed at a small photo on the top of the table and continued, “Is that you?”
“No,” Ajay said in a low voice, “It’s Dad”. The officer then remarked, “You two look strikingly similar.”
Previously on Leave Me Alone
Ajay and Sasha go to Sasha’s home to celebrate Sasha’s birthday. Ajay sees portrait of a woman on red sari who looks like Sasha. Ajay is attacked by a woman on red sari and he flees. He goes to a police station and tells what had happened. Sasha wakes up on a cold street and returns back to her house, where police officers tell her to go with them. She is reluctant at first first but agrees later. At the police station, she faints.
Let’s look what happens to her and what truth Ajay discovers in this chapter.
The men at the police station acted quickly. Within minutes, Sasha was taken into the hospital, which she had exited some hours as a nurse. Ajay was devastated. He did not understand what was going on. Sitting on a chair outside the Intensive Care Unit of the hospital, Ajay began contemplating his relationship with Sasha. He realized that he did not know much about her. He had never asked her about her family and had wrongly believed that they were alive. Before Sasha had arrived at the police station, Dr. Shrestha had told him about her troubled childhood. He had also told that Sasha’s mother had died long ago. ‘Who was the woman who attacked me then? Was she Sasha’s mother? Or was she Sasha herself?’ Dr. Shrestha said she was Sasha but Ajay could not believe him. So, Dr. Shrestha gave his address and said, “Come to my house tomorrow at 8 o’clock in the morning. You will meet someone who will confirm my story.”
That night Ajay spent on the cold chair outside the ICU sometimes dozing, sometimes staring at the wall in front of him and sometimes looking at his unconscious girlfriend through the glass. When the darkness dissolved into the eastern lights, he talked with Rosa, whose shift had just ended. She told, “I had never thought I would see Sasha in such serious condition. I can’t still believe she is in coma. She was so lively last night.”
“Did you know about her problems?” Ajay interrogated as they walked out of the hospital.
“Everyone here knows that she had a split personality,” Rosa answered. “After long private sessions, Dr. Shrestha treated her. She got her nursing license after the treatment. Now that the disorder seems to have resurfaced, everyone is going to blame him. He is devastated.”
“I know,” Ajay said. “He is not happy with what has happened. He believes he made some mistake. The doctor thinks that if he had been a little more careful, Sasha would not have suffered the trauma.”
“It’s obvious he would think that way. He is her guardian,” Rosa remarked. They had already reached the bus stop on the street. Rosa bade farewell and went away. Ajay wondered, ‘Did she say Dr. Shrestha is Sasha’s guardian? He didn’t tell me that before. Why?’
He immediately resolved, ‘I need to ask the doctor.’
Ajay unfolded a small piece of paper in which the doctor had written his address. It was not far from where he was. Though he felt hungry- he had not eaten anything since lunch the previous day- Ajay decided to walk.
He reached Dr. Shrestha’s place in about fifteen minutes. He was not stopped at the gate. The doctor must have told the gatekeeper he was coming. He himself was waiting for Ajay in the garden. Beside him was a dark wrinkled woman. She smiled slightly at him. When Ajay sat on a chair opposite them, the doctor offered him tea and some slices of fruitcake. Ajay happily savoured them.
As they ate, Dr. Shrestha said, “Ajay, this is Parmila. She worked as a maid at Sasha’s from the time Sasha was born. Parmila knows their story better than I do.”
There was a silence for a while. Ajay asked, “Do you still work there?”
“No,” Parmila replied in a hoarse voice. “I stopped working there three years ago, after Sasha joined nursing.”
“Is it true that Sasha’s parents passed away while she was about six years old?”
“Yes, that’s true.”
“But I saw her mother last night,” Ajay exclaimed in disbelief.
“You can’t have seen Reshma,” Parmila said.
“The woman you saw was Sasha, not her mother,” Dr. Shrestha. “Tell him all you know, Parmila.”
Parmila nodded and began, “She was a beautiful child. She laughed a lot, played a lot. She wanted everything to be perfect even at a small age. She never liked playing with broken toys. After she played she used to keep them in their exact places. She was so sensitive that she used to cry whenever someone spoke to her loudly. She had lot of friends even at a small age.
“Sasha’s father had inherited a lot of land, from which he began a business of his own. Her mother, Reshma, worked at a bank on a good salary,” Parmila sighed and continued, “But some days after Sasha’s sixth birthday, fortune began to disfavour them. Her father’s business collapsed. He had taken up a loan from the bank where Reshma worked. The house had been mortgaged. The bank sold it when they could not pay the debt. The family who bought the house through bidding were relatives of the bank manager.
“Some months later, I heard a rumour that the manager of the same bank obtained that house from his relatives. Sasha’s father started blaming his wife for their misfortune. He said that she could have stopped the sale by talking to the management. But he never considered he had invested wrongly. He solely blamed upon Reshma for his failure. They moved into a small house. They had to pay rents and could not afford keeping me on the work. I had to leave.
“Some weeks later, Sasha’s mother came to my house. She looked as if she had slept for days. She was not as bright as she used to be. She sat beside me and said, “My husband has changed. He does not support me. He is not happy that I am still working at the bank that auctioned our house. I submitted resignation letter twice but they don’t approve it. He does not believe anything I say. We have been quarrelling a lot lately. It is affecting Sasha. He wants to send Sasha to a hostel. She is too young to be sent to a hostel. I want your help, Parmila.”
““Okay, I understand your problem. I’ll take care of the child,” I said, “You don’t need to pay me as long as you are in financial problem.”
“Sasha’s mother thanked me. She looked a little brighter by the time she left my place. I looked after Sasha in the mornings and evenings, while working at other places for money.
“Sasha was really affected by the fights her parents had. She was gloomy. She did not talk to anyone. Her grades had fallen. I did my best to keep her happy. I talked and laughed with her. I helped her in whatever I could. Whenever her parents fought, I took her to my house in her sleep. But I feared, even at that time, that I had not been able to stop the psychological change the child was going through.
“The family’s fortune changed all of a sudden. Reshma got a promotion and her husband discovered a link to get hold of his business again. A few months passed in peace until one evening Sasha’s mother said they were shifting. “Where,” I asked.
““Back to the house we left some months ago,” she said. I could not believe my ears. I asked her again and she replied the same. That was the evening, I saw little Sasha happy in a long time.
“No one asked Reshma how she got the house back. Her husband did not look happy, though. I heard murmurs among the women that Reshma had got the house back because of her illicit relationship with the bank manager. Her husband might have thought the same but did not say anything. He also stopped fighting with his wife and was giving time to Sasha whenever he could.
“Reshma, on the other hand, was not giving time to her daughter at all. She had changed. She usually came home late at night, drunk. So much that she could not stand upright. The bank manager would bring her up to the door sometimes. I knew her husband was angry. He was like a dormant volcano, ready to explode anytime. I feared the destruction it would bring.
“One evening, he burst up. Reshma was drunk as usual. He could bear it no more. He shouted out, “What’s wrong with you, Reshma? Why do you come home drunk every night?”
““There is no use telling you. You’re not going to believe me,” she replied angrily.
““Why don’t you tell me what exactly has happened to you?”
““You know everything,” Reshma replied in a low voice this time. “Why do you want to hear it from me?”
““What? I don’t know anything. How would I?”
“I could not hear what Reshma said but her husband was terribly enraged. He slapped her hard and yelled, “I didn’t know you could fall that low. Didn’t you even think of me and Sasha?”
““I had no choice,” Reshma said, crying. Her husband did not even look her. From the corner I was standing, I saw Sasha looking at her father. I was scared. She had seen her parents’ fight.
“The next morning, I witnessed the most tragic incident of life. Sasha’s mother was found dead in her room. Her face had become blue. A small bottle of poison lay beside her. The police discovered a note inside her diary in which she had written that the manager of the bank where she worked had molested her several times. The note also said that he had offered the house in return. Reshma had to accept everything he did because he had threatened to harm her family.
“The police caught the bank manager but his lawyer saved him from imprisonment. They even proved that Reshma was mad and that her note was not trustworthy. A few weeks later, the bank manger suddenly disappeared and has not been seen again. God punished him for this deed.”
There was a long silence at the table. “What happened to Sasha’s father?” Ajay asked slowly.
“Oh,” Parmila said, “He fell down the stairs and died. In his will he had wanted Dr. Shrestha to become Sasha’s guardian. I kept working at their house. Dr. Shrestha provided me wages until I decided to leave work due to my age two years ago.”
महिनौ देखि ‘तीजको लहरले छोयो काठमाडौंलाई । नेपालमा नै त्यस्ता ठाउँ पनि रहेछन् जहाँका महिला कहिल्यै माइत जान पाउँदैनन् । थप माइसंसारको यो लेखमा- http://www.mysansar.com/2016/09/24734/
This is the first chapter in a short story of total six chapters. It is a tale of Ajay and Sasha- a couple in love- and their families. Their parents had committed mistakes which are going to affect their relationships.
Sasha smiled as she swiped the screen of the phone to dismiss the call. In less than three seconds, the phone beeped again. ‘Ajay,’ it read for the eleventh time that evening. “Receive that call,” Rosa, a colleague of Sasha said to her, “he seems desperate.”
Sasha smiled coyly and swiped the phone’s screen to receive the call. “Finally,” sighed Ajay. “Now, before you decide to cut this conversation off, I have to say that I have been waiting for you in the parking. And I’m feeling odd.”
“It’s not the first time you have waited for me,” Sasha teased. “Keep waiting. You might make a world record of waiting in the parking- more than most of the cars over there.”
“That would be great. However, you would be the cause. You would also make the bad record of making people wait. Come quick,” he chuckled.
“Okay, I’m coming.” Sasha cut off the connection again and grinned. She closed the file she was examining and looked at the clock on the wall over the reception desk. She always preferred looking at that large clock when she was there even if she had a watch or a phone that could tell her time. She produced another register, signed up and said to the girl who had been sitting on a chair beside her, “Time’s up. It is your turn to take care of the patients, Rosa. Especially the one on bed number 331.”
Rosa nodded. She had already prepared herself for the night shift. Sasha smiled and walked out. The hospital she worked on was not as crowded and noisy in the evenings. She loved this tranquillity but she also knew was it was short-lived. Once someone wailed out of pain, the nurses would have to be the first to reach them. Sasha need not rush at that time, though. Her eight hours long shift had just ended. She could go home and get a good night’s sleep.
But she was not thinking of sleep that evening. All she wanted at that moment was that to reconcile with her boyfriend and celebrate the anniversary of their first meet. She had not told Ajay anything yet. She had planned a surprise for some days. All she had to do was to convince him to go to her house. He had left her up to the gate several times but had always refused to go in. It would be a tough job. Moreover, she was tired already. She wished he accepted the proposal without much effort.
All her fatigue faded when she saw him sitting on the bonnet of his red car. She had thought of surprising him but Ajay was certainly keeping his eyes upon the corridor from which she would come. He jumped and walked a few steps towards her and opened his arms, smiling. Sasha hugged him tight. Without saying anything, he dragged her into the car. When he shut the door on Sasha’s right, Ajay ran around and took the driver’s seat. Before the engine roared, he had played Sasha’s favourite music. Sasha smiled as the car went out to the street. Thoughts were racing on her mind, ‘How can you always care for me, Ajay? Am I even worthy of your love? Can I love you like you love me?’
They passed through the streets of the sleeping city quickly. Within fifteen minutes, Ajay stopped the car in front of Sasha’s house. “Aren’t you coming in?” Sasha said. Those were the first words since they had met that evening.
“No.” Ajay plainly replied.
“You must come in,” she insisted. “You always leave me at the gate and drive away. That’s not going to happen tonight.”
“Practically, I can’t drive into your house. How will I convince my dad to compensate for the damage upon the car and your house?” Sasha laughed heartily. Ajay continued, “Will you just stay here with me? That would be better.”
“But you won’t feel warm and cosy in here.”
“What did you just say? This is a luxury vehicle. Temperature and comfort is not a problem in here.”
Ajay looked a little annoyed. Maybe he was playing with her. Sasha felt she was failing. But she would not fail that day. She put her right arm around Ajay and looking lovingly into his eyes, said, “Just for a cup of coffee. Please.”
Ajay surprised her. He agreed. ‘Too easy,’ Sasha thought, ‘so he might have been planning something himself.’ She did not ask anything, however. She just hugged him tight and got off the car to be hit by a frosty breeze. She walked a few steps and opened the gate. Ajay drove in. She showed him the garage and she herself stood waiting at the porch. When her boyfriend saw Sasha standing outside her house, he said, “Did you lose your keys?” Raising his hands up, he continued, “If you want me to break into your house, I give up. I can’t do it.”
Sasha rolled her eyes. Ajay grinned and moved closer to her. She turned her back and opened the door with the key she had already taken out from her handbag. Within seconds, they were in the living hall. Ajay seemed mesmerized. Smiling, Sasha told him to rest on the couch while she went to the kitchen. She put the milk-pan on the stove, turned on the gas, and waited for the milk in it to boil.
All of a sudden, someone put arms around her waist. Shocked, she turned around to look straight into Ajay’s eyes. She too put her hands around his neck and pulled him towards her lips. At the very moment, a strong stench hit her nose- the stench of gas. She pushed Ajay and looked at the mess on the stove. At the exact moment Ajay had caught her, the milk had boiled and fallen over the fire, ceasing it. She turned off the gas and transferred the milk-pan to another stove. She added some water and heated the milk again. Within two minutes, she poured the content into two coffee-mugs, added two spoons of coffee on each of them. She then went back to the living room. She had already noticed that Ajay had left the kitchen as soon as she had pushed her.
Ajay was looking at a large portrait on the wall behind the couch. “Ahem,” Sasha coughed once. Ajay looked at her and smiling, asked, “This is a beautiful picture. When had you shot a photo on a red sari, though? This portrait does not seem recent.”
Sasha grinned as he handed a mug of coffee to Ajay. She raised her eyebrows as if questioning, ‘Guess who?’ Ajay looked at Sasha and the portrait again and said, “It’s your mother’s, isn’t it? Wow, you both look so similar.”
Ajay’s statement did not surprise Sasha. She had heard that compliment from a lot of people. However, she was impressed that Ajay had discovered the truth himself. Ajay sipped the coffee and sat on the long couch talking about something Sasha did not properly hear. She went closer to him, put her head on his chest, and looked up at Ajay. He too was stared at him lovingly.
All of a sudden, he jumped and the coffee in his hand spilled upon her clothes. Sasha noticed Ajay as she jumped up as well. He seemed scared; but she could not understand what he was frightened of. She could not have scared him. ‘Oh no, my uniform,’ Sasha also realized that she had not changed. Without looking at Ajay, she said, “I’ll come right now.”
Sasha rushed upstairs and picked up a beautiful red dress from her drawer. She put on some make up and was about to move out when she noticed that she had brought her coffee-mug to her room. She finished the lukewarm beverage in one gulp and went downstairs into the kitchen. As she put the mug into the sink, she saw a woman’s reflection on the mirror. The woman stood behind Sasha wearing a red sari and red blouse. She was smiling at her and talking, but her words invoked terror. She was saying, “Kill that boy, Sasha.”
“Why?” Sasha asked.
“Don’t act like you do not know,’ the woman snapped, “You know what I am talking about.”
“No, I don’t. I don’t understand why you want to harm him.”
“Not just harm, “Sasha’s mother looked enraged, “but I want him dead.” Sasha chuckled. The woman continued, “Why don’t you understand, Sasha? All men are the same. Once his desires are fulfilled, he will leave you helpless like beggars in the streets. I don’t want you to suffer.”
“You’re mistaken, Mom. He is not anything like you say.”
“Why is he not? You do not even need to look back into distant past if you try to understand what I am saying. Just recall how he had grabbed you from behind. That was not a move of a decent man. He did not even apologise.”
“He did not say anything, Mom, but I have looked into his eyes and know that he meant no evil,” Sasha replied. “And remember, I won’t let you harm him.”
“You don’t understand, Sasha,” Sasha’s mother stared at her angrily, “You have been blinded by love and you don’t leave me a choice.”She abruptly produced a steel rod (Sasha had not noticed it earlier) and hit hard on Sasha’s head. She felt her vision blurring. Sasha looked with disgust at the woman on the red sari, as she fell and hit the cold floor.
I talk about the art, music and movies that I have adored in the Monthly Feature. For the month of June, I present my views on a movie quite differently than I have done before.
What’s true love? Disney Animations and Pictures seem to change the notion that true love is always a romantic orientation. That’s what we saw in Brave, Frozen and Maleficent.
Maleficent: Meaning
The Dictionary.com defines maleficent as “doing evil or harm”. The dark fairy from Disney’s Sleeping Beauty (1959) is named and meant so. She is the villain who curses the beautiful princess Aurora to an infinite sleep only to be broken by “a true love’s kiss”.
Maleficent Revived
The same Maleficent was revived in the 2014 Disney live action movie of the same name. I had watched both the versions in the same year, unintentionally and I had felt that 1959 movie was more about the villainous Maleficent than the heroine Aurora. Yet, the movie seemed incomplete. I had not been able to understand why the fairy had to be angry at all.
Linda Wolverton, the script writer of the 2014 movie seemed to have noticed the same. So she added a back story where Maleficent’s wings are cut stolen by Stefan to gain powers for himself. The story adds details to why the fairy was angry with King Stefan.
The Villain
The king had stolen her wings- her pride and her fun. She even rescued a raven and named him Diaval. “You will become my wings,” she says something like that. She, however goes to the name-giving ceremony of the king’s daughter and curses that the girl would fall asleep on her sixteenth birthday after being pricked by the spindle of a spinning wheel. The curse could be broken only by a true love’s kiss. (She gives the condition of the breaking of the curse believing that true love does not exist.)
Wait! What was the little girl’s mistake? I don’t understand why Maleficent curses the little girl. Maybe she had psychological problems. (We do not know!) She has magical powers and all. She could have defeated Stefan then and there. Yet she chooses to curse the daughter. Maybe they wanted to show her association with the Princess who slept, which we see later. Maybe she did not like that particular child, we do not understand why. Thereby, Maleficent makes herself a villain.
But the land Stefan ruled must have suffered a lot. All the spinning wheels are thrown, dumped or burnt. Imagine the amount of clothes they could have produced in sixteen years. Forget Aurora and through the curse, Maleficent handicaps their economy.
Villain- Is She Yet?
To prevent the curse, the king sends his daughter with three pixies without even testing their competence. (What kind of father is he?) The dark fairy learns from Diaval that the little girl is not being taken care of. For her interest of bringing the curse true, she takes care of the child. But she also loves the child as her own as time passes.
Maleficent, when she understands that she loves the child, tries to break the curse. But she herself had told that it was unbreakable. Aurora, the Princess sleeps. The fairy brings up a Prince and tells him to kiss the girl. But it goes in vain. How could an attraction of some moments be true love? She knows she made a mistake. She asks for forgiveness and kissing her goddaughter’s forehead. Turns out Maleficent’s motherly love was true even if she had a selfish interest in the beginning.
So, is she yet a villain? Maybe Disney Pictures still say she is. Maybe Wolverton still believes in the villainous Maleficent. But the truth is that at the end of the movie, she does not remain a villain anymore. She has been transformed by the love she developed for Aurora. And she even regrets from having cursed her as a child.
That was the best thing about the movie for me. The transformation was the only reason I was able to forgive her act of cursing a child. Her name might suggest that she is still malicious. But she is not one dimensional word whose meaning cannot be changed. Maleficent is a fairy, cheated by a human. If her anger is justified, why not the change she undergoes? Wolverton still calling Maleficent a villain after a change of heart does not give her any justice.
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