The Occimum Sanctum-Two pots.
Behold the plant is dead, or it isn’t living. What difference is there in these two after all? Not living is not always dead and dead is not always non living. Something similar to the situation with Shravani. She was living yet dead. She was killed a long back but living for the society’s sake. You ask her to stoop, she would do. You ask her to laugh, she would laugh. You hint to her that she must be crying now. And you have her full of watery eyes. You tell her and she is at your service. When someone is so likely to obey all your orders and never grumble, never retaliate, poor you are forced to exploit them. Poor you are left with no other option but to make them toil. Poor you would stop harassing them if they strike back, if they spoke up, if they spit on your face. But poor you are cent percent sure such a day would never come, at least not in the near future for a simple reason that you hold the rod; a lethal deeply rusted rod. And poor you have been given it into your hands since ages. Poor you have began to like the feeling of holding the power. Poor you simply don’t want to sacrifice power. As an outcome, poor you always hold the might tight and frantically search for cattle; dumb cattle.
But your poorness fails to outshine someone’s misfortune. Your might fails to surpass someone’s vengeance. You are surely ‘poor you’ but they are no longer in the same old poverty. Shravani is clear now. If she is suffering because of you, she is in no way going to allow you hold the rod anymore. What a life is it after all? Do all the chores and sleep on the mud floor outside the fortified house, under the roof of heavens swirling every moment that passed, disloyal every instant. They appear one thing to you now and a different thing when you bat your eyelids. Shravani knew, she deserved better. Even if she didn’t get any she knew she had to get better. Even if she didn’t get any, she knew she wouldn’t allow her culprits to get the best. She knew.
Shravani would leave doing her work and the house is left paralyzed. The major fact she knew. She would manage all the activities of the house. Now she knew clearly what to do. There is always a place on the globe, which is full of goods and no harms to any beast. Just that you need to find it. She would no longer breathe in a hell when heavens are plenty out there.
Siddhu is now in. looking for his beloved person. He cries now. He gets no sign of Shravani. And in this case the whole house is on flames. The members come out one by one. The villagers are mad on streets. They are running around with brands of blaze. They would burn her alive if they caught her. They were fools. She knew you could burn things completely only once. And the second time you go to burn them you may hurt yourself you are left with no less than ashes yet again. Throw them on the soil. And you have the Occimum Sanctum grow bold, fearless and gallant. She is now growing all over. Not just in your square prisms. She is giving life not only in your homes, but elsewhere. She is now an all-time nurse cleaning the wounds of all other burns in the line of her vision. The tulsi- Occimum Sanctum for the English eyes is now blooming better.
Oh the Lords of the house are searching every nook and cranny of their grand palace. If they find something missing, they will order the villagers to double the fire in their brands. The prisoner can surely escape not the thief. Shravani knew, she is sitting in some corner and mocking at the kings and their subordinates. The kings find that the thief has escaped with but two pots; one containing Ink and feather and another, the Occimum Sanctum…
©2009 K Narendra Pai
image credits:Flickr
