Page 192 - DENG203_ELECTIVE_ENGLISH_IV

Unit 10: Once There was a King by Rabindranath Tagore

my bedside was burning low. My grandmother’s voice droned on as she told the story. And all Notes
these things served to create in a corner of my credulous heart the belief that I had been gathering
sticks in the dawn of some indefinite time in the kingdom of some unknown king, and in a
moment garlands had been exchanged between me and the princess, beautiful as the Goddess of
Grace. She had a gold band on her hair and gold earrings in her ears. She had a necklace and
bracelets of gold, and a golden waist-chain round her waist, and a pair of golden anklets tinkled
above her feet.
If my grandmother were an author, how many explanations she would have to offer for this
little story! First of all, everyone would ask why the king remained twelve years in the forest?
Secondly, why should the king’s daughter remain unmarried all that while? This would be
regarded as absurd.

Even if she could have got so far without a quarrel, still there would have been a great hue and
cry about the marriage itself. First, it never happened. Secondly, how could there be a marriage
between a princess of the Warrior Caste and a boy of the priestly Brahman Caste? Her readers
would have imagined at once that the writer was preaching against our social customs in an
underhand way. And they would write letters to the papers.
So I pray with all my heart that my grandmother may be born a grandmother again, and not
through some cursed fate take birth as her luckless grandson.

With a throb of joy and delight, I asked Grannie: “What then?”
Grannie went on: Then the princess took her little husband away in great distress, and built a
large palace with seven wings, and began to cherish her husband with great care.

I jumped up and down in my bed and clutched at the bolster more tightly than ever and said:
“What then?”
Grannie continued: The little boy went to school and learnt many lessons from his teachers, and
as he grew up his class-fellows began to ask him: “Who is that beautiful lady living with you in
the palace with the seven wings?”

The Brahman’s son was eager to know who she was. He could only remember how one day he
had been gathering sticks and a great disturbance arose. But all that was so long ago that he had
no clear recollection.
Four or five years passed in this way. His companions always asked him: “Who is that beautiful
lady in the palace with the seven wings?” And the Brahman’s son would come back from school
and sadly tell the princess: “My school companions always ask me who is that beautiful lady in
the palace with the seven wings, and I can give them no reply. Tell me, oh, tell me, who you are!”

The princess said: “Let it pass today. I will tell you some other day.” And every day the Brahman’s
son would ask: “Who are you?” and the princess would reply: “Let it pass today. I will tell you
some other day.” In this manner four or five more years passed away.
At last the Brahman’s son became very impatient and said: “If you do not tell me today who you
are, O beautiful lady, I will leave this palace with the seven wings.” Then the princess said:
“I will certainly tell you tomorrow.”
Next day the Brahman’s son, as soon as he came home from school, said: “Now, tell me who you
are.” The princess said: “Tonight I will tell you after supper, when you are in bed.”
The Brahman’s son said: “Very well”; and he began to count the hours in expectation of the
night. And the princess, on her side, spread white flowers over the golden bed, and lighted a
gold lamp with fragrant oil, and adorned her hair, and dressed herself in a beautiful robe of
blue, and began to count the hours in expectation of the night.

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