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Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Dolls-game

Original:  Dr. Kolakaluri Enoch
Translated from Telugu by: GRKMurty

Krishnamurthy: aged forty-five
Adulthood: fear
Youth: asa – hope
It’s alarming to think of old-age
Anxious not to miss the youth
Though time is passing on
desire is not dying.
Discontentment is growing
Grey hair::
On the head:
Black dye:
On mustache::
Beard::
Daily shaving:::
Combing the hair neatly
 Blackening the mustache,
With no stubs on cheek,
spick and span
Krishnamurthy getting ready as a youngster:
Tight pants,
Ditto shirt,
Pointed shoe,
Water-polish,
Crew-cut:
Dark-glasses over short-sighted eyes.
Krishnamurthy turning into a youngster
Krishnamurthy: Lecturer: Not speaking with anyone in the Department
unless it is a must.
For him, they are the aged lot:
Ageing reflects in their talk:
Ageing reflects in their deeds:
Can’t stand it.
That’s why he is not talking to them.
Talking  to:
Youngsters:
Talks with the newly joined lecturers, tutors, demonstrators in the department, in the college, with male students and female students,
 Merrily.
With Principal
No:
With the Head of the Department
No:
With mother
No:
With father
No:
Only one criterion
No talking with aged people!—No::
Talks to youth:—Yes::
That’s not all.
Won’t seek advice from old people
No moving around them.
Won’t care about them.
Won’t even perceive them as living beings.
With youth,
Goes for stroll.
Aching feet:
They can roam freely well
They hop
They leap
He can’t do all that
Yet tries
In hotels
They eat a lot
They drink
They gobble down a lot
They devour
Thrust a lot down their throats
He can’t do it
Could not say “No”
Shows patience
Digests it slowly over a week.
In their chatting
They speak about girls,
About love.
About marriages,
About dowry,
About ideal love,
About imaginary world, illusionary lovers, romantic life,
About very many things in life
As they are dreaming,
Casually
Joining them hand in glove
Some illusion:
Some reality:
Mixing them up well
Makes them believe that Krishnamurthy too was a young man
At one time
Krishnamurthy is an old man:
Another time he is the one who wants to be like a young man
Yet another time thinks he is young.
Some other time he was like a young man.
Now he became a young man. Fully a lad! A perfect lad!!
A young man asked: “Are you married?”
Krishnamurthy smiled at it! “My relative’s daughter… good looking—why not consider?”
Krishnamurthy was delighted. “Won’t you invite us for your marriage:” 
Krishnamurthy squirmed in embarrassment. Why not,
Krishnamurthy is a perfect young man!
Today Krishnamurthy, before coming to the college, proposing to go for a movie, asked his wife to be ready by evening.
As he reached home in the evening, the mother of four children kept herself ready to go to a hotel, or to Kanakayya park, if not to a club or to a movie with the husband!
Forty two-year-old—a poor spouse!!
In the afternoon, his eldest daughter came with her two daughters.
Elder one is of four years! Younger one is one-and-a-half years old!
“Everything is alright?”  asks father. “Yes”, says daughter.
“Let’s go!” said to wife.
“Won’t change yourself!” asked wife, looking at her daughter.
“No,” said he, of course, looking at the daughter. “As he wishes!” replies mother, looking at the daughter*
On one side in the veranda, the elder one—the four-year-old, with her doll—
Krishnamurthy sees! Swinging the doll with hands, singing lullaby! Holding close to the chest, stroking, saying:
“Don’t cry, drink!”
Krishnamurthy is watching. Saying, “Drink amma! Drink!” baby is giving milk to the doll.
Doll  -  child are seeing.
The old-young man, Krishnamurthy, goes to the child-mother.
Closing her eyes playfully, the child is suckling the doll-child.   
 

* In the presence of grownup children, parents, traditionally, don’t feel comfortable talking straight to each other.

2 comments:

PrithviRaajithaSriKiran said...

Sir,
Nice story. translation is good. Sir,Why dont you translate Prof Enoch gari other stories into English. Ofcourse, it's a fact that one will translate a story which he likes the most.
Hope to see a few more translated stories of Prof Enoch from your pen
Regards
Raajitha Prithvi

karpuramanjari said...

Thanks a lot & sorry for the latePl

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