Beeja and Teeja

Last week, I went to the government run library of my town. I have been a member of this library for long. However, last year, in library they follow Finance Year for the renewal of subscription, i did not renew my subscription as the 'bibliophile' library workers found no time to arrange the newly arrived ones and put them in such a clutter that library was in an aweful mess. As i browsed through the books last week, the library was some what in a better look, though the bibliophiles often test the temerity of the new books by compelling them to be dog-eared and flayed in the edges as they are thrust into crowded shelves and wedged in to get claustrophobia, i came across a Penguin edition of a book titled "Life - Selected Stories" by Vijay Dan Dehta and fondly known as 'Bijji" among friends. He is a writer from Rajasthan, India. He writes in his mother tongue and has done a lot of research in the folk tales of Rajasthan, in fact the book is a collection of translated short stories of him by three different people. The collection features ten stories in all and with the spur of the moment thing, I took that book for reading. I have enjoyed reading Hans Christian Anderson and The Grimm Brothers' folk tales, though i possess little knowledge of folk tales from excluding the region in which i was born and brought up.

The first tale is titled 'New Life'. It is a fascinating story about two women who have been provided with the ambience to become lesbians. Once upon a time in the Thar country, there were two villages of considerable distance between them. In each of these villages lived two moneylenders, who were both miserly and tightwads and both got married on the same day and both vowed to marry their children to each other. Both these women delivered the babies on the same day with the same star sign. One of the moneylenders, who was known for his extremities in frugality announced every one that his wife had delivered a baby boy and then started bringing up the child as if it were a boy. The girl wore only the dresses of boys and considered herself a male. The mother of the baby-girl was much grieved at the avaricious husband's behaviour and broached the subject to him with valour as women were only considered the subjects of men. He quietened his wife by bringing in the origin of her birth. She hailed from the family of merchants for generations. As her father was interested only in business, he took no time to love his wife. The wife enamoured with sex, growing unabated each minute as it had no outlet, found a surrogate husband in a labourer and the wife of the moneylender was born of that union.

Things grew out of bounds, as the father decided to marry off his 'son' with the intention to get a lot of dowry to his friend's daughter. A cousin of the 'son' had watched the girl grow and known about 'her' physique. She attempted to instill sense into the girl by explaining the sexes to her. The girl stood impervious and even scolded the cousin jealous of the dowry that 'her' marriage would bring. However, with some disbelief, she approached her mother, who stood incapacitated by her husband's threats and assured her 'son' of her intentions of jealous on the part of the cousin being true. The marriage was performed lavishly and went with no glitch to disturb the dreams of the avaricious father. At 'first night', the bride, decorated profusely, was taken to the bed-room ceremoniously. The girls after letting her in, peeped through a chink to have their vicariousness satisfied but found themselves with no entertainment as the groom went to sleep immediately. For a week, nothing happened. Bored by the naiveness of the groom, the bride initiated herself on the seventh night, bringing in the sultry weather to her rescue, to request the groom to remove his clothes. The groom, held his lower garment a symbol of manliness, did not hesitate in removing the upper garment and did bring down the bride in concussion.

After getting back her consciousness, the bride heard everything from her companion and they both decided to accept their fate by living together. The next morning they stunned the village by exposing the daughter of the moneylender and left once and for all the house. On the night of discovery, they christened each other Beeja (the name of the groom) and Teeja. Their departure was marked with a tumultuous rain and they both stripped and pierced into the bodies of each other in that rain. They happened to pass by an abandoned well, as it housed many ghosts and made the villagers afraid of the place. The head of the ghosts invited them and narrated their story to them. It, moved by their pure love to each, decided to construct a lovely palace, an unearthly one as it could never be inimitable by humans. Their fame spread to the very village from which they came off. One day the mother in law of Teeja came to see them both with the coercion to make them separate and marry a lovely groom each, with the cousin of Beeja. The two, though entertained them, declined the offer. The cousin's barren womb was blessed by the ghost to procreate.

The boon given to the cousin made great stir in the hearts of them as they wanted the ghost to turn one of them into a man. The ghost condescended with a tag boon attached, that would revert the change into its original self. They made love as women on the last night and the next day Beeja became a man. New life brought much energy and virility and he made love with Teeja as a man. With the change came the arrogance and superiority of the race of men, as Beeja became violent and bossy. Both realised the change in behaviour and reverted the change and continued to live as two women making love forever. The story ends there with a lot to ponder over. It does not advocate lesbianism as it portrays the sexual relationship between two women comfortable for them to make love with ease conversely with men, that was arrogant and partisan. The writer tries to instill, probably, the feeling of women on men and their intentions and wishes as they expect the opposite sex to cooperate and cope with. This posting is open for a lot of comments and i hope much fruition happens in the process.