People of Sumanpur still remember the farce which their landlord enacted to make them laugh. Very few people, however, know that the author of the farce was not the landlord, but Gauri, his maid-servant.
It happened like this: The landlord had lost his wife. There were flatterers who told him to get married again. He did not listen to them. But -one day, looking at the beautiful Gauri, who was sweeping his floor, he suddenly thought that she should make a good wife. She was the daughter of a poor farmer. She should be humble and obedient.
He called Gauri. He coughed and hemmed and then managed to put forth the proposal.
Gauri was surprised and embarrassed. She was in no mood to marry an old man! But how can she say No to a venerable man?
“Sir, I cannot think of marriage now. I have to look after my father. He will feel helpless without me,” said Gauri.
“Can’t I take care of your father? Don’t you have that much trust in my capacity?” asked the landlord.
“But, sir, I don’t wish to marry now!” said Gauri, this time a bit rudely.
The landlord told himself that it was no use speaking to the girl. He can very well speak to her father.
He summoned Gauri’s father, Madhav, and put forth his proposal before him. Madhav had already heard about it from Gauri.
His daughter had told him, “Father, even if the landlord promises to cover me in diamonds, I will not marry him! I used to address his wife as a mother. How can I marry him?”
“Sir?” said Madhav, “my daughter is a pampered child. Because she lost her mother when she was a small child, I have never been able to command her to do this or do that. Give me some time. I’ll persuade her to marry you.”
“Very well,” said the landlord and he promised Madhav free land and a number of other facilities.
But how long to wait? Almost a year passed. The landlord summoned Madhav once again and asked him when he proposed to marry Gauri to him.
Madhav sighed and said, “Sir, the only course left before you is to marry her forcibly. Get ready for the occasion. I’ll send her to you. Your people should lead her straight to the priests and make her sit down. The priests should do the needful hurriedly. Gauri may be unwilling to marry, but she will accept her fate once the matter is over.”
The landlord found the idea quite sound. He went ahead with preparations. He did not wish to give any publicity to it, but he was the landlord. Anything that happens in his household becomes widely known.
The news that he was going to marry spread in the village, but nobody knew who the bride was.
When it was time for the ritual, the landlord called a servant of his and told him, “Madhav is to despatch something to me. Fetch it.”
The servant met Madhav. “Brother, what your master wishes to have is to be found in my field. Go there.”
The servant went to Madhav’s field and found Gauri there.
“The landlord was to receive something from your father and your father said that it is to be found here. What is it?”
“It is that dark young mare, of course!” said Gauri, without the slightest hesitation.
The servant led the mare to his master’s house. There was a crowd in front of the house, curious about the wedding. The servant tied the mare to a pillar in the backyard and reported to his master that he had brought
what was to be brought.
“Good. Take her upstairs. Ask our maid-servants to dress her like a bride. The bridal clothes and ornaments are in my bedroom.”
“Dress her as a bride, sir?” the servant, taken aback, asked.
The landlord smiled, “Yes, my faithful boy! Do as I say. Bring her to the wedding dais outside. Don’t ask a single
question. Go about your business quickly!” said the landlord and he went out and sat down near the priest.
A little later the servant was seen dragging the mare, a saree wrapped around her, to the wedding dais.
There were peals of laughter. The landlord stood up and left the place in a huff.
Someone said, “We all insisted on our landlord getting married again. He acted in a way as if he was going to satisfy us! But he wanted to ridicule us by presenting a farce before us. Who could have known that he was
not the kind of man to marry once again at this phase of his life!”
And all accepted it as a farce devised by the witty landlord to amuse them!
