1139. The Man on Horseback

When Damayanthi went to the market with her mother Kalyani, she watched her mother buy some vegetables.

"Are you not buying bitter gourd?" asked Damayanthi.

Kalyani looked at her daughter with surprise and said, "You want me to buy bitter gourd! But, you don't like bitter gourd." 

"He likes bitter gourd. So, I thought I will also get used to like it."

"He? Whom are you referring to?" asked Kalyani.

Damayanthi checked herself and said, "I was talking about daddy."

"But your father also doesn't like bitter gourd. It is because you both don't like bitter gourd, I have stopped buying it" said Kalyani, still perplexed by her daughter's words.

Another day, When Damayanthi was walking on the streets with her friends, she saw a soldier riding a horse.

Damyanthi told her friends, "This is his horse. But someone else is riding it."

"His horse? Whom are you talking about?" one of her friends asked Damayanthi.

"Don't you remember? When we were bathing in the tank, a man came there riding a horse. He let the horse drink water in the tank and stood at a distance, lest we should feel uncomfortable bathing in the tank, in the presence of a man. He was such a gentleman! It was when I met him for the first time. After that, I met him in the temple, when I had been there along with you people" said Damayanthi.  

Damayanthi's friends exchanged puzzled looks among themselves.

"What you say doesn't make any sense to us, Damayanthi. No such incident happened, when we were bathing together in the tank" said, one friend.

"Oh! In that case, it might have happened, when I was bathing with some of my other friends" said Damayanthi.

"But, you don't have other friends!" pointed out another friend.

"Perhaps, it took place when I was bathing with my mother" said Damayanthi, even as she was wondering why she had been contradicting herself.

"It is obvious that something has happened to her. We will suggest to her mother to get her married soon!" said another friend, evoking a laughter in others.

"One more thing. All horses look alike. So, even if you had met a man riding a horse, this horse may not be the one you saw him riding. So, don't keep dwelling on this" another friend advised Damayanthi.

Later, when Damayanthi met her lover in private, she told him, "I didn't tell anyone about my love. But my love for you, which I have locked up in my mind, keeps popping out now and then by breaking the lock open, exposing me and embarrassing me in the process. So, I suggest that you meet my parents soon and arrange to have our marriage performed soon."

Thirukkural
Section 3

Love

Chapter 114
Shedding Shyness

Verse 1139 (in Tamil):
aRigilAr ellArum enRE en kAmam
maRugin maRugum maruNdu.

Meaning:

Believing that none knows its secret, my love reels confused in the streets (of this town).

(This is the English version of the Tamil story 'kudhirai vIran' by the same author.)

Verse 1140 (Soon)
Verse 1138