Monthly Story, December 2022
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Image → Angela Roma
Archetype → Caregiver
Rasa → Śāntam: Peace or tranquility. Presiding deity: Vishnu. Colour: perpetual white.
Śṛṅgāraḥ (शृङ्गारः): Romance, Love, attractiveness. Presiding deity: Vishnu. Colour: light green,
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As Jamila stepped onto the cobblestone floors, a reassuring composure welcomed her. It was her favourite villa at the old Dutch fort. Although a sunny April sat outside, it felt as if she had just weathered a storm. Feeling her phone vibrating again, Jamila held down the power button without looking at the screen. Her former fiancé, his family, and her family drove her crazy—collectively and individually. She just had to shut them out.
Jamila drank in the space hungrily while being checked in. It was a spectacular seventeenth-century hospice building turned into a villa. Although she had covetously dined at its restaurant, and religiously liked every single picture that they posted, Jamila had never stayed here before. In fact, she had never stayed anywhere alone before. Her right leg shuddered, twitching unstoppably under the reception desk. The old hospice walls reassured her that everything will be alright. Surrounded by its wizened beauty—holding the centuries within limestone pores, bearing countless stories of broken minds and bones that healed between these walls—Jamila couldn’t help but trust this place.
As soon as left alone in the room, she turned the bathtub tap on and started to undress. Jamila watched her own body emerge from the clothes. She took herself in the mirror; reflection of the familiar, yet unfamiliar woman in the mirror. She pressed her hand on the arm just to make sure. Yesterday, she was soon to be wedded to someone everyone else thought was good for her. Today, she was someone who sold her engagement ring and rented a room alone at her favourite villa. She pressed her bare feet against the old cobblestone bathroom floor. The high window snuck in a streak of southern sun that fell on her hair making it shine black-bronze. 'You're worth it', a gentle thought permeated from the tranquility of the old place.
Then, with an incredible release, Jamila wept.
As the pain receded, Jamila felt comforted by the old walls surrounding her with their limestone warmth. The water fell into the tub in a gentle dialogue of liquid and metal, as if to reassure her.
Finally emptied, Jamila wiped her face and turned the tap off. She lowered herself into the bathtub and felt the warm water surround her with liquid grace. Jamila realized that her insides had been brewing a storm since the arranged marriage was confirmed last year. And, when it finally broke out in lashing rains and thunder yesterday, she called off the engagement and didn’t return home to her parents after work. She came to the villa instead. Coming dangerously close to getting locked into a default life that wasn’t hers, Jamila understood that without making room for what she really wants, there will never be space for happiness. But, now what? Jamila had no answers.
Everything will be alright, all in due time; the old limestone walls assured her.
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The story, all names, characters, and incidents portrayed in this production are fictitious. No identification with actual persons (living or deceased), places, buildings, and products is intended or should be inferred.