'Jayanthi', A Love Story

‘Jayanthi’-a love story.

It was the year 1965.I was in 1<SUP>st</SUP> year B.A in Ethiraj college,Madras.I and my friends were a group consisting of seven students.Malathi,Malathi,Sumathi,Manjula,VatsalaJayanthai and yours truly,Mythili.We were a boisterous group. We would be laughing all the time, and were always up to some practical joke on some unsuspecting soul or other.No doubt the less mischievous,sober students looked at us as if we descended from some other planet.
I was the shortest, not only in our group, but in the entire class and all the other members of our group were reasonably tall, no one less than 5’3” atleast.We would always choose to sit in the last row.I would painstakingly hide the PerryMason and would be reading it while the lecturers went on and on with their lectures,particularly,the History lecturer who was an elderly lady.At times my friends would nudge me,”Mythili,madam is watching you”.I would immediately get up and pose some silly doubt about the Panipat war or some such war that took place hundreds of years ago.The innocent,unsuspecting History lecturer would give a beaming smile and look at the entire class, “Look at this girl,even though she is sitting in the last row, she is paying attention to my lectures and always asks questions.That is the hall mark of a good student.Look at you people,”She would look at the rest of the class with ill conceived, utter disregard.She would throw a kind glance at me and say,”Come my child,why are you sitting in the last row,come and sit in the first row,students like you only should sit in the front row”.I would push the Perry Mason in my friend’s hand , go and sit in the first row with a sadhu like, butter won’t melt in my mouth, expression on my face.The entire class would give me murderous glares.Not that I minded it,I felt so proud .

I told you that Jayanthi was in our group.Well, she was the star of our group.Jayanthi was beautiful.She was dusky in complexion,medium height, slim with thick,curly hair.She had an oval face and her black eyes with long eyelashes occupied most of her face.The highlight of her good looks was that when she smiled she got dimples on both her cheeks,making her look,atleast in our eyes,an angel.Jayanthi’s father was a well known industrialist and she came to college in different cars everyday escorted by her mother.She would not repeat her sarees ie I never saw her wearing the same saree that she wore to the college for the next one year atleast.(Those days ,my dear,we wore only sarees to college,it was an unspoken rule that students would wear only sarees.Matching accessories right from bangles to toe rings,long chain with big pendants,a beautiful tikka on the fore head,no heavy make up,lipstick was frowned upon.That was the idea of the beauty we worshipped in other girls,those were innocent times.) Jayanthi would not laugh heartily,a little too heartily, like us ,but would give a coy smile which would invariably bring the dimples on her cheeks, making our hearts swell with pride.
We,the other members of our group were very proud that Jayanthi belonged to our group.We made a resolution that we would never allow her to slip out of our group and join some other group.Those days,my dear,students in each discipline like Economics,History,English literature etc divided ourselves in to small groups.We never made any conscious effort to make groups but it happened.Birds of the same feather flocked together.So some group had mostly studious students who constantly talked about marks and subjects,some groups had members who were sports lovers some were movie buffs.We in our group were mostly pranksters.
So when somebody in another group got first rank or a pat on the back from Miss ,Mathew our Princy at that time,we used to give that group a Shashikapoor look and walk away.What is that Shashi kapoor look?Remember Deewar?Amitabh tells Shashi,”I have got big bungalow,car,money etc,what do you have?”
Shashi says,”Mere pas ma hai!”
Wow what an immortal dialogue!Though Deewar was to come only later on, we could speak such dialogues with our eyes, you see!”
In a similar fashion, we used to give a look, “Hamare pas Jayanthi hai” at them and walk swinging our hips.In those days , I was oh so slim, I could swing my hips at that time!

In the meanwhile our pranks continued,our rowdiness continued.We at the last bench were writing silly jokes on the last page of our note books and passed them around,we exchanged jokes in mild tones which the whole class could hear,I had postgraduated to reading P G Wodehouse from Perrymason sitting in the last bench.Fans of PGWH know how difficult it is to control laughter while reading him.So with me laughing away to glory,students in the neighbourhood could not pay attention to lectures.
Mrs.Kadhir who was the head of the Dept of English,who was such an amiable person, got enraged on a particularly irritating time we gave her.So,my dear friends, on a fine day at an auspicious time Mrs,Kadhir christened our group “Monkeys”with great affection.We held our heads high and walked as if we were bestowed on us Padmashri.Jayanthi was a little unhappy. “Chee yar,she is calling us monkeys”cried Jayanthi.I immediately jumped.
“Jayanthi,we should never decry our ancestors.My mother has told me”said I and continued holding her hands.”Jayanthi,monkey is Anjaneya,you know,Anjaneya did not know his own strength.Jambavan had to tell Anjaneya how great he was,you know!Similarly MS.Kadhir has reaffirmed our courage and our strength in us by naming us Monkeys,infact we should be proud and be grateful to her,you know1”said I.Jayanthi looked at me with confusion and walked away, perplexion written all over her face.
One day Jayanthi came to college carrying her brother’s wedding invitation and gave them to us inviting us personally for the wedding.
We, the monkeys, landed in the marriage mandapam on the auspicious day.On that day my dear,Jayanthi looked so beautiful!She was wearing a green colour silk saree with red border,emeralds shining in her ears,hands and neck.She was glowing and everyone who had come to attend the marriage had eyes only for her.Even her mother would not have been as proud of her daughter’s looks as we were.Jayanthi made us sit comfortably and went round taking care of the guests.After some time, she was not to be seen.We were wondering,”Where had jayanthi gone?”.Our detective Manjula cried,”Hey,look!”We looked in the direction that her fingers showed.There she was, our Jayanthi.What was she doing?She was looking at someone with undisguised admiration.We saw in that direction.There he was,a tall, fair, handsome young man with broad shoulders, curly hair and a nice smile that lighted up his entire countenance.Jayanthi was standing on the first floor landing , we including this handsome fellow were on the hall down, where the muhurtham was to take place.Jayanthi looked at him and when he in turn, looked at her she was busy counting the beams on the roof.She was admiring him when he was talking to his friends and when he was looking at her, she was busy ,atleast she pretended to be busy doing something else.This drama was continuing for sometime and our necks ached looking at them alternately.Malathi said,” Mythili, the bird is trying to fly out of the nest”.She was true.We could see from the look on Jayanthis face and the way her eyes danced when that young man’s and her eyes locked even if it was for a second,that our heroine had fallen head over heels in love with him!.Hm….We sighed.It had to happen some day and it happened today,so saying we consoled ourselves.We knew by instinct that ,that young man was going to be more important to her than anybody else in her life.Meanwhile,our detective Manju went to the ladies sitting over there,she also sat with them talked for a while and returned.
Her report:
That young man’s name:Mr.Shekar
Occupation:Captain in the army
Is he related to Jayanthi side:No,Jayanthi’s brother and Shekar were friends from school days
Now the most important question:Is he married:No,but his parents who have come to this marriage are looking out for a bride for him.
Ok,now that all the pieces in the puzzle game had fallen intheir places,we went to jayanthi.We asked her,teased her,taunted her,cajoled her when nothing came of these we threatened to go on a dharna,then Jayanthi admitted to us in strict confidence that she was in love with Shekar.But her father was not in favour of this match for his daughter,he wanted his only daughter to marry some nice boy settled in Madras so that his daughter would always be in front of his eyes.
“Oh….”said,Manjula”,”Oh” said,Malathi,”Oh”said MalathiII,”Oh”said,Vatsala,”Oh” said,Sumathi and “OK”said I summing up our emotions ie we decided to support Jayanthi. Jayanthi stood firm in her stand that she would marry only Shekar,Shekar’s parents came to meet Jayanthi’s parents and told them that their son would not marry anybody else and that they also wanted only Jayanthi as their DIL.That sealed it.Jayanthi’s father relented and agreed to give his daughter in marriage to Shekar.

It was July end and the marriage was fixed for September end,since Jayanthi was crazy about her selection of sarees and jewellery.Since Jayanthi would not be coming to college after her marriage,she tried to make it up by coming to college,regularly.We had a rollicking time.As usual we sat in the back row and drew plans on which saree Jayanthii would wear for which occasion and the jewellery sets to go with each saree.Time flew.It was mid August. One day thunder struck us without prior annaoncement.The Indo Pakisthan war broke out on August 15,1965.Shekar was in the war front.The entire class when came to know of it, fell silent.Jayanthi looked forlorn,unhappy for the first two three days.Jayanthi’s father tried to get information as to where Shekar was ,whether he was Ok,etc.But he could not gather any information.The army was and is strict in these matters,no information about the whereabout of the officers would be leaked out.Our faces paled,Jayanthi began to cry uncontrollably.We did not know how to console her.How ever much we tried, we could not console Jayanthi,one day she said that she won’t eat till she got news about Shekar.She did not eat anything.Her mother came to my house and told me to take care of her.She said that she sent Jayanthi to college because all of us were there to cheer her up,where as at home she was crying all the time.
We were amazed.This girl who used to tell us repeatedly that she would not marry because she would not be able to part with her parents and her brother, was now ,crying and was feeling for a man whom she had met only a couple of weeks back.
That is called,Love ,my dear.
A famous Tamil poet had once written,
“Who are you?and,who am I?
Did your father and my father know each other,?No,
Like the water that falls on the earth as rain and gets mingled with the earth
Our two hearts have united in love”.
Our lecturers umderstood.Mrs .Kadhir was very kind to Jayanthi and tried to cheer her up telling her about her younger brother who was in the army and how his wife also pined for him whenever he was away and would fight with him as soon as he returned.Jayanthi’s beautiful eyes became thin slits and her face bloated up due to constant crying,she lost weight, since practically she stopped eating.We, her friends took turns, went to the canteen, had something to drink and returned during lunch breaks.
September came,we reached the second week.As usual Jayanthi was in class her eyes full of tears when she was asked to come to the Princy’s room.We shuddered.Princy Miss Mathew was well known for her strict observation of college rules.We felt that Princy was going to ask Jayanthi to stop from coming to college as she was disturbing the other students.Jayanthi began to tremble.Our History lecturer who was giving lecture asked Sumathi to accompany Jayanthi to Princy’s room.After ten minutes,.they both returned.Sumathi’s face was wreathed in smiles and Jayanthi was weeping.We coulsd not understand anything.What would have happened to make Sumathi grin and Jayanthi to continue to cry.
Sumathi made the grand statement,”The war is over.Both the sides have agreed to have a meeting,war is called off.Susequently we heard the details on the radio.But why did Jayanthi cry?Oh yes,you gueassed it right.She shed tears of joy and wept in joy,.All the students in the class forgot our differences.We all joined together in celebration.Some whistled,some shouted in joy,some sang loud and all of us shook hands with each other.
Jayanthi’s marriage took place my dear,as scheduled.We all were there.Dont get irritated with me for repeating again and again that Jayanthi looked beautiful This time the thought that she was marrying the man of her choice gave a glow to her entire countenance.The dimples never left her cheeks.Muhurtham was over,Jayanthi became Mrs.Jayanthi Shekar.
It was the important itinerary in the marriage,Grihapravesam ie the bride officially enters the in laws house.For that formality, a room was got ready,all the bridegroom’s people were waiting outside the room to welcome her.Jayanthi was led to the room in a mini procession.we accompanied her.As soon as the bride’s side people including our heroine neared the room,something happened,which I am not able to forget even now!Shekar came out of the room,he approached Jayanthi,bent down,he being tall and she being short,scooped her up in his arms,hoisted her up,my dear,and made her sit on his shoulder.Wow! and he walked into the room with Jayanthi on his shoulder.Jayanthi melted and melted,my dear and blushed and blushed till her toes turned crimson red.We screeched in delight,all of us clapped hands.
Shekar and Jayanthi sat next to each other.They looked like Ram and Sita.
After the marriage,we her friends returned home.We were young,innocent,naïve, our little hearts full of dreams.The only thought that ran in our mind was (atleast in my mind my dear,for I was a die hard romantic you know?) will there come a similar young man in our lives also?
God was kind to each one of us in our group.We married good men and are leading happy lives.
Whenever I came to <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comffice:smarttags" /><st1:City w:st="on"><st1lace w:st="on">Madras</st1lace></st1:City> and talked to my friends, I would enquire about Jayanthi.
Jayanthi had a son and daughter.Son became an officer in the army and is posted in the north.Daughter is married and is in the <st1lace w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">US</st1:country-region></st1lace>.
The last I heard of Jayanthi was that once their children settled down Jayanthi and her husband bought a sprawling bungalow in coonoor and settled down there,with many servants and six to seven dogs.Friends, who have met her recently say that even now at the age of sixty,Jayanthi looks very charming,her dimples intact on her cheeks.Shekar looks more handsome what with the grey hair and little bit of added weight adding to his charm.Even now Jayanthi breaks into a crying session I believe.”Why?”I asked my friend.She said,”When ever one of her dogs has a cold or fever she begins to sob,her husband sits by her side,hugs her,gets her cups of icecream and consoles her .
I salute people who fall in love ,for it is better to have loved and lost than not to have loved.
I salute people who write love stories,makes you look at the world with rose tinted glasses.
I salute people who read love stories for they know that Love is the energizer in life.
I salute people who publish Love stories,for a golden seat waits for them in the <st1lace w:st="on"><st1laceType w:st="on">kingdom</st1laceType> of <st1laceName w:st="on">God!</st1laceName></st1lace>

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My dear aishu,
Thank you for the lovely comment.I enjoyed writing this post,I too enjoyed visualising these scenes.


mithila kannan