A Life Less Ordinary Read Online Free Page A

horse—reminded me of the day Ma took my little brother and left us. But then I thought, What’s the use of wondering and speculating? History reminded me of Ma, just as women walking down the road did, and that was all.
    Baba also kept on searching for Ma. Every time he came home from somewhere, the first question we asked him was whether he had any news of Ma. He’d say, “No, child,” and then he’d let out a long sigh. I felt very bad for him at such times. I thought that finally he was beginning to understand that if he hadnot treated her so badly, she would never have left. And yet he was the same father who seemed so happy when our new Ma came into the house. It was difficult to tell whether he was really happy or not.
    It was a few days after Krishna’s Baba had talked to mine that Baba called me and asked if I wanted to live at my elder aunt’s house. At the time I had not answered. Shortly afterward, I heard him talking to my new Ma. They were talking about my marriage. I had no idea what marriage was. All I knew was that it was an occasion for song and dance, that often lots of people went to marriages and had lots of fun.
    I had only one elder aunt, and she was very fond of me, so even though I had not answered when Baba had asked me if I wanted to go and stay with her, when he did send me there, I was very happy. My elder brother was already with her—he was working in a large restaurant. I stayed at my aunt’s home for some months, and those days passed well for me. My aunt would take her daughter and me out somewhere every evening, and every night she would tell us stories. It was while listening to a story of hers one night that I was suddenly reminded of a funny story that my friend Dolly used to tell us. I started to laugh, and my cousin asked me what was so funny. When I told her, she insisted that I should tell her the story. And I was keen to tell it as well, so I said to her, “Okay, so listen…”
    Once upon a time there was a jackal and a village headman. The headman’s garden was full to overgrowing with aubergines. When the jackal saw the aubergines his mouth began to water, and he began to wonder how he could get at them. There was a fence of thorns surrounding the headman’s garden. But the jackal just had to get to the aubergines. Hebegan to imagine what would happen if he ran back and took a running jump into the garden. He was just about to try when the headman woke up and, frightened, the jackal ran away. After this, the jackal would go to the garden every day, looking for an opportunity to jump in, but would return in the evening disappointed. One day, as he was passing by the headman’s house, he saw the headman’s wife making pithas and her husband sitting there eating them, one after the other. The jackal hid and watched him. Once he’s eaten, the jackal thought to himself, he will surely go to sleep…
    I had only gotten this far when my aunt sternly told us to stop chattering and go to bed. But my cousin insisted that I finish the story. So I said, “Okay, listen again…”
    The jackal had thought that the headman would eat his fill and sleep soundly. And that is exactly what happened. Overjoyed, the jackal took a running leap to get to the aubergines and…fell hard on the fence of thorns. Thorns stuck into his paws, his legs, his whole body—and he fell to the ground bleeding. Instead of gorging on aubergines, he spent the whole night picking thorns out of his skin. Come morning, he was still hidden from the headman, picking out thorns, but no matter how hard he tried, there was one stubborn thorn, stuck in his ear, that he could not pull out. Finally, when he could bear it no more, he went to the headman’s house, crying, “Brother, are you there? Are you there?” He began to bang on the door.
    The headman asked, “Who’s that at this unearthly hour?”
    â€œIt’s me,