Retold by Satya Narayan Sardar
“Gopi, Gopi!”
“Yes, Mom,” he said.
“Your father is working in the field since morning. He must be awfully hungry. Take this breakfast for him.” Handling a packet to him, Gopi’s mother said.
“OK.”
“It’s late. Be quick; otherwise you know his anger.”
“Sure, I will.”
Gopi moved towards the field where his father was passionately waiting for the breakfast. Seeing Gopi coming slowly, his anger burst out. As Gopi approached nearer, his father began charging on him.
“You stupid! Others’ sons are helping their parents in every activity, but in spite of being a grown-up teen, you are just a roaming bird moving here and there. Do something for your parents and comfort us.”
Gopi said to himself: ‘Don’t worry father. I will do something great and you will be proud of me one day.”
After father’s breakfast, Gopi collected the utensils and moved homewards. As he reached home, his mother asked if his father was angry with him. He said his father did not like the vegetable because it was not delicious.
Mother asked, “What shall I do?”
Gopi said, “Father has asked to prepare meat of the black goat.”
“Really?”
“Yes, Mom.”
“OK; do the same then.”
It was a fat chance for Gopi. He slaughtered the goat and prepared the meat. The mother cooked deliciously and kept waiting. Gopi ate to his full and kept waiting for the father to come home.
When the father arrived he asked the mother, “What is the item you have cooked now? Please serve me. I am dying of hunger.”
“What?Didn’t you tell the boy to prepare meat from the goat? I did accordingly.”
“What? Where is that lazy boy? Call him; I will give a nice beating.”
Hearing this, Gopi ran away.
He kept moving. After a long time, he arrived at small town. Two burglars saw the boy moving alone. He was wearing two silver bangles in his two hands. The burglars approached him and asked to give them the bangles. He could not deny because he was alone and there was no one to help him. The burglars tried to pull the bangles out of his hands but failed. They tried a lot but could not.
Eventually they said, “We will cut your hands and take it.” Gopi said, “Wait, let’s go to the town. There is a gold smith. I will tell him to cut it and give to you.”
“That’s a good idea. Let’s go,” said the burglars.
As they reached the town, Gopi said, “Both of you wait here. If you come with me, I will tell the truth about you and you can be arrested by the police. Wait here for me.”
Both the burglars agreed. Gopi went to a nearby hotel and asked the owner if he needed any servant. He said he needed. Gopi told the owner that he had two servants and he wanted to leave them there. The owner did not trust him. Gopi assured about the servants.
The owner asked, “How can I believe that they want to stay here and work?”
“Trust me; both of them want to work.”
“Well, let me know from them.”
“OK.”
Turning towards the burglars Gopi asked, “One or two?”
Burglars thought that the boy was asking about the bangles. They pointed together, “Both.”
“OK boy, how much should I pay for them?”
Gopi said that they owed 5,000 rupees to his parents.
The owner of the shop paid Gopi the amount. He took cash and told the shop owner to bring the boys for work. As Gopi moved from there, the owner’s workers went to the burglars and told them to join the work. They were shocked when they came to know the reality. But Gopi had already run far away.
After a long walk, Gopi found a tree and climbed on it. Sitting on a branch of a tree, he began to count the money. Meanwhile, a horse rider came along the way and saw the boy with a huge about of money. He shouted at him and asked where he got the money. Gopi said, that at the top of the tree, there was a lot of money, and it was there where he picked the cash from.
The horse rider asked Gopi to get down and catch the horse for him. He got down and caught it. The horse rider kept climbing the tree, asking where it was. Gopi told him to climb much higher. He climbed as high as he could. At last, Gopi told him with scorn, “You stupid! Can money be found at the top of the tree?”
With these words, he got on the horse and rode away. Before the horse owner got down, Gopi had run a long way.
Gopi kept riding the horse. He eventually reached near a flooded river. An elderly woman, with his daughter, was sitting there, anticipating someone to help them cross the river. As the old lady saw Gopi, she asked for his help to cross the river. He looked at the girl. She was very beautiful. She looked at him too and blushed. He told the old lady that he would help but at first he would take the girl to the other side of the river. He asked her what the girl’s name was. The old lady said, “Cheli.” The old lady asked what his name was. Gopi answered, “Jwai.”
Gopi decided to lift the girl on the back of his horse away cross the river. The girl did not oppose; instead she happily rode the horse. The old lady kept waiting on the bank of the river expecting the boy to come back and help her cross the river. When Gopi crossed the river, instead of returning to help the old lady, he took the girl and ran away.
The old lady kept yelling, “Help! Help! Help!”
Some people showed up and asked what the problem was. The old lady told in tears, “My Chelihas been taken away by Jwai. Someone help me get my Cheli back.”
The villagers got amazed and asked, “What’s wrong? Cheli can be taken away by Jwai. That’s very common.”
The old lady said, “She was everything to me. Please get her back.”
But the villagers thought the lady was out of mind and maybe the son-in-law took Cheli without her permission.
They dispersed.
With the girl behind him on the back of horse, Gopi reached a village. He asked people for a safe shelter. But nobody answered positively. Eventually, an elderly person advised him to go to a farmhouse nearby. There was only an old caretaker with hearing disability. Gopi went to the farm house, met the old person and asked for shelter. The old man asked them to tell in loud voice informing his problem.
Both Gopi and the girl asked about the shelter and he agreed but in one condition that they had to prepare the food themselves. Both of them agreed and began to live there.
After living there for some time, some villagers noticed a new couple in the village and came to inquire. Gopi said that they were unmarried and were waiting for the sacred moment for marriage. This event spread rapidly in the village. Many people came to see them. Among them, some girls asked about their exact marriage date and time.
Gopi did not want to tell his problem. As the girls insisted, he said, “Dear girls, we are not worried about the marriage but right now we do not have any jewelry. How could I marry her without it?” He looked at the girls and continued, “And you know very well that a bride looks beautiful only when she has jewelry and ornaments.”
The girls discussed and one of them said, “Well, we have some ornaments. We can lend you for your marriage. And after marriage, you have to give us back. Is that OK?”
Without any delay, Gopi agreed.
The girls began to ask about the sacred time for marriage. Gopi agreed for the marriage next week. He began to prepare for the marriage. He asked village boys also to manage things. After a few days, the girls gave a lot of ornaments and jewelry to Gopi. He received it and thanked them.
Next day, the girls, who had given the jewelries and ornaments, came to Gopi and asked, “We do not even know your name. Could you tell us your name?”
“Oh! My name, my name is Suesue.”
One of the girls said, “Suesue? What a funny name!”
Next day, the wedding took place. The villagers gathered, and eventually, both of them got married. The girls came to Gopi and asked him to return the ornaments and jewelries. Gopi told them with a smile, “Today is our first marriage night. If the girl comes into the room fully as my bride, she will look most beautiful. So, I humbly request you all to leave the ornaments and jewelries for the night. I will return it tomorrow.”
The girls agreed and departed.
They arrived next morning but they were shocked to see Bhola missing in the farm house. One of the girls asked the caretaker, “Uncle, where is Suesue?”
The caretaker stared at the girls and asked instead, “You shameless girls, should I show bathroom to urinate?” The word ‘suesue’ in Nepali connotes a urinal.
“No Uncle, those boy and girl, who were married last day,” one of the girls asked.
“Oh! They moved to their house this morning.”
“Oh no!” All the girls shouted one at a time.
Gopi’s parents were very happy because he had come back with a daughter-in-law, a horse, money and jewelries. The villagers were given a feast by Gopi’s parents and the couple was were heartily accepted in the family and society.
After some time, those two burglars, the horseman, the old lady and girls came together with a singular aim to find the boy and get their belongings back.
Asking several people about the boy, eventually, they found Gopi’s house. He was surprised but calmly welcomed them all.
All of them were angry with him for cheating. They wanted their belongings back. Gopi and his parents told them to stay calm and give them an opportunity to serve them. The parents requested them to spend the night for a small feast that evening. They were not accepting the proposal but some villagers also came and requested because it was getting late. Eventually, they agreed.
That evening, Gopi, his parents and some villagers managed special items for the guests. They were served delicious dishes and were happy for the nice treat. All of them were given separate beds in a big guestroom.
Before they slept, Gopi came to the guestroom to say goodnight to all. He conveyed unique information recently issued by the local authority in collaboration with the village people. He told them that no one was allowed to ruin the bed at night and if they did, they would be arrested by the police. The guests were astonished and wondered how they could do so because they could not remember any night as much as they could recall.
Gopi had already put some oil cake in water that evening.
At about midnight, Gopi with a bucket of water and some soaked oil cake, came into the guestroom. He poured some water on the bed and put some semi-liquid oil cake on every guest’s back. After some time, one of the guests got up. He felt a bit uncomfortable and touched back. He found some semi-liquid on his back. As smelt, its odor was like that of night soil. He made other guests get up. They all got up one by one and found the same condition. Surprised and shocked, they had short talks and eventually decided to run away because they could not stand the insult as they had not brought extra clothes. They all ran away from there before daybreak. Gopi’s parents did not know the reason but Gopi was happy to have his plans executed because he did not want to be away from anything he had achieved with unique efforts and hard struggle.
Gopi, with his wife and parents, lived happily without any disturbance in the future.
[Satya Narayan Sardan is an educator, writer and researcher. MA in Anthropology and English from Tribhuvan University and MPhil in English from Pokhara University, he teaches at St. Xavier’s College, Kathmandu.]