Rekha was seventeen years old. As she was very beautiful, many men wanted to marry her. She did not want to marry the men in her village. Rekha said to her father, “I amvery beautiful and I have many jewels. I want to live in a large house and I don’t want to do any work in the house”.
Rekha’s father replied “We don’t know any one who is rich. I am sure you wouldn’t like living in a town. You will be better off in the village. Why don’t you marry Ajay? He is indeed a very good bridegroom”. But Rekha remained firm and said, “I will marry only a rich man.”
One day an artist reached that village. He drew many pictures and painted them in colours. On seeing Rekha the artist observed to her father; “Your daughter is very beautiful. I want to draw her picture and colour it.” Rekha’s father obliged the artist’s request.
Hence the artist began drawing Rekha’s picture and colouring it. The artist visited Rekha’s house everyday to do his job. One day he said to her, “Your eyes in the picture look very beautiful. If you adorn those eyes with jewellery they will look even better.”
These comments made Rekha part with two of her jewels to adorn her eyes in the picture. The next day the artist continued to make a few more comments, “Your lips in the picture are simply charming. A few pieces of jewellery on them will make the picture even more charming.” Rekha gladly parted with two more of her jewels to adorn the lips in the picture. On the third day the artist observed, “You have beautiful jewels on your ears and your fingers. If you adorn your picture with those jewels, the portrait will simply be graceful.” Immediately Rekha took the jewels out of her ears and fingers and gave them to the artist. The artist said, “It will take me some time to place those pieces of jewellery perfectly on this picture. So I will take them home and do it there. Tomorrow I will bring you back your picture which will be the most beautiful picture in the world”. Then he went away.
Some days later, Rekha’s father wanted to know where her jewels were. Rekha admitted to having given them to the artist for adorning her picture. Rekha’s father was enraged and said, “We do not know where he lives. What will you do if he doesn’t come back at all?” Rekha’s father was quite correct.
The artist never came back. Rekha lost all her jewels owing to her folly. Then Rekha married Ajay and lived happily in the village. Whenever Ajay insisted that they should visit the town, she always observed, “I’m happier in the village and I don’t want to visit the town”.
No comments:
Post a Comment