#சபாஷ்மத்யமர்_படக்குறுங்கதைப்போட்டி  part 3

                      She stood there all alone with a lot of grace . Her posture was at once alluring and commanding. She was a real  classic  beauty.   Only now nobody saw  her or remarked about her . Unseeing eyes passed her by everyday. 

                  When shop spaces were auctioned in front of the huge temple the authorities saw to it that she was positioned outside a shop .. Small mercy. With time she became just a prop for that  shop.   Everyday the shop’s paraphernalia would   surround   and submerge her. 

                    That shop was actually an office for guided tours. They had sea facing cottages to let  with all  amenities and swimming pools.  . Air buses to take you around on their tours of temples and recreational spots .

    

                   The Johnsons and Browns from America were in one of those cottages. The Johnsons were just that cliched brash  loud Americans. Mrs. Brown was the whining complaining kind and Mr Brown was the Indophile.

                  Mr Brown could not sleep. He decides to  meet Ajay at the tourist office and ask him about the  itinerary for the day. This is what he writes in the memo he leaves behind. . Actually what he wants to do is walk around the temple complex  freely , unshackled by the others. 

                 He has just entered the temple complex when he spies Ajay  walking towards his shop. The shutters are closed. 

Ajay smiles and says ,” I’ll open it in a jiffy.”.  Brown has not heard him. He stands transfixed. Eyes unwavering he stares at the beautiful maiden in front of the shop. He has fallen in love.

                      In a croaking voice he asks , “ where did she come from?” She was always there. How could I have missed her last evening when we arrived. Sheepishly Ajay says , we tend to take her for granted . We keep our leaflets  and gift items around her.

                   Can you sell her to me. I am sure I would treat her with the respect that is her due. 

                   Red faced Ajay explains that she is a part of the old temple complex. Selling her  , even if he could separate her from her pillar would be a crime. 

                    Brown loses all sense of time . He sits on a stool nearby as Ajay opens his shop. Force of habit and gifts items are out . Brown  is irate. Will you stop that at once. .

                 His mobile rings and it is time to return to his friends and wife.

                 Throughout breakfast he talks of nothing else but the beauty of the solitary maiden.

                  The group is back again in the temple . The guide gives his spiel. Brown is not listening. Of course he knows more about the temple than the guide himself. He rushes to see his solitary maid . 

                    Hey what is this. The office boy is hanging a chart on her neck. Flushing with anger Brown pulls the chart and flings it. Hearing the commotion Ajay comes out. He separates the hapless boy before he is knocked down. 

                       You can’t do anything here , this is our country. says  Ajay. 

               You think so? 

             What I would however like to say is that you people don’t deserve these beauties . Look at the ramshackle way you go about preserving them . You people don’t seem to have a sense of pride.

              Few days later Ajay received a memo from the HR & CE . It told him  specifically  to not display his wares or pamphlets outside his shop. 

                . The solitary maiden got a cage of steel 😁😁

       ( that was the doing of our short sighted bureaucracy. Poor mr. Brown he had only wanted  her guarded.)