It was soon after her husband Hari undermined her in front of Sesha, that ten-headed snake he slept on, leaving her on top of a Lotus, dizzy with motion-sickness. “Loyalty-dilemma is a common vice of all god-husbands,” her go-to counsel Parvati massaged her wounded ego. But when was Hari going to learn? “Only silent treatment will work,” Mahalakshmi decided and left their heavenly abode. She was sure it would help to control her emotional reaction. Else one argument would lead to the next and in the end, without the stakes changing much, Hari and she made-do and went back to the same mess.
The head piercer at Tash, the luxury jewelry and piercing studio that M.Lakshmi landed on Earth, crooked his brows in doubt when she told him she was there for septum-piercing. When she pulled down her veil and showed him the Tragus, Labret and Helix piercings and declared, “Ain’t new to it all,” Tash nodded and brought snazzy pics of Florence Pugh and FKA Twigs for her to see, eventually helping her nail a titanium clicker for the more-than-a-statement-more-than-chic-look she was aiming for.
“Don't change until the scar tissue heals. Absolutely no soaking baths,” he stipulated. Did he even know that she lived in the middle of the ocean?
Her annoyance dropped a notch when his missus joined to pick the ‘sweet spot.’ Together in the same space, M.Lakshmi wondered how at all the couple handled the bedroom-in-workroom conundrum. How did they solve and resolve without running away from each other?
In appreciation, the Goddess of wealth gifted the couple a never-wilting pink Lotus for their perseverance.
In the lounge she waited until the throbbing pain lost its edge, ebbed down to a lingering warmth. M.Lakshmi centered the warmth and gripped its handle.
Vijayalakshmi Sridhar’s fiction explores the angst around relationships. She writes from Chennai, a metropolis in South India.
No comments:
Post a Comment