Kamakshi Saree

Dr. Kondal Rao Velchala

“The gold laced “Kamakshi Saree” made in the

‘Krishna Rajendra Mills’ of Mysore is narrating its story like this….

“I was clad to a show piece in “Swadeshi Stores’

in Mount Road.

One day, I attracted the eye of Pattabhi.

He presented me to Kamakshi on her birthday.

She took me to the drawing room.

Standing before a king size mirror

She unrobed herself to robe me.

Oh! What an eye feast!

My eyes blossomed into thousands at her bare image

Fair, so fair! An Angelic glare!

She wore me as if she was wearing the rich States of

Nizam and Baroda around her.

Blossoming into so many flowers,

Exuding so musical, so poetical.

I gulped her like a banana fruit bared of its sheives.

But was angry still with those few remnants

Which occupied some of her strategic parts

Resisting my absolute rights over them.

I remember, one more occasion

When wearing me at about seven o clock in the evening

My mistress went along with Pattabhi to Mr. Mathur’s party

With all the eyes on me as though the scanning

There, Pattabhi and Kamakshi took up to Ballroom Dance

Whirling like the whirlwind.

Pattabhi escorted Kamakshi into the garden

Swinging with the artistry of an artist

The moon glistening above as if the whistling.

“How nice it would have been if the moonlight too had

The switch-ons and the switch-offs

Like the electric ones,” Pattabhi said to Kamakshi.

“I too am very angry with the moon Pattabhi.

What a dunce he is, this the much flaunting Moon

That takes his own shine after all from the Sun !

I feel like gulping him like a ‘Jilebee’ Pattabhi” said Kamakshi.

“Do you wish to have him my darling

I can get him for you” said Pattabhi patting her.

“How could you Pattabhi?” quipped Kamakshi.

“See, just turn your moon like face from this side to that

towards moon

Slightly, just lightly,

Close the tender leaves of your eyes

Like the petals waiting for the moonlight to alight”.

Thus saying, Pattabhi inclined on to her gentle,

Implanting a tender kiss too gentle

Holding her in his arms like a tender creeper.

I became jittery wondering whether so fragile that I was

I wouldn’t get pressed between them, compressed.

There were sounds of Ish… Ish… and Ish…

That I heard now and then.

I do not know what happened to Kamakshi after that.

Whenever she wore me

She did that with some sort of indifference

Rather not so happily as in the past.

The body of Kamakshi

Thereafter used to be as hot as a burning oven

My heart breathing hard

My lungs exhaling hot air like a forge.

She used to sigh now and then

Mumbling Pattabhi ! Pattabhi !

Shedding tears tending on to me

I used to really pity the plight of my mistress.

But what could I do the inanimate after all?

Even if I were otherwise I would have been rendered otherwise

At the high voltage touch of her body.

One day, long after that.

And I still remember that day as if it is today

She wore me with all the care and flare.

What a good luck it was for me

(Like that of a pauper

Caught sight of a heap of gold – biscuits all of a sudden)

To have had the figure of her before me,

Bare, so bare without a shred of a wear!

Oh! the feast of the eye,

Swear! I swear!

She left the whole of her inner-empire to me

Allowing me to measure every bit of her inner - treasure

To derive every possible touch pleasure.

Even me, the inanimate

Felt like the animated, the ignited

She painted, sprayed, sprinkled all her body

With the most fragrant of the perfumes and powders

And waited for Pattabhi.

He came a little later.

There were some exchanges of pleasantries to start with.

Suddenly, those very hands, which had presented me to her before

Pulled me off her body rendering it bare, thread bare

Oh! Fair! So Fair!

And Lo! Even the lights too went off

In that pull and push, each other to each other rush, crush.