Lineage-Prince Damo

Lineage(part)

.. His room was in a glass cabin camouflaged by curtains. The aide was announced about my arrival and when he read my name written on the small piece of paper, I could see through the hazy glass slides, his convulsions, which was impossible for him to bury. The doorman and his wife talked for a few minutes before granting me an audience to the prince crown. How could they deny me to see him, his only cousin living now? And think further, his mother and my mother had the best possible relationship between two sisters. .. 2

Did I descry the jounce in his eyes and the acedia of handshake when I introduced myself to them? I had all the shabbiness and the ill look of a clown and that odd strabismus that marked me out from any rout. Sometimes it was my armour to get away from the unwanted company. Sometimes it was to my dismay that people took it their privilege to deny me or even delay me something that I deserved. There was a surplus of mosquitos in the room, that were crowding to hit the people in the room making their legs swollen and black. I had my name written on a slip that another aide, maybe a more trustworthy one took and handed over to Damo, my cousin the royal prince and the next king. From childhood we disliked these intrigues, these trivial quarrels over things that are not permanent and in the hasty grabbing of it, man acquires more covetous qualities. Damo also had the same feelings, maybe in a more intense way and he never sought the throne, neither for its own sake nor for any private gain in future. But circumstances were wrought in such a way that he had to accept the wand of the future prince. When we met, he cried. He called my name and cried. I too cried. Perhaps he was thinking of my mother or his own mother or those happy years of childhood, free from concern and craftiness. 3

What is his life now? Who loves him now in a genuine way? Does his wife have that passion of youth and loves him from the bottom of heart? Can he, who is no less than a bundle of bones, love her with equal strength of body and spirit? From the plethora of sycophants who surround him and waste his time for an audience can he with all the sharpness of mind distinguish the genuine one? Not the least. His cousin called his name and said that he is the luckiest of chaps to see him today. He will mark this day in his diary with the picture of roses drawn in it. Damo stayed at the lower storey of the house and Vasetta, who was focusing the cases at Fort's court, remained in the other room. There were two stairs. One that leads to his room that contained many woollen blankets and his collection of chicken feathers that he used as earbuds. And the other to the private kitchen, where he dined at a small table, sitting on an old chair and experiencing his culinary talents. Camunni who came recently after seeing the carnival in the city. What joy for artists. He never had ladies in elegant suits. He was the child enlisted by the family to support the cows. It is a demanding job. , 4

Damo was hard to hear and we did not know the correct reason. Once when at college we went to Komballur toddy(country liquor made from palm trees) shop in the company of Venetta and three others. Damo brought us back in his car which he gave sometimes as a private taxi ... We stayed in the two sections of the traditional building. Late at night, the lights shone in his mini Alexandrian library. Volumes from Plato to Swapnavasavadattam, half-read and scattered throughout the room, which the librarian organized in the morning hours. Damo probably read it all. Where did you get energy for all this? His student was discussing another treatise he had learned. Some people in the costumes of the assistants came and went. They silently lit the cigarettes in the cell on the corner, Damo's irritating behaviour upset some who were fair to treat him according to his stature. Hey, he had his minutes without power, something for the people and something modest to recognize him. In front of a group of young people, he tried to say something close to his heart that the general public thought silly and inopportune. Meanwhile, Bacchus has overpowered him. The children wanted to get back their father, but it was too late and the disease had spread to another organ ... 5 What should I say my dear friends..only that this Damo no longer exists now? He was more than a brother and more than a friend to me. When I was away from him, I never felt his absence. Yes, they say that true friends can communicate with each other in the same way as when they are on a sofa. Time and distance are illusions as many before I have declared. Love is very strange. Love is so real This my dear Damo knew it too. But I must admit now that I have no knowledge of his whereabouts. In fact, I'm not interested ... Now his wife, the sad lady enters the cemetery to praise her life partner. To return to her best positive self. To capture once again that intimacy and her veil flutters in the north wind. It is a pure waste of time. Not a necessary labour as Damo's friends told each other. Maybe she can have that feeling by staying alone in a cell with no sadder thoughts to bear. She now quotes my dear brother Damo that in life, every moment is a full flower and you being the gardener who told you to steal a flower and take pride in that…