- Sep 22, 2013
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This is a re-telling of the classic tale Sleeping Beauty from the perspective of an Indian prince and her princess bride trapped in a terrible dowry curse by their oppressive parents and a myopic society. I've been interested in this topic, since I'm Indian by descent.
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Amlan was a handsome prince in India with a great deal of intellectual promise. He was the heir to a prestigious house in India which included great kings from the ancient world and renowned religious scholars, Nobel Laureates, and prominent politicians. Amlan was ready to ascend to the throne after he married princess Kamala from the fair royal Indian house of Tai Chatterjee. Amlan's family name was under the house of the noble Anwar Gangulee whose vast fortunes were lost in war before being regained by a mighty warrior ancestor who wrestled the family's colors back from the clutches of colonial Mughals.
The Anwar Gangulee house emigrated to America to start from the ground-up and build a foothold into the American Dream. Anwar and his son Amlan worked very hard in Philadelphia and then Massachusetts, studying and earning money and establishing their house as re-inventive as pioneers of migration. However, Amlan needed to secure the future of his house by marrying well and so his marriage was arranged to the esteemed princess Kamala, and Tai Chatterjee gave his full blessings to Anwar, and the marriage was set. All that needed to be done was the transference of the sacred dowry (the bride-price gift paid to the groom's family as a spiritual gratuity --- an ancient Indian custom).
Unfortunately, Tai wanted his house to start as pioneers-from-scratch as well in America and could not pay the full dowry amount requested by the house of Anwar Gangulee. Amlan did not care at all, as he was secretly head-over-heels in love with Kamala Chatterjee. To him, she was everything, dowry or no. However, Anwar did not see it as such and felt disgraced by Amlan's public expressions of affection and adoration for the princess Kamala. Anwar's rivals began saying behind his back that the king's influence had diminished in the New World, and the modern ways of his son Amlan were thwarting the ancient and sacred traditions of the dowry establishment.
Anwar devised a terrible plan with Tai. They decided they would test the mettle of their son and daughter's marriage by constantly goading them about the value of their dowry-modest marriage contract. If Amlan and Kamala passed the test and transcended the extreme parental pressures of cultural tradition (involved with the dowry inquisition), then their marriage would truly be hailed as progressive, but if the spiritual pressure proved too much, they would be branded as self-appointed messengers of their respective houses. Amlan detested this wager, and realized that if anything happened causing his marriage to his love Kamala to become defiled or tested to strain, then the fair and bright princess Kamala's heart would be darkened by the bane of social doubt.
Amlan rented a copy of the Disney film Sleeping Beauty and meditated on what marks the credibility of true love. He thought about how the princess in the story, tested by faith, was in danger of losing her bond to her prince who was challenged to overcome strange obstacles to ascertain the welfare of his love. This danger-risk 'game' was not ideal, and Amlan realized that human beings were pensive about the 'shape of love' born in the flames of hell. Amlan decided that he didn't want this test for Kamala, so he devised a plan to enable them to escape without being scarred in the heart.
Every time Anwar and Tai hosted a party in honor of Amlan and Kamala, they would make inquisition-like remarks such as, "If only their love was laminated by the strength of dowry gold, then we would feel so much more secure in our risky blessings given to them in this profiteer-managed land called America!" Amlan knew it was the right time to set his clever plan of escape into action. At the third such party hosted by Anwar and Tai, Amlan got up in front of his bride Kamala and all the party guests and said with a cool and cunning smile, "If Kamala and I win the Pennsylvania State Lottery money prize of $5 million, we will donate it to the Domestic Violence social charity of Kamala's choice!" The prestige-curse was broken, and Amlan and Kamala lived a long and happy married life and had three beautiful children who grew up to be dignified diplomats of the house of Anwar Gangulee in their own right.
Kamala spent the rest of her days calling her husband Her Knight, and Amlan was grateful for the honourable and affectionate nickname. Amlan grew old reading comic books and thinking back to how he broke the terrible dowry prestige-curse of Anwar and Tai and affirmed his marriage to Kamala by freeing her from the freezing wind of a cruel love-test. He read of the love heroism of the American comic book couples Superman and Wonder Woman and realized that Kamala was his own Indian 'sleeping beauty.' However, the lingering evil of dowry persecutions lingered in the heavy air of Indian pomp. How would Amlan and Kamala Gangulee be remembered --- as the Hindu love-deities Ram and Sita or as the American fairy-tale outlaws Bonnie and Clyde?
Kamala told Amlan one night that she was simply content that their mettle proved to be true and that they were able to escape the proverbial melancholia created by social and cultural pressures stemming from their two imposing royal houses. The two felt happy about their part in the Gangulee story, and Kamala told Amlan she was secretly afraid of the shadow of suicidal vanities while they were being tested early in their marriage. Amlan assured her that they would be remembered at least by their children as 'dowry-warriors' (even though they never won the Pennsylvania State Lottery money prize of $5 million!).
Their children outfitted special little prayer-dolls to represent their parents as 'dowry-wizards,' which Kamala's daughter kept next to her pillow at night while she was growing up, and she would someday become the first matriarch of the house of Anwar Gangulee. Kamala's daughter would write about her mother (in official Gangulee memoirs) as the Indian version of princess Aurora (from Sleeping Beauty). Amlan's plan had worked, and he enjoyed a gratifying bowl of mutton chow-mein on his birthday.
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Sleeping Beauty (Disney Film)
Dowry Death (Wikipedia)
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Amlan was a handsome prince in India with a great deal of intellectual promise. He was the heir to a prestigious house in India which included great kings from the ancient world and renowned religious scholars, Nobel Laureates, and prominent politicians. Amlan was ready to ascend to the throne after he married princess Kamala from the fair royal Indian house of Tai Chatterjee. Amlan's family name was under the house of the noble Anwar Gangulee whose vast fortunes were lost in war before being regained by a mighty warrior ancestor who wrestled the family's colors back from the clutches of colonial Mughals.
The Anwar Gangulee house emigrated to America to start from the ground-up and build a foothold into the American Dream. Anwar and his son Amlan worked very hard in Philadelphia and then Massachusetts, studying and earning money and establishing their house as re-inventive as pioneers of migration. However, Amlan needed to secure the future of his house by marrying well and so his marriage was arranged to the esteemed princess Kamala, and Tai Chatterjee gave his full blessings to Anwar, and the marriage was set. All that needed to be done was the transference of the sacred dowry (the bride-price gift paid to the groom's family as a spiritual gratuity --- an ancient Indian custom).
Unfortunately, Tai wanted his house to start as pioneers-from-scratch as well in America and could not pay the full dowry amount requested by the house of Anwar Gangulee. Amlan did not care at all, as he was secretly head-over-heels in love with Kamala Chatterjee. To him, she was everything, dowry or no. However, Anwar did not see it as such and felt disgraced by Amlan's public expressions of affection and adoration for the princess Kamala. Anwar's rivals began saying behind his back that the king's influence had diminished in the New World, and the modern ways of his son Amlan were thwarting the ancient and sacred traditions of the dowry establishment.
Anwar devised a terrible plan with Tai. They decided they would test the mettle of their son and daughter's marriage by constantly goading them about the value of their dowry-modest marriage contract. If Amlan and Kamala passed the test and transcended the extreme parental pressures of cultural tradition (involved with the dowry inquisition), then their marriage would truly be hailed as progressive, but if the spiritual pressure proved too much, they would be branded as self-appointed messengers of their respective houses. Amlan detested this wager, and realized that if anything happened causing his marriage to his love Kamala to become defiled or tested to strain, then the fair and bright princess Kamala's heart would be darkened by the bane of social doubt.
Amlan rented a copy of the Disney film Sleeping Beauty and meditated on what marks the credibility of true love. He thought about how the princess in the story, tested by faith, was in danger of losing her bond to her prince who was challenged to overcome strange obstacles to ascertain the welfare of his love. This danger-risk 'game' was not ideal, and Amlan realized that human beings were pensive about the 'shape of love' born in the flames of hell. Amlan decided that he didn't want this test for Kamala, so he devised a plan to enable them to escape without being scarred in the heart.
Every time Anwar and Tai hosted a party in honor of Amlan and Kamala, they would make inquisition-like remarks such as, "If only their love was laminated by the strength of dowry gold, then we would feel so much more secure in our risky blessings given to them in this profiteer-managed land called America!" Amlan knew it was the right time to set his clever plan of escape into action. At the third such party hosted by Anwar and Tai, Amlan got up in front of his bride Kamala and all the party guests and said with a cool and cunning smile, "If Kamala and I win the Pennsylvania State Lottery money prize of $5 million, we will donate it to the Domestic Violence social charity of Kamala's choice!" The prestige-curse was broken, and Amlan and Kamala lived a long and happy married life and had three beautiful children who grew up to be dignified diplomats of the house of Anwar Gangulee in their own right.
Kamala spent the rest of her days calling her husband Her Knight, and Amlan was grateful for the honourable and affectionate nickname. Amlan grew old reading comic books and thinking back to how he broke the terrible dowry prestige-curse of Anwar and Tai and affirmed his marriage to Kamala by freeing her from the freezing wind of a cruel love-test. He read of the love heroism of the American comic book couples Superman and Wonder Woman and realized that Kamala was his own Indian 'sleeping beauty.' However, the lingering evil of dowry persecutions lingered in the heavy air of Indian pomp. How would Amlan and Kamala Gangulee be remembered --- as the Hindu love-deities Ram and Sita or as the American fairy-tale outlaws Bonnie and Clyde?
Kamala told Amlan one night that she was simply content that their mettle proved to be true and that they were able to escape the proverbial melancholia created by social and cultural pressures stemming from their two imposing royal houses. The two felt happy about their part in the Gangulee story, and Kamala told Amlan she was secretly afraid of the shadow of suicidal vanities while they were being tested early in their marriage. Amlan assured her that they would be remembered at least by their children as 'dowry-warriors' (even though they never won the Pennsylvania State Lottery money prize of $5 million!).
Their children outfitted special little prayer-dolls to represent their parents as 'dowry-wizards,' which Kamala's daughter kept next to her pillow at night while she was growing up, and she would someday become the first matriarch of the house of Anwar Gangulee. Kamala's daughter would write about her mother (in official Gangulee memoirs) as the Indian version of princess Aurora (from Sleeping Beauty). Amlan's plan had worked, and he enjoyed a gratifying bowl of mutton chow-mein on his birthday.
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Sleeping Beauty (Disney Film)
Dowry Death (Wikipedia)
