Sahithi's Adventures

Entertainment??

“Why should I?”

“WHAT!”

“Why should I dance for you?”

“I am the Lord of this town!”

“Says who?”

“What!”

“I do not accept you as my lord.” There was a deafening silence so loud, it was unbearable. “I have been trained to perform before god, not humans.”

“I am god. Aham Brahmasmi!” her eyes flew wide in shock at his words. “Do you think you are the only one who studies foreign things? I studied Sanksrit and a bit of your Gita. It certainly is interesting.” He looked at her with an amused glance. “If god is present in me, logic says that I am god. Since you perform only before a god, you dance before the god present in me.”

The logic was so sound, Sahithi was speechless. She could no longer escape the inevitable. She looked at the other girls who looked anywhere but at her. She looked around at the pale-faced ladies who seemed to be genuinely interested in seeing her dance. It was clear to her that she couldn’t drag it any longer. She sighed deeply in resignation and got ready to dance.

She closed her eyes as she performed the mandatory opening moves, warming up slowly as she chose the “Bhama Kalapam” dance recital. Her moves were graceful, fluid and intricate. Every mudra she portrayed depicted the skill she had attained through years of practice. Her facial expressions were so vivid, she held the spectators spell bound, taking them on a roller-coaster ride of emotions as she told the story of Satyabhama, who in her arrogance had been scorned by her dear husband. The audience could understand the pain of separation from a loved one; the anguish of a repentant wife, the longing to be together with her husband once more. It was a masterpiece – a performance of the highest order; a performance that was worthy of a god. The ladies were so enraptured by this unique Kuchipudi dance recital that every one of them had tears in their eyes by the time Sahithi brought the recital to a close.

No one spoke for a full ten minutes as they tried to fathom the brilliance of the performance of a so-called ‘barbarian native’. There was nothing barabaric or uncivilized about her. In fact, there was a refinement in her moves that belied all that they had been taught before. The appreciation for her skill had been begrudging – it was difficult for them to wrap their heads around something so classic – for those were the days when the ‘white man’s burden’ was being propagated ferociously to justify the colonisation, exploitation and annihilation of native cultures. Lord Robert, one of those scions of Colonial conquest, found it hard to appreciate that a native had skills that couldn’t be matched by western dancers. It hurt his pride, which he needed to satisfy by showing his power and superiority.

“Time for refreshments.” He called, breaking the trance everyone had fallen into. “Let the other native girls serve.” The men smirked as they secretly waited to be ‘served’. Sahithi made no effort to move as she stood rooted to her spot observing the other girls as they moved around the hall serving food and drinks. “This is getting boring.” One of the men complained. “My lord, please spice things up.” A creepy smile crept onto the lips of the arrogant lord. The time had come to show who was in charge.

“Ladies, do you mind if my men are exposed to a little native skin?”

“Of course not!” they replied. He smiled as he nodded to one of the soldiers on duty. Sahithi was wide-eyed as 29 girls who she had come with were stripped of all their clothes and their dignity. They shivered as they tried to cover themselves in vain. “Hands behind the head!” he ordered, the sentry making them comply, exposing their assets to everyone in the room. ‘The pale-faced ladies seemed to be surprised that they were not the only beautiful ones.’ Sahithi thought as she observed the women. Her eyes grew wide in alarm as she noticed a soldier coming towards her with the intention of baring her body in front of everyone. She frantically tried to find an avenue to escape and found none. As she stood there, her heart thundering in fear at being about to be stripped, he found the soldier stop abruptly. “Not yet!” he commanded, the soldier retreating to his post. She let out the breath she had held in relief, but she knew it would be short-lived because they would definitely come up with something more perverse to humiliate her.

She watched helplessly as she saw the 29 girls go round the hall in their birthday suits serving drinks and food again. The difference was that the men started groping the naked women openly; some squeezed their b*****s, some played with their n*****s, some spanked them playfully. They knew no one would stop them; they could do to these hapless women what they couldn’t to the women of their own nation and get away with it. Even some of the ladies who appeared to be drunk started playing with them; using their fingers with expertise, revelling in the horrified expressions of these women, who had been forced to be in a place they didn’t want to be. ‘How would they react if the places were exchanged?’ Sahithi thought as she watched the debauchery.

Finally, one by one, the ladies left the room while the men still stood behind. Sahithi realised it was the cue for starting whatever perverse plans the arrogant pale-faced man had in mind for her. She shivered in apprehension as she watched the women being sent away with the pale-faced men. There were still 30 men left in the room who were sober and not too drunk. Their boss, it seemed, had not touched a drop of wine, being stone cold sober. Sahithi was frightened by the feral looks the thirty-one men were giving her. They were the looks of hungry wolves looking at their prey. The boss spoke.