________________
Ganga
and
Santanu
HE had already spent ten dark, dreary nights there without a single symptom of life and cheer around her except the gracious Ganga which flowed at her feet. She would wait no longer. But then what could she do ? Nobody seemed to care for her. "Where am I to go from here?" she asked herself. "I have never been in places such as this before, and the earth must be a strange planet indeed. Here even youth, beauty and love are not wanted, it appears. But am I still young and pretty and capable of loving, and being loved ? I am not sure that the sage Vasishtha in his fury has not condemned me to ugliness and decay too, I know nothing except my own future, and it is going to be one of eternal misery and mourning. So I must be prepared for it.”
As she was doodling in the sand, a dainty dove flew from somewhere and perched on her left shoulder. It was her first glimpse of love in a silent, unknown land where she thought everything was dead. Stroking the bird softly, she began to
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