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OCTOBER, 1975
Siddhartha :
Surely, there can be no doubt in that.
Trishala :
But I have my grave doubts.
Siddhartha :
Why these doubts. Are you worried about his marriage ?
Trishala :
Yes, I have been thinking of his marriage since long. But...
Siddhartha :
What, but...
Trishala :
The Prince is not matrimonially inclined. He wants to be left alone. I have often found him pensive. Whenever, I broach the topic of marriage to him, he quietly slinks away.
Siddhartha :
His friends have also told me so. They say he never looks at a damsel.
Trishala :
My maternal instinct takes me into flights of imagination. When I close my eyelids, myriad damsels dance before my eyes eager to be daughters-in-law. But all those fair images evaporate like camphor before the anchorite look of the Prince.
Siddhartha :
Many a king have sent to me the portraits of their daughters. And I have passed on all those paintings to the Prince, but I never got any response from him. It is like the sweet melody of music lost in the distance and never sending its echo back.
Trishala :
My motherly affections have become evanescent like the rainbow. (Sighs]
(Enter Prince Vardhaman in a pensive mood]
Vardhaman :
I bow down to my parents.
Siddhartha :
May you be ever victorious.
Trishala :
Come, my darling! Come nearer to me. May you be always happy. I have just heard that you have tamed a wild elephant and hurled a deadly reptile.
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