THE HOPELESS ROMANTIC




            Once, a beggar fell insanely in love with a girl from his kindred. The beggars of the city lived in groups, and she was the most beautiful girl in his group. The group had a routine; in the mornings they spread around all the corners of the city and beg for alms and in the evening they would return to their tents put up on the foot path and share the money earned and then went to bed.The nights of the city were very cold and the fortunate ones in the group had rugs to ward off the cold except for the girl. She never had a rug and so she used to shiver in the trembling cold, and mourn and shriek in deep slumber asking the cold to go away.
            The beggar saw that his love suffered in the cold. He felt pity upon her, and so he went to her tent and put his rug upon her body and wrapped her. And he was content to see the happiness on her face; she was smiling and cherishing a dream. The beggar felt the warmth of love and slept in the night, though he shivered and trembled, the face of his sweet heart put him to a content slumber. In the morning he took the rug away from her so that she wouldn’t know anything.
            Ten days and ten nights passed, and the beggar continued doing the same; he sacrificed his own rug to protect her from the cold; and let himself tremble at its audacity. And in the mornings he would pick it up from her before she woke up.
            One day, the beggar got to know that the girl is in love with another man. Though, his heart shatters initially, he never loses hope and tells that: ‘I’ve been protecting her and doing my duty of love. One day she’ll open her eyes when I put the rug around her body and then she’ll begin to love me.’
              But unfortunately, nothing such happened.

            The winter came, and the snowfall only increased the cold to malicious levels. But yet, the beggar sacrificed his rug every night. His health began to deplete but nobody cared; none of the members of the group asked him why.
            One night, perhaps on the coldest night of the winter, the beggar sat outside the girl’s tent trembling in the cold. He was freezing; he knew he would die soon. As death approached he looked at his sweet heart for one last time. Whispering something to her, he finally died.

            The group lacked money and also lacked the concern to bury the dead beggar. He was thrown along the garbage, and his dead body was feasted by the crows and the dogs.

            At the gates of heaven, the angels stood in awe with garlands and clarets and harps singing, with every type of food he loved and lots of wine. When he reached, they hugged him and heartily welcomed him opening the gates; they had never seen such an act of heavenly love from an earthling.

            That day, when the girl woke up; she wondered who had wrapped her with the rug. But she had other things in her mind: she was to elope with the man whom she loved that evening.
And thus she ran away with her sweet heart and lived a happy life; although, at times she complains of dreams of a freezing man whispering something into her ears. A queer whisper that said: When will you open your eyes my love.



            

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