The April Fool

  I always remember All Fools Day with a sentimental regard. It was this day of fools that had saved me from a romantic embarrassment. When I was found out to be a liar by my father-in-law, instead of kicking me out of the wedlock with his daughter, he forgave me pleasantly and blessed me.

 It all happened when I was a lecturer in English in a co-educational college a decade ago. Usually the girls sat in the front rows and the boys on the back benches in the class. 

  Lakshmi was one of my students for whom I fell in love from head to toe. She was tall, slim and oval faced with a classic nose and ear to ear smile on her lips.

  She always sat in the front row and when I took the platform and began to lecture, my concentration was often disturbed by her bewitching looks, emanating from her big round eyes which were transfixed on mine. The result was - I fumbled with the lesson and the girls giggled, chorussed by the cat-calls from the boys.

  That day also her gaze met mine and I lost track of my lesson again. I blabbered ‘Somerset Maugham’s Hamlet…” The instant response was giggles and catcalls. 

  “What has come over you all of a sudden?” I cried.

  “Nothing serious sir,”Lakshmi said, getting up from her seat, “we all believe that Shakespeare wrote Hamlet. But now you seem to contradict it.”

  “Well said,’the other students tittered.

  If it were any other student, I would have sent him out of the class, charging him with indiscipline. But now I was not all offended. Instead, I felt elated because I was made a fool of myself by a heavenly creature. 

  Lakshmi’s body language and her cryptic comments on my lectures convinced me that she was in love with me. I thought that it would not be chivalrous on my part not to return her love.

  On a pleasant spring evening I invited her for a cup of coffee in the canteen. That was the Alpha of our love.

  Months rolled on and all the film houses, restaurants and gardens in the town brought us closer day by day.

  But the inevitable had happened one day.

  Lakshmi met me in the college library. “Rao,”she said in a depressed tone.”My father wants to get me married to my damned cousin, who is a foreign returned. 

 “Rao,”she continued, her voice choking with emotion.”Can’t you be chivalrous enough to kidnap me  and marry me like Prithviraj Chauhan did in the case of Samyukta.?”

  “My dear,”I replied, “I am not lacking in chivalry. But the hard truth is …if I kidnap you, I will find myself in the police lockup.”

  I paused for a while and continued,”class distinction hinders our marriage. Doesn’t it.?”

  She nodded, making scratches on the library card with her long, polished nails.

  “Don’t worry,”I assured her, “I have a head that can hatch instant plans.”

  My plan was a success and I tricked Lakshmi’s father into believing me that I was a reasonably rich guy.

  The wedding and the honeymoon were over and that bright morning myself and Lakshmi were having coffee in a recently rented spacious apartment. Suddenly some six or seven of my students burst into my study. “Hi! My boys” I greeted them and asked them to sit down. But my students seemed to be very angry. I knew very well why they were angry. I asked my wife to get them  coffee. 

  But they were still angry. “Courtesies can wait”they blurted. “Sir, we’ve come to demand our money which we gave you as a feigned tuition fee in the presence of your father-in-law when he met you. You said that you would return our money in a week. But you failed to keep your promise.”

  It was all a ruse. I planned that some of my students should pay me a thousand rupees each as a monthly tuition fee when my future father-in-law met me, so that he would believe I was reasonably well off.

  Now, to make an honest confession, I lavished all that money on buying gifts for my in-laws. I wanted to create a grand image that I was a rich bridegroom.

  I was trying to placate my boys. “Come my pets,”I coaxed them, “don’t you believe in your teacher? Next month I will repay the debts to all of you, believe me.Without your help I wouldn’t have married your classmate Lakshmi at all. Would I forget all this? No, I wouldn’t.”

 My students were satisfied with my explanation and apology and left finally.

  “You cheat,”my father-in-law cried. He stood at the entrance while the entire ugly scene was going on. “You’ve given me the impression that you earn thousands of rupees every month through tuitions, when I met you to consider the alliance. But you…”he stopped half-way as he gasped for breath.

  I kept silent till his hissing subsided. Then I faced my father-in-law calmly. “In fact, it is my moral principle not to engage in tuitions for my students. I offer free coaching to my students off my class hours. I loved your daughter deeply from the depths of my heart. No doubt, you can get a rich guy. But you can’t get a more loving husband than I am. So, it is up to you whether to bless us or leave us as we are. Anyway,” I continued with a wry humour,”Today is April Fools Day and in a way we all fooled one another. I tried to fool you by pretending that I was a rich guy. On your part you wanted to fool me by giving away your daughter in marriage to some other rich guy. Can’t we pardon each other?”

  All of a sudden Lakshmi appeared there from nowhere. She whispered something into her father’s ear.

  Immediately he changed his countenance from that of anger to happiness. He gathered me and his daughter into his arms and said,”give me a little April Fool soon.”