Lazy Love

Once upon a time, there was an affluent kingdom known as Industrious Land. It was a very prosperous, rich empire, with subjects working for at least 16 hours. Although working for long hours was not compulsory, residents loved to toil; and their king was no sloucher too. He relentlessly worked along with his people. He would personally keep track of the health of his subjects, oversee the workings of farms and business, and in his spare time, he would keep on coming up with new schemes for the betterment of his people.

In that merry land of people, there lived a very very unhappy girl named Lali.
Her hatred for work and doing anything remotely productive was the cause of her distress. She belonged to a middle-class merchant family, which thrived on working long and hard. Her mother would always scold her for lazing around when there was mountains of work pending. In fact, her aversion for work was so famous that her friends had nicknamed her as lazybones.

Lali’s every morning would start with her mother cribbing about who will marry her. “You do know there’s no dearth of energetic lasses of marriageable age in this kingdom, don’t you? Young lads are queuing up to marry them. Due to your laziness, no one wants to marry you. Whenever your father approaches eligible young men with your proposal, they run away in another direction as fast as their legs could carry them. What will become of you?” Lali’s evenings would end with her father predicting doom for her future. “Mark my words, she’s going to die spinster. No man is going to want a hand of such a good-for-nothing lass,” he would say.

Although her family’s and friends’ words would hurt, she couldn’t do anything about it. How could she work continuously for 16 hours when there was so much more to life? There were beautiful gardens to walk around, deep valleys to gaze at and beautiful sky to contemplate. At the ripe age of 24, she accepted it that no one was going to marry her. She was not like her friends, who loved to cook, manage household and help their husbands in their work. Each and every friend of hers was married, while she was alone and unmarried. Sometimes she too would long for a handsome husband who would love her and pamper her, but she clearly understood that some things were not meant for her. She was destined to enjoy the life on her terms; she was destined to lounge around in the shades of the trees, sipping coconut water with a romantic book in hand.

However, everything changed one fine morning. 

Source: www.flickr.com

With a picnic basket in one hand, Lali was strolling through the forest. She planned to have a picnic lunch on the edge of her favorite lake. Suddenly she came upon handsome young lad sitting under the shade of the huge tree. With his back resting on the tree trunk, he had spread out his legs. His eyes were closed and he seemed to be dozing. Lali found that very odd. Who would doze in the late morning, and that too in Industrious Land? Thinking that he might be ill and in need to help, Lali decided to wake him up.

Nearing the lad, Lali called out to him. “Sir, please wake up.” When the man didn’t move, she decided to raise her voice a bit. “Sir! Wake up. You need to be somewhere.” Still the man didn’t move. Now Lali was getting puzzled. Who wouldn’t respond to such wake up calls unless he is seriously ill? Maybe she should shake him up and check if the man’s actually conscious and not just sleeping?

As soon as Lali laid her hand on the shoulder of the man, he turned his face toward her. “My lady, I am awake. You don’t need to shake me.”

Realizing that she was worrying about the man needlessly, Lali got angry. “If you are awake, why didn’t you say so? Don’t you realize that you terrified me? I thought either you were seriously ill or dead. Do you have no shame at all that you go around scaring off pretty ladies?”

The man paid no heed to Lali’s outrage. Instead of responding to Lali’s tirade, he gave a bored look to her and promptly closed his eyes. Seeing the uncaring attitude of the man, Lali turned livid. How dare he ignore her? Didn’t he have manners at all? Just when she was on the verge of stomping her feet in anger, the man grabbed her wrist and pulled her down. She fell down on the man’s lap, huffing and puffing.

“Please don’t get worked up. It’s sheer wastage of energy. Calm down and enjoy the morning,” said the man without opening his eyes.

Now Lali was getting more and more baffled by this man’s behavior. Who was he? Looking at his attitude, she was sure that he didn’t belong to Industrious Land. Had he belonged to her country, he would have been slaving off somewhere instead of resting under the tree.

“Who are you? And what are you doing in Industrious Land? I don’t believe I have seen you before.”

The man could hear Lali’s curiosity. Thinking it was easier to answer her questions than to keep her in suspense, he opened his eyes and promptly got bewitched.

When the man kept on staring at her instead of saying anything, Lali started getting uncomfortable. “Well?”

“I am Himank, prince of Snooze Land.”

“Snooze Land? I haven’t heard about any such kingdom. Did you just invent it?” Lali asked the man suspiciously.

The prince was amused by the lass’ question. The girl had the temerity to doubt a prince. “My lady, do you think I am a liar? Please look at me properly before you answer my question.”

Taking the stock of the man, Lali could see the error of her ways. The man was too well-dressed to be a lying thief. So, did Snooze Land exist for real?

“My lord, please pardon me. I was hasty in my observation. I am just befuddled by your information. My papa or mama has never told me anything about such land.”

“Ah! I can understand that. People of Industrious Land hate us and they refuse to acknowledge us. No wonder you weren’t told about your neighboring kingdom.”

“You are our neighbor?” Lali’s eyes went round with wonder. She had never met anyone out of Industrious Land until now. And to directly meet the royalty of another country was magnificent.

“Yes.” Himank was totally mesmerized by Lali. Apart from being breathtakingly beautiful, she didn’t seem like a typical Industrious Land resident to him. She was laid back and she actually spent her time with him without any reason. He knew enough about the people of Industrious Land to know that Lali was different. “My fair lady, what’s your good name? And what are you doing in the forest? Aren’t you supposed to be working somewhere?”

“Sir, I am Lali and I was going to the lake for having a picnic. I am bit lazy and so I am free.”

The prince was quite surprised to know that Lali actually didn’t do anything. Could God be more kind to him? Here he found not only beautiful lass, but a lazy one to boot.

“Oh my fair lady, would you be kind enough to spend your afternoon with me?”

Lali couldn’t believe what she was listening, here was the prince who was ready to spend his afternoon with her. “But my lord, aren’t you supposed to go back to your kingdom and oversee some work?”

Hearing Lali’s question, the prince exploded with laughter. “Oh lady, I forgot how ignorant you are of our ways. Let me enlighten you. We, the people of Snooze Land, never ever work. Be it royal family or our subjects. We eat, sleep and enjoy the life in general.”

“Oh. And how does your kingdom prosper then?”

“My beautiful lady, we are already prosperous. We have enough wealth to live leisurely for the next thousand years without working at all. So we just enjoy the life without worrying about anything.”

Hearing the prince talk about his idle lifestyle, Lali started getting jealous. She wanted to live in that country instead of Industrious Land. There she would fit perfectly. People wouldn’t look at her as if she didn’t belong with them. “Oh sir, how perfect is that! I wish I was born there instead of in Industrious Land,” Lali said ruefully.

“Oh, don’t worry my fair lady. Not everything is lost. The moment I saw you, I was mesmerized. Please marry me and become my princess. I promise you the life of leisure and enjoyment.”

Lali couldn’t believe her ears. The prince wanted to marry her, a mere daughter of middle-class merchant; she who had given up on getting married, ever.

“Oh lord! I would love to but I am not sure if my family would allow me to. They want me to marry a hard-working young man from Industrious Land.”

“What nonsense! You don’t have to worry about that. Let’s just elope and get married in my country. And the wedding ceremony in my country is simple too. We just have to exchange rings to be man and wife. We don’t have to go through 3 to 4 hour wedding ceremony like yours. I believe you will find the wedding ceremony of my country more to your taste.”

Of course Lali did. Even though Lali was a female in all aspects, she hated shopping. She hated going from one shop to another, just to find that single perfect gown for the occasion. But she had to be sure that she was marrying the right man. “But wouldn’t your family mind if we get married without any commemoration?”

“Nah…we are quite a lazy bunch. Usually marriages in our country are conducted in a different way. In the wedding ceremony, there’s only the groom, the bride and the priest. They exchange the rings. However, there’s always the feast for everyone afterwards. We too will throw a huge feast in honor of our wedding.”

Listening to the prince, Lali’s happiness knew no bounds. She promptly eloped with the prince to Snooze Land.

As soon as they reached the church, Lali remembered about the rings. “Oh, but we don’t have rings. Now we will have to go through several shops for that.” Lali couldn’t keep the dejection out of her voice. She really hated buying anything. It simply consumed too much of unnecessary energy.

“Ah, don’t worry my love. In Snooze Land, there’s only one jeweler – Platinum Jewelers. They have each and every type of rings imaginable. Also, those rings are made from Platinum, a very rare and precious metal that will signify our love for each other. We just need to visit the store, get our rings and get married.”

To say Lali was ecstatic after listening to the prince would be an understatement. The simple ways and customs of Snooze Land were fascinating for her. She was wholeheartedly sure that she was going to love Snooze Land more than Industrious Land. Even though she had Industrious Land’s blood running through her veins, her heart belonged to Snooze Land.

Lali and Himank both purchased the most perfect rings from Platinum Jewelers, and got married in the church next door. As the years went by, their love deepened. And when they had kids, they set their own new traditions by never asking their kids to be industrious or lazy. They let them choose their own path of happiness.

And thus, Lali, the daughter of a middle-class merchant of Industrious Land, and Himank, the prince of Snooze Land, lived happily ever after.

This post was written for the Platinum Day of Love contest held on IndiBlogger.in.