It was the first day of her junior year
as well as her birthday. Ari was struggling to get to her first class, Women’s and Gender Studies. She was hustling up the stairs of Dale when she tripped and watched as
her phone went flying in slow motion. To her surprise, a random guy caught it
seconds before it shattered on the concrete floor. Ari, in
a hurry, gave the complete stranger the biggest hug, thanked him and ran off to her class. She
slowly crept in her class as the professor was giving a lecture over feminism. She
was happy. Her phone was saved, and she made it just in time to learn about her favorite topic. She was a huge activist in women’s rights and recently decided to
have a minor in Women’s and Gender Studies.
Even it being her favorite class, Ari
regretted not going to bed earlier because she kept dozing off in class. The professor finally caught her attention when she said the word, “help .“ Her eyes widened and she
immediately felt horrible for not asking for the kind guy’s name. Then, she
started to imagine what his name could be. She thought about him being a Caucasian male and she
started to list the most common names she could think of: John, Ben, Kyle,
Brad, Michael, Jake, Chris and so on. At the end of the class she got 36 names
and narrowed it down to Adam, Austin and Alex. She wanted it to start with A so
it could match with her initial.
After imagining this John Doe for
the whole class period, she became obsessed with the guy. She even started to
imagine their life together, what their kids were going to be like and how they
would grow old together. Sooner or later she realized how much of a crush she
had on this stranger. She didn’t know when or how it even happened. She kept
telling her friends about him. How he was her other half but there was nothing
more to say than, “He caught my phone.” She laughed it off with her friends and
that night they made plans to go out to celebrate her 21st birthday.
She and her friends got all dolled up and they took her out to Jax’s to start the night off.
They were having a good time when suddenly, Ari saw him. She kept shoving and poking her
friends beside her and frantically saying with excitement, “That’s him. That’s
him.” Her friends made her take another shot and then playfully, pushed her towards him.
Instead of gracefully stopping in front of him, she ended up crashing into him
and he caught her before she fell down.
“How much longer is this catching business
going to take because I have work in the morning,” he said. She giggled and he
gave the brightest smile. Later on that night, she and John Doe left both their friends' group and walked all the way to the Duck Pond from Campus Corner. She saw a nice tree that had the perfect covering for them to sit under. As they walked closer she noticed the log for them to sit on and with relief, she whispered, "Thank God." After getting to know each other for quite some time she realized she still did not know his name. She exclaimed, "WAIT! I don't even know your name! Do you know mine?" They busted out laughing, wondering how it was even possible to forget to ask one another. After much laughter and tears, he told Ari his name was Dan. She smiled and chuckled. She told him what she had done, earlier that day. He said that was pretty cute of her to do. After covering every topic that came to each of their minds, they sat in silence for a while. She looked up at the tree and told Dan about how she loved the sway of the leaves, the peaceful sound they made. She mentioned a lesson she learned in her Women's and Gender Studies class about how women often see themselves as a tree because they give so much, supporting from the roots and giving cover, like the leaves. Dan looked at her and told her she could be his tree any day. She smiled. He went on saying how much he cares about Women's Rights and so forth. He told her that every woman is capable of being shoulder to shoulder with men and maybe even a little higher. With that she kissed him. She told him that this had to be her best birthday yet.
Ari knew earlier that day that she had met her better half. After that night, Dan and Ari became one. They became Ardhanari.
Author's Note:
I took a while to write this story, due to the overwhelming amount of information learned from the videos in Seven Secrets from Hindu Calendar Art by Devdutt Pattanaik. Pattanaik compares the difference in trees with two complementary truths in the world. For example, there would be a tall banyan tree to give us shade in the hot summer but we cannot eat ingest it. Whereas, the wheat grass provides us food but we cannot receive shade from it. I gathered much of my information from chapter 3 plus focusing on the God
Ardhanari. I decided to choose the setting here at OU as well as choosing the names by breaking up the God's name, Ari and Dan. The God, itself, is half male to be Shiva and half female to be Parvati. This story was a little from personal experience. From the horrific trip to the dozing off in Women's Gender Studies was all me but the night life was fictional (kinda wish now that it wasn't though!). No worries, no phones were harmed. That was fictional as well. I tried being the stereotypical girl falling for a guy kinda of theme. I just have a lot of respect for this God. To know that he and she are known separately as well as together is really neat. I also clue in the 'other half' parts here and there in the story in reference to the God.
Bibliography:
