Leila and Ravi: A Myth

A Story by lrigD

The story of Leila and Ravi. We all know them, but how did they become what they are now? A mix between a myth and a fairy tale...

Once upon a time there was a young girl called Leila. She lived in a green but poor country, and her parents could not give her much, but they loved her and her siblings with their whole hearts.

People in her village often told Leila she was easily the prettiest girl in the country, because Leila had the fairest skin in the village, the darkest hair and eyes and a beautiful little nose. But Leila never believed this; so many people lived in the country, and there must be many more beautiful than her.

Some girls were jealous and told Leila, in the dark of night and under the guise of the noises of the animals, that her beauty would change. They said that every girl started out pretty, but a monster visited her when she became a woman and stole her beauty, and that after that nobody could ever be beautiful again. When Leila asked her mother about this monster, she didn’t know anything about it, and she told her daughter not to believe any of the stories the mean girls told her.

Then Leila asked when she would become a woman, and her mother ruffled her hair and told her not to worry about it.

Leila never thought about it again, until, one night, somebody came into her room. There was no light and she could not see anything, but she heard somebody, something, moving around. She knew the sounds of her family, but she didn’t know this sound.

“Who are you?” she whispered into the darkness. “Why are you in my room?”

Nobody answered. Leila grabbed the closest object she could find, a toy stick, and held it in front of her.

“I’ll-I’ll hit you!” she said bravely.

But then she heard the sounds again, and it moved away from her.

When she was certain the thing was gone, she sighed in relief. Maybe this was the monster the girls had told her about? Did it mean that she was a woman now? She didn’t feel like it.

As she fell asleep, her last thought that she wished there was light at night.

Eventually Leila became a woman, and the stories the mean girls had told her did not come true: village women still told her she was the prettiest. They called her Frida, because her skin was still fair and flawless, her eyes grey as coal with long, black eyelashes framing it; her body was well-formed and nobody moved more graciously than her. Men asked her father for her hand, but her father always denied them; he had a far greater future in mind, a future for the apple of his eye. He wanted her to go to the capital of the country and study; maybe she could become a professor or a teacher! To him, there was nothing more honourable.

But first, they had to collect the money, and it took a long time. In the meantime, Leila stayed in the village, and though her father forbade any suitors, Leila’s heart told her otherwise.

She had met a nice young man, Ravi, when she had been washing in the river one day. They had talked, for they had been all alone, and Leila had been very surprised by Ravi; he was unlike any other man she knew, and he had not once come to ask for her hand. His eyes never lingered on her body, but he always looked into her face with great interest, as if nothing could be more interesting than her words.

Leila felt loved, and in turn felt she loved Ravi. They met secretly and talked for hours and hours. Leila was happier than she had ever been, and she discreetly hoped that her father would never collect the money needed to send her to the capital, so she could continue meeting Ravi.

But the day still came. Leila’s father was desperate, and in his desperation, he decided to do the one thing he had promised himself to never do: he found a man who was willing to give a lot of money to have her, and gave her to that man. The man was old and dirty; he had greasy black hair, a big belly and a skin full of little red spots.

When Leila found out, she cried and cried. Nobody could comfort her. Her mother said the man was nicer than he looked, better than he seemed to be, and tried to cheer her up with stories of studying, which Leila had always wanted. But Leila could not be consoled. Ravi, the only one who could console her, could not go near her, since that would betray their secret.

From the day she had been given away to the day of her marriage, Leila had to stay in her parents’ house and could not meet anyone except her family. Her father didn’t understand why Leila was so unhappy and even got angry with her. After that, Leila did not cry, but only stared into the distance and didn’t reply to anyone or anything.

On the night before her marriage, Leila lay awake a long time. For the last time, she would be in her old room, and she thought of all the things she had done in this room.

At once, like a dream, the noise she had heard so many years ago came again; it slipped through her door and hovered in her room, though invisible to Leila’s eyes. But today, she was not scared; she wished the thing would take her, or kill her and let her escape the fate she was about to suffer.

“Come get me, whoever you are!” Leila said. She spoke softly because she did not want to wake her parents, but she was sure it would hear her. “Come get me!”

Then she felt something cold along her arm, and at that same time she realized she would never be happy in this life; she had to see Ravi, or her very soul would die.

She knew where he lived, because he had once pointed it out to her; and now, sneaking past her parents, she ran outside, to the only person she knew she’d ever be happy with.

He was there, and she woke him up, and they were so happy to see each other they did not hear the creaking of the leaves, the sounds in the shadows.

“We have to run!” she told Ravi. “I’ll never get married to anybody but you. I love you and I want you, and nobody else may want me!”

Together, they ran away. The darkness followed them, but they did not notice, because they were so busy.

But it was behind them all the time, and the next day, it hid in the shadows of buildings and people.

At nightfall, Leila looked around. “I am scared,” she said. “I feel something watching us.”

Ravi looked around, but saw nothing. “Nobody’s followed us, we’re safe here!” he told Leila.

But then, the darkness appeared in front of them. It was not completely dark yet and they could see the dark outline.

“Run! Ravi said at once. “Run as hard as you can!”

But the darkness caught Leila, and she was dragged helplessly as Ravi chased her, but could never reach her.

The darkness gave Leila one last wish. “What will your final wish be, Frida?” it asked her. “What do you want more than Ravi?”

Leila thought long and hard. Without Ravi, her life would be useless and empty; but maybe, maybe, she could do something to stop this from ever happening again.

“Let me be light,” she told the darkness.

And it listened, and put her in the sky: and to this day, Ravi, burning with anger, passionately chases Leila, who is still the fairest in the country, with dark hair and eyes.

But today, we have given them another name.