Love at First Sight

Once upon a time there was a beautiful Princess. Now mind you, she wasn’t a real princess, but from the day she was born that was her nickname and she wore it well. Thirty years later, however, despite her beauty and charming ways, she still had not fulfilled her dream of finding a loving and gallant prince.

Over the years, Princess had many a man fall in love with her. Unfortunately, none of them sparked the flames of desire in her. There was that weird kid in grade school that ate a live spider at recess. Then in middle school the boys had obnoxiously grabbed at her blossoming bosom. This was followed by the high school years where dudes were still more interested in what was going on below her neck than above it. Drunken frat boys in college weren’t much better. By the time she graduated college, she was pretty disgusted with men in general.

As a software engineer, and often the only woman on her project team, Princess received a long string of marriage proposals from citizens of China, India, Iran, and other countries of well-trained high-tech employees. Princess always doubted their motives. What were they after: beauty, brains, permanent residence in the U.S.? She never felt it was love, not from them, and certainly not from her.

While her female friends were either out drinking and partying or staying home with their kids, Princess sat in bed with a glass of wine and an old copy of “National Geographic.” She lazily flipped through the pages, but suddenly stopped at a picture of an Indian wood carving of an overweight man, dancing. What had caught her eye was that instead of a normal person’s head, the dancing man had an elephant’s head. She couldn’t take her eyes off it. The caption said it was an 11^th century carving of Ganesh the Hindu god of auspiciousness. She Googled “Ganesh” on her phone. Wikipedia reported that “Ganesh is widely revered as the remover of obstacles, the patron of arts and sciences and the deva of intellect and wisdom.”

“Maybe you can remove my obstacles to love,” thought Princess wistfully. She really liked this picture and she taped it to the wall next to her bed. Every night she spoke to it and poured out her heart. Afterwards, she always felt better and would fall into a deep pleasant sleep.

A few weeks later, Princess found herself on the periphery of the largest dance club she’d ever been in. It was dark and the wall-to-wall people were dancing to the pounding music that could be felt inside the heart. The atmosphere was joyous and Princess became infected with it. Across the room she could see a large figure with a knot of people around him. As she grew closer, maybe halfway across the space, she approached the figure from behind. He was definitely larger than life. His skin was slate gray and he wore a vest and pants made of gold embroidery. Then she gasped. The ears. The trunk. It was Ganesh, not the static wood carving, but an actual animated being. He was there in front of her and he was magnificent. As she stared at him in awe, he looked back over his shoulder directly at her.

The next day, Princess couldn’t stop thinking about him. Did he really look at her or just in her direction? The club had been very dark and crowded. How could he have possibly noticed her? He must have been looking at something behind her and that made Princess a little sad.

“What am I doing?” Princess scolded herself. “It was just a dream and not even one about a real person.” There was a pause in her thoughts. “I wonder how you kiss with a trunk.” At that last thought, Princess started to laugh at the sheer ridiculousness of it all. She was falling in love with a myth. Real life, however, was more pressing and took up her time.

It was a beautiful day. The skies were clear and the temperature was perfect. Princess was standing at the base of a green hill. She was wearing a long white dress. On the top of the hill was a small canopy of yellow cloth fluttering in a gentle breeze. Inside the canopy stood Ganesh, his arms outstretched to her. Her arms reached towards him and she noticed that her hands were painted with intricate designs. She climbed the hill to join him and when she reached him she was wearing a red saree heavily embroidered with gold. It was all so beautiful, but she couldn’t figure out what was happening.

Ganesh took her by the hand and led her to a fire burning underneath the canopy. There he placed a garland of freesias and gerbera daisies around her neck and bade her to do the same to him. They walked around the flames seven times and he placed red powder in her hair. All the while, Princess could hear soft music and the distant chanting of prayers. So much was said and done that she didn’t understand. Finally it was night and as they stood looking at the North Star, Ganesh slipped a gorgeous necklace around her throat and said, “I loved you from the moment I first saw you.”

Nine months later, Princess gave birth to a beautiful baby boy. Well, the boy was beautiful to her. The doctor said not to worry, that there was nothing wrong with the child that plastic surgery, extensive plastic surgery, couldn’t fix. He had never seen such deformities before. The child’s nose hung long and loose like an elephant’s trunk and his ears were abnormally large. Princess just smiled. Her baby was perfect. Shortly afterwards, they boarded a plane to India and lived happily ever after.