"Thief," Vijaya screamed at the top of her voice even as a mortified Haragopal took to his heels and started sprinting through the maze-like lanes of the village. The vessel that he had flung before taking off spun on its bottom and came to rest on its side, water dripping onto the floor.

Haragopal and his friends were on a bullock-cart road trip when Haragopal got down to see if there were any eateries. He walked some distance, lost his way, went around in circles, trod random paths and eventually ended up in Vijaya's village. Tired and thirsty from all the walking, Haragopal took the liberty of picking up a vessel containing water from a bench on the porch, so he could quench his thirst. He drank a mouthful, his eyeballs shot out of their sockets and he spat the water out. He stood stupefied, vessel in hand. That's when Vijaya came out of the house, spotted Haragopal with the vessel and screamed, making him toss the vessel and bolt.

The vessel contained water alright; only, it wasn't drinking water but water mixed with turmeric. It had been prepared for the annual ritual where unmarried women would chase their dream-men through the narrow lanes and sprinkle turmeric-water on them. If a woman managed to drench a man completely, he was hers.

The shocked villagers prepared to give Haragopal the chase of his life, when a sensible old man suggested that they take it easy. "That fellow will come back here at some point." The others saw the point, grinned, sat back and waited.

In no time, Haragopal was back just as the old man had predicted, having run through the maze of lanes that brought him back to the proverbial square one. He was so confused, he walked up to Vijaya's father, told him he was trying to flee a village of dorks and asked for a way to get away from the vicinity, without realising he was in the midst of the same dorks.

"Your only way out is to marry my daughter," Vijaya's father said, holding Haragopal by his collar. Haragopal was stunned, and so was Vijaya. Here was a man who had stolen a vessel from a woman and people were now demanding that he be made her husband. The absurdity of the situation hit Vijaya like a gale, and she protested.

Unfortunately, as it always is in a patriarchal society, the village decided that Vijaya had managed to drench the man with turmeric water and so he was the bona-fide husband to be.

"All I did was to drink some water from a pot in the veranda and you want me to marry this woman?" Haragopal protested. "Take me to the police. I will tell them what happened and let them decide what to do. After all, my friends and I came on this trip and here I am, all by myself. Someone must be worried about my not having come back yet and must have gone to the police."

The villagers were taken aback. Sensing their hesitation, Haragopal seized the initiative to harangue them on how idiotic and obsolete their methods of forging a matrimonial alliance were.

A girl's life was at stake and so, despite being humiliated, the villagers relented and softened their stance. In the end, they managed to convince Haragopal after promising a hefty initial payoff, a fat legacy and lifelong supply of rice and pulses. They spoke of how the girl would be ostracised if he abandoned her and how the wrath of Gods would condemn him and his family to hell forever.

Haragopal finally relented and agreed to marry Vijaya and realised much later that the villagers had said nothing about his having to incur the wrath of the girl.

That night, the first words Vijaya spoke were, 'water thief.'