{"id":1902,"date":"2023-12-16T11:19:16","date_gmt":"2023-12-16T11:19:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1902"},"modified":"2023-12-16T11:19:22","modified_gmt":"2023-12-16T11:19:22","slug":"misfortune-spoke-the-pandit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/misfortune-spoke-the-pandit\/1902\/","title":{"rendered":"Misfortune Spoke the Pandit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Misfortune-spoke-the-pandit.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1903\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Misfortune-spoke-the-pandit.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Misfortune-spoke-the-pandit.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Misfortune-spoke-the-pandit.jpeg 150w, https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Misfortune-spoke-the-pandit.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAh sir,\u201d spoke the Pandit \u201cwill you hear my story of woe.\u201d<br><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hans Tuosist had come to fifty second street in the hopes of finding his missing button, and since class loomed back at Lehman College, he had little time for the romantic humming of the road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>So, if the Pandit sang of the songs of his youth or gave a merry eye over the green rivers of his native country, then was it an honour for the son of immigrants to give ear to a fellow Kievan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cSorry sir,\u201d Hans sighed \u201cI\u2019ve got to dash, perhaps you\u2019d speak to me tonight, come to the Lexicon on Bleecker Street and we\u2019ll drink tea.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cNo, no,\u201d exclaimed the Pandit \u201cI have little time. And old and feeble as I am, I must find my daughter protection. Spare any trinket or words of comfort for her sake.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This Pandit was a wrenched soul, down from his greasy ankles, up to his torrent of white hair. A gentleman forced onto the street for many years and sleeping with pigs and rats had turned his mind muddy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But Hans, never a man for charity, who\u2019s heart became metallic at the sight of self-pity, felt contempt rise up from the pit of his stomach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cPandit,\u201d he replied \u201cI have no time for strangers, friends yes but\u2026\u201d<br><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cDo you wish for a wise word or a spell of passion,\u201d inquired the old man \u201cName your price, and I\u2019ll tear out my tongue to give it to you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hans lingered, knowing the respect his mother and father gave to men of the synagogue, feeling they were now watching him with opera glasses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI want love,\u201d Hans answered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cLove?\u201d<br><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cA warm hand to hold in winter, a woman smiling at the sight of me. Knowing that I\u2019ve earned the right to call her my own.\u201d<br><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A silence and the old man slunk back down to the pavement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOh sir, that is impossible to deliver, you ask for what I can never give.\u201d<br><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hans smiled inside, knowing that since his price wasn\u2019t met, he could leave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But then he spied the golden locket swaying around the old man\u2019s neck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhat\u2019s that?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In a blur, the Pandit held the locket in his fist, pressing it against his breast \u201cNo, sir I dare not give it away. For this is my soul, my flesh, all that is tender.\u201d<br><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hans with no effort, ripped the locket from the old man\u2019s fingers and snapping it open, beheld the grey and creamy photograph of a woman, milk skinned, deep eyed, smoothed mouthed, and he felt his heart glow and his appetite growl.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><br>\u201cOh, she\u2019ll do,\u201d he said, pocketing the locket.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAlright old man,\u201d he went on \u201cI\u2019ve claimed my prize. You want your daughter safe when you\u2019re gone? She\u2019ll live with me; for I can win anything when I have the mind for it. And no, I don\u2019t think I\u2019ll invite you to the wedding.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cNo, no,\u201d exclaimed the Pandit \u201cI have little time. And old and feeble as I am, I must find my daughter protection. Spare any trinket or words of comfort for her sake.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10158782359051062_103813597863211":"","twitter_1225722811282530305_1225722811282530305":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[695,1077],"tags":[1115],"class_list":["post-1902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-695","category-dec-2023-misfortune","tag-pandit"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbrNJE-uG","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1902"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1902\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1904,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1902\/revisions\/1904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}