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 I AM NOT MAN ENOUGH FOR YOU?
Do you remember the day we met? The shy smile as you looked down on the ground and me, beaming with pride that i was finally winning the heart i had run after all my life. Remember us, two village fools deeply in love with each other? Remember the many times we ran away mid-tasks to have some private time and on coming back you lied to your parents about the long line at the posho-mill? What happened to all that love? I was happy for you when you passed your exams. My queen was clever and beautiful, who would ask for more? The day I bade you goodbye at the bus-station, you were going to the university. You remember me holding your hand, refusing to let go and your eyes, they were wet with tears. I missed you much, it was only four months, you said, then i’d see you again. You were right, i saw you again. But was it you i saw? I saw a woman with clothes tighter than her skin and your lips? Had you joined a cult that made you drink animal blood? The handshake you gave me was cold and indifferent. You prevented me from carrying your bag and yeah, your tongue was very strange. Two days in the village and you started noticing things you didn’t before. All of a sudden i smelled of cow dung and wood smoke. My mouth stunk like the scales of a fish and my hands, they were rougher than coarse sand. You said i was not man enough for you, that i was an embarrassment to your intellectual fervour. You pushed me away saying that i had dwarfish ambitions, that i was an intellectual virgin not worthy of your time. I shall show you though that i am a man. I shall show you that i too can make it in life. I shall travel to the city and try my luck then on coming back, i shall drive into the village in a car bigger than your swallowed head. I shall boast of a house greater than your pride and a family better than you’ll ever be. I shall show you that though i am not man enough for you, then i’ll be more than a man to she that truly deserves the care and affection.

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