The desert wind blows in her eyes, them and her soul burning. Dust flies up in rings around her as she dredges her feet along.
The blistering sun torments her petite feet.
Punnun! Punnun!
She calls out. The sound of his echoes around her. O wind say have you seen my Punnun? O how far is his abode? Where sits Kech Makran, the land of my love?
The moon of her face is stained with the sand that mixed with the tears flowing down her cheek.
Oh my poor Punnun! O you cruel sky, you have seen how my Punnun sweated day until night until finally he fulfilled my father's condition! Why do you not tell me then?!
O my generous Punnun, he didn't know how to wash clothes and hence he put gold coins in them! He gave my people thousand times the worth of their ruined clothes without them even asking, and yet, you separate his life from him!
Punnun! Punnun!
She runs up each burning hill of sand thinking, ah this must be the last, and yet a thousand more sneer at her! She squints at the distant horizon but alas, Punnun is still afar!
O the merchant of my heart, O Punnun! On that beautiful day Punnun when I saw you in your fragrance shop, I left without myself but I took your heart with me!
You gave up your home and you homeland for me! You became a servant for me!
What happened then Punnun? How did you leave me!
Punnun! Paani! Punnun!
O good man rearing your cattle say, have you seen my Punnun? He is my love and they have taken him away from me! Please, good sir, find me my Punnun! I am afraid I will die of thirst before my eyes can see my Punnun again! Good sir, some water, please!
---
The cattle rearer looks at her crooked, "Why little girl, with beauteous face like that, why do you weep? To obtain such a pretty face, my love, everyone will be a Punnun! Why look, the sand dunes are Punnun for you, the sky is Punnun for you. I too am Punnun for you!"
The man advances, his cruel arms outstretched.
Sassi realizing his intention shrieks, "You disgust me! A helpless woman is dying of thirst, separated from her love and lord, and you want to have your way with her in this condition too?" The cattle rearer sniggers but relents and clumsily turns to retrieve some milk.
Sassi runs seeing him distracted. She turns back only to find the cowherd still pursuing her, spreads her arms to sky and screams, "O Lord of the Universe, hide me in you! I live of Punnun and none else! O the most merciful, pray, hide me in your arms!"
Suddenly the ground trembles. A crack as long a the horizon opens up beneath her feet. As she falls, Punnun's face floats before her. She stretches out her arms, desperate to embrace him, but grasps at only dirt.
The dirt slowly settles over her body as the sky shrinks into darkness! No! The crevice is closing up, with her engraved within. So be it, if this is the Lord's will, she thinks. One last time she cries out, Punnun!
---
The cowherd kneels now where the crevice was a second before. He sobs. How foolish was he to try to sabotage a union blessed by the Lord himself! Now, the Lord had punished him. He is the sole reason one half of this divine love was buried in the middle of this scorching desert.
He looks up to see a handsome man running towards him. His clothes were tattered, his feet blistered from running barefoot. Tears ran down his cheeks.
Sassi! My Sassi! O good Sir, have you seen my Sassi?
They took me, they kept me! I wanted to come but they tied me up.
Tell me, where is my Sassi? I must go to her now, or else she will die!
The cowherd now sobs harder. He falls at the feet of this man, relaying Sassi's fate, "Are you Punnun! She came so far for you! She lies here by my grave folly and the Lord's will! See how her tattered veil still lies over her grave!"
Punnun collapses onto the rocks that now guard her grave. "O Lord merciful, give me my Sassi! Give me back my Sassi or take me to her!" He prays on his knees and screams out at the sky above, "I pray, let me lie with her! I want nothing else but to lie here with my Sassi!"
The ground shivers again, as Punnun stares through the tears in his eyes. As the crack widens he sees once again, the face of his love, whiter than the faithless moon!
Sassi!
He jumps in.
---
The crevice shuts just as fast as it had opened. The cowherd stares at the piece of the land as he realizes, now by God's will he is now the sole guardian of this grave of love. He will now stay here for eternity singing of this tale of Sassi and her Punnun.
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