Shri, a writer from Malaysia who had always dreamed of visiting Japan and Misao, a Geisha from Kyoto with a kind heart and an interest for Indian movies. A love between two people from two different worlds who meet but are forced to part because of...
Shirakawa Canal, Gion, Summer 1998. Shri Mohan walked along the bridge, admiring the koi-filled canals as he did. A film camera hung from his neck, resting against his chest. He decided to lean over the railing and stare at the beautiful landscape of the Shirakawa Canals in awe. Shri silently raised his camera and snapped a picture, hoping that it would be developed to look just as beautiful as the original scene. A string of protests came from somewhere behind him. Shri turned around a saw a beautiful geisha woman being harassed by a Caucasian tourist. The stranger was trying to touch her hair, though it was a wig, it was still harassment. Shri rushed to them and shoved the foreigner away from her, stepping between them. "You heard the lady, stop touching her!" Shri spat, glaring at the man. The foreigner quickly apologised and ran off. "Sumimasen," the geisha bowed. "Doesn't that mean sorry?" Shri asked, surprised. "Sorry and thank you," the geisha smiled, speaking fairly good English. "Sorry for the trouble I've caused you and thank you for helping me." Shri smiled and bowed too. "It's nothing," The geisha let out a soft, bubbly chuckle. Shri couldn't help but smile. He looked at a sign that indicated that taking photos of the geishas without permission wasn't allowed and sighed. "I wish I could get a picture of you, but I don't think that would be very wise..." Shri shrugged. "You must be busy, attending meetings and whatnot. I'll excuse myself." The geisha quickly shook her head. "No, you just stood up for me, sir. I still have a little time to spare. I'll allow you to take onephoto of me. Just one." Shri smiled and snapped a picture of her before giving her a big bow of gratitude. The geisha girl bowed too before leaving with a smile. He smiled too, watching as she gracefully strutted down the bridge to go about with her day. He decided to go on his way too, making his way back to the apartment suite he stayed at with his family. "Shri, where you went?" His somewhat annoying little sister, Shruti Devi, interrogated as soon as she opened the door for him. "I just went for a walk lah," Shri rolled his eyes, brushing past her. "What, you security guard ah?" Shruti grunted and ran off. Shri still wondered how she was actually twenty years old, but still acted like a child. Well, Shri got his share of revenge when exposing the things she did to her college mates. This was the reason why Shruti no longer invited her friends over, especially since her friends came just so they could meet Shri, not her. Shruti permanently banned her friends from coming over again. "Why you two got no other better work other than fighting ah?" Their mother, Suganthi, chimed in. "Ma, she started first," Shri pointed out. "I just went for a walk and came, and look at how she interrogating me. She like security guard now." Suganthi chuckled. "Your sister only, what." "Your daughter also, what," Shri countered with a shrug. The whole family had come for a business trip that Shri's father, Shridhar, had to attend. There was going to be a meeting arranged in a ryōtei restaurant in Gion itself. Everyone really looked forward to it, especially since this was their first time in Japan, and everyone were invited too. "Shri, don't go wandering around alone, okay?" Suganthi warned. "As it is, we don't know this place. We might lose our way without proper directions." "Yeah, don't go and sesat in the river and drown all, okay?" Shruti added, returning with a smug face. "It's a canal, not river, idiot," Shri rolled his eyes. "You still don't know the difference ah?" "I don't know," Shruti shook her head haughtily. Shri sighed and went to his room. He was so glad that there were three bedrooms there so they could all sleep separately, save for their parents, of course. Shri shuddered at the thought of sharing a room with his sister, especially since she would snore like the world's loudest helicopter. Sharing with his older brother wasn't any good too. Shri was secretly overjoyed when he refused to come along and offered to take care of the company in Shridhar's absence instead. The meeting was that evening and everyone looked forward to it. But now Shri had nothing else to do but sit around in his room, reading a translated Japanese novel, his portable radio playing some of Japan's famous City Pop tunes. For some reason, though this was his first time in Japan, Japanese culture always fascinated him. His family always made fun of him, saying that he ought to have been born Japanese instead of ending up in Malaysia. Of course, Shri still loved his own culture more. He also kept in mind to run to the nearest music store and see if they had Mariya Takeuchi's Request album.
"This place is really nice," Shruti said as she sat on a zabuton at the chabudai with her family. She looked at the other guests and frowned as she realised that all of them knelt instead of sitting cross-legged like them. "Ouch... how they can actually sit like that lah?" "Because they're thin, not like you," Shri smirked. "Then why you sitting like that also?" Shruti countered, also smirking. "Because you also cannot, right?" Shri frowned and turned away, playing with the golden Om pendant he wore. Shruti smiled in triumph because of her brother's defeat. She turned back to the stage and saw the geisha girls performing. "How they run around in such clothing, I still don't know," Suganthi chuckled. "Looks suffocating." "Ma, this is Japan, not Malaysia," Shri pointed out. "It's colder here. You wear like that in Malaysia, then yeah. It will be very hot." Shridhar chuckled. "Malaysia you wear sleeveless itself hot. Wear like that means, die lah." "Maybe can wear yukata," Shri shrugged. "Yukata is the summer kimono. Only one layer. Normal kimono got like three or four layers, I think." "How do you even know all this?" Shruti asked, confused. "Isn't all kimono the same?" Shri smirked and shook his head. "Nope. There are so many types of kimono. That kimono, the one the geishas are wearing, is called the susohiki. It's longer and it trails on the ground. The white kimono that brides usually wear on their wedding is called shiromuku. Then, the irouchikake is the formal sort of kimono that the bride usually changes into after the ceremony." "Can I ask you something?" His father suddenly asked. "What is it, Pa?" Shri asked, confused. "Are you Japanese?" Shridhar smirked. Shri sighed and turned back to the stage. A pair of geisha girls were performing, singing and playing traditional instruments. The song was slow but melodious and graceful. One played the shamisen and the other played the tsuzumi drum. She looked kinda familiar to Shri. But then again, most of the geishas in Gion looked similar because of their oshiroi makeup. But still, he found something vaguely familiar about her.
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This is the Geisha girl that Shri rescued at the beginning. I know, her hair isn't the right shimada style, and her kimono isn't quite correct either. But this is the closest I could get when recreating her in the Sims 3. At least I managed to get the oshiroi makeup and a kimono in general. I was actually surprised when I managed to get ahold of it lol.
-sesat means stuck or lost. Like stuck in the wrong place or lose the way to a certain place.
Anyway, I hope you liked the first chapter of this book!
