VITAL STATS
Dil Hai Ke Mahanta Nahin!

prafulla mahanta's papa crushed the newspaper in his hands and laughed. "he has married again?" he asked no one in particular, "why would any guy make the same mistake twice? i am ashamed to call him my son!" but devkanta mahanta wondered why the media was making such a halla-gulla over prafulla. papa was convinced that his son was too clumsy to have completed the saptapati — the seven steps around the holy fire which complete a marriage according to hindu customs: "forget saptapati, what my son needs is sympathy as he's going to be a bechara pati for the second time." somewhere else in assam, prafulla mahanta got himself admitted to a hospital.he complained of acute amnesia and no recollection of what happened on march 11. so, first he refused to recognise second wife sanghamitra bharali. "you are second?" he asked her in all innocence, "so who came first?" he patted her on the back. "don't worry, next time, run faster!" then he turned to a reporter and said, "the media has reported that i owned a flat in mumbai which was gifted to this particular lady. this is absolutely false. i remember that i couldn't find a wrapping paper big enough to gift-wrap that house!" but on persistent questioning by the reporter, mahanta admitted that he had been in mumbai on march 11 and had even visited the ganesh mandir in andheri. "but i went there to pray to ganpati," he said, "so who said anything about saptapati?" then, he denied having any recollection of having taken the saat-pheras with bharali at the temple. "wouldn't that amount to phera violation?" he reasoned, "because i am already married." sanghamitra bharali was heart-broken. it was bad enough that she had a secret marriage with prafulla mahanta. but it was worse that he was refusing to acknowledge it. "we married for love," she told everybody. but mahanta had his own reasons for marrying her. "she's a classical vocalist," he explained, "sometimes, the way to a man's heart is also through his ears. it's okay if she can't cook as long as she can put me to sleep with a lullaby." but that didn't stop bharali from singing his praises. "if my voice sounded hoarse at times," she recalled, "he would give me tips to reduce the problem." like he would take some cotton and stuff it into his ears! but what has upset bharali most is mahanta's public denial of their secret marriage. "circumstances seem to have made him weak," she told herself." then she looked at her teary-eyed self in the mirror. "shirley maclaine was so right. when you are in love with a married man, you shouldn't wear mascara!"