The Last Day

Mayank Kaushik

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It was the month of February and someone had mentioned A Lover’s Discourse by Roland Barthes. Barthes ends his chapter on ‘Waiting’ with a story about a mandarin and a courtesan. This doodle is inspired by the same story.

“A mandarin fell in love with a courtesan. ‘I shall be yours’, she told him, ‘when you have spent a hundred nights waiting for me, sitting on a stool, in my garden, beneath my window.’ But on the 99th night, the mandarin stood up, put his stool under his arm, and went away.”

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_{Mayank Kaushik is a teacher trainer on the Trinity College London’s CertTESOL course in Kerala. He has always enjoyed drawing and looking at art. It was only recently that he started drawing more regularly, on being encouraged by a friend who liked his drawings. He mostly enjoys drawing cars, faces and sometimes buildings.}