My Sis: Through My Eyes (12)

Chapter– 12

If we could bring the smile back to others’ lives, even for a sec….

Anushka called me today, followed by Jaya. While talking to me my spouse asked me how my writing is going on. She was enquiring about the Flush Fiction Contest but the telephonic conversation reminded me of the task at hand, “My Sis: Through My Eyes.

Today, I am going to write about our last meeting with Mejdi. I’d already made up my mind not to visit Mejdi at Sursuna any more. I don’t remember why Jaya thought of visiting Mejdi that day. I called out to you. Once you gave us the ‘go ahead’ signal, we didn’t waste much time getting dressed. Jaya in the meantime had found out the Nursing Home where Mejdi was admitted.

I remember the ride, the slight drizzle, you and Jaya entering into the room, Mejdi recognizing you instantaneously, and you asking me to get the sweets for her once you realized that she wanted to have something. I sought permission for the people at the counter and out I dashed like an arrow shot out from the bow.

I just want to write this scene not to defame anyone, far be it my thought. I love my brothers and sisters too much to even think of doing anything like that. But I also criticize what I can’t stand in them. No outsider would ever point out a finger at your bro telling that I behaved badly with them.

Mejdi couldn’t take anything and retched out the small portion of the sweets. I was feeling very low. I realized this the day we visited her at Sursuna. I felt sorry for a sister who always thought the best of her siblings. Some people will never know how much she did for their parents. The time I brought Ma to Bumthang. I couldn’t have taken the risk, money being the be all and end all of my life at that time, but it was Mejdi who paid ₹ 12,000/- me for the air ticket. The year was 1999! Mejdi also wanted to pay for the return ticket as well. She changed her mind looking at my face turning red. At the time of my marriage, it was Mejdi again! ₹ 10,000/- and I never bothered to say a proper ‘Thank you’ to her!

I am just writing out whatever is coming to my mind right now. How this letter will fit into the scheme of My Sis: Through My Eyes is beyond my comprehension right now.

I realized that to her, Rupa and Ruku, mean the world the day when I tried pointing out something to Mejdi at that place. I remember what she told me then,” Amar j r keu roilo na, Bappa.” A sister couldn’t have taught me the bitter truth in a better way than she did that day. I couldn’t honour her as I should have. I could have made a call to Rupa then. But my himalayan ego stood on the way! That was the day Mejdi became Ma’s daughter in the true sense.

There is this thing about me. If I don’t like somebody, I don’t like him/her. I try to keep a safe distance. As simple as that. After the disgraceful event at 41, I decided to have very little to do with one of my nieces. Just before her wedding, Ma asked me to accompany her, a request I flatly refused. Ma didn’t say anything more on the matter and withdrew into some sort of a hurtful demeanour. Luckily for me, my love for my Ma overpowered all the other trivial sentiments at the right moment and it was a good decision I took when I accompanied her to the wedding. My niece and I shared some of the best moments of our lives during my stay at their flat in Salt Lake. Without Ma I’d have forgotten her love for me. We humans forget things first! Ma taught me that day that despite our differences, misunderstandings and a lot of other issues, we must not forget our roots, our blood relations, the reality that we all belong to the family of J.C. Bhattacharyya. Baba loved her siblings. We, being her sons and daughters, can’t spend the rest of our lives, cursing one another. Half the sons and daughters of my late parents are gone. May God shower His blessings on the unbelievable love we had for each other in the most difficult times of our lives.

So when Jaya called me last night telling me about the call she had received from Rupa, my immediate reaction was to tell her not to go. Once Mejdi is gone, there can be no more to be said or done about the Guha family. Luckily, there was a match going on between India and England at that precise moment, and India was staring at defeat. You know my infatuation for cricket. I didn’t reply to Jaya’s query whether she should attend the Sraddh Ceremony at Dhakuria or not as India suffered another defeat. I woke up at around 4 this morning and Mejdi’s words came to my mind, Amar j r key roilo na, Bappa,” and simultaneously another scene flashed in my mind. One of my brothers, who is no more, getting up from our bed and going out in the middle of talking to me to ask our cousin brother not to invite 3 relatives of ours to the Basanti Puja. I felt very ashamed of some of my siblings then. Think how you would react if someone told you who to invite and who not to, for an occasion with the reminder that if any of them was invited, the person requesting you might not join the party! I wish someone tried doing that to me. I’d have not only invited those very people but also severed ties with the one making the request to me!

But what settled the matter of the Sraddh Ceremony was not Mejdi’s words but the lesson Ma had taught me long before.

The letter is coming to an end. Mejdi talking to us about the ‘impending storm’, the Devil in me asking the maid-in-waiting beside her bed if Mejdi talked to all. Her answer that Mejdi did talk to the driver only (Shanku) and Mejdi asking me,,”Keu bichhchhino hoi ni to?” (Hope the unity of our family is still in tact?). What a sister! I wish I could take a leaf out of her page of love and concern for her siblings. Even at the time when she knew full well that her days were numbered, she could only think of her siblings! God bless every brother with a sister like her, with a sister like you and, yes, a sister like Bardi.

I want to wind up with the song that I heard Mejdi singing towards the end.

“Amar Bona esechhay,

Amar Bappa esechhay..” (My Bona’s come, my Bappa’s come……)

How I wish, a bit selfishly, that Mejdi had mentioned Jaya as well. That would have been a great blessing.

Thank you, my only sister left to us of the three, for bringing the hidden, pent-up song that was always there in Mejdi’s heart, back again on her mouth, even if for a minute or two. God bless you, Muna.