My Sis: Through My Eyes (17)
Chapter -17 (On that Day Even Chaplin Couldn’t Lighten the Pain!)
Whenever I think of my mother, I remember a story I keep sharing with the students about the practical wisdom of the elephant-headed Hindu god, Ganesha. The story goes like this:
Once Goddess Durga wanted to find who, between the two sons of hers, sagacious Ganesha and the dazzlingly dashing Karthikeya, could make a world trip at the shortest time. No sooner had the words come out her mouth than Karthikeya took off like a shooting star. With his pet, the peacock, it was, so he thought, going to be a cakewalk for him. Ganesha, surprisingly, seemed to be in no such hurry. He took his own time and finally got up on finding his younger brother coming back on his pet, the peacock. Ganesha swiftly moved round his mother thrice and touched her feet at the end, chuckling: I’m done with my world tour, Ma, and long before Kartikeya too..”
Do I need to tell you the result of the contest between the two brothers and why Goddess Durga chose Lord Ganesha as the winner?
I heard all these stories from my late Ma. She remains till date one of the most down-to-earth and sensible women that I have seen in my life. She had a desire to write about her life story and she wanted to entitle it “Satyi Ekdin Jakhon Galpo Hoei”, When Truth, Becomes Fiction One Day. Now, trying to continue with my novel, I am reminded of Ma time and again. I wonder whether the love story of my Sis and Arunda will also die a premature death and be lost in oblivion with the passage of time.
I’ll never forget that fatal, revealing night at my Barda’s Baguihati flat for a long, long time. Barda, bought three flats from the Bengali movie star, Dipankar Dey, on the same day and paid him in cash. It was around 8 or 8.30 in the evening, when Arunda dropped in to meet Barda. Life was beautiful those days, full of fun and frolic, frivolity, friendliness and fellow-feeling. I can’t remember if Ma was with us at ‘Bina Bhawan’ or was at the other flat called ‘Sati Nibas’ on the fourth floor flat of the next building ( Barda named both the flats after our Ma)? I cannot agree with my spouse, Jaya more when she tells me that among all our siblings, no other brother and sister, could have raised their parents’ names and prestige like the way Mejdi and Barda did it. I have kept Mejdi’s name first because that’s what even late Barda would want. Some other time I will share with you about my Barda’s faith in our Ma, especially when he came to know about his terminal disease, cancer. Anyway, to come back to My Sis, Arunda, inspite of having spent the best part of that day at his branch office in Dalhousie, looked elegantly dressed as usual. The scene is still vivid in my memory. Barda lying full stretched out on a divan, his head held up sideways on his hand face to face with Arunda occupying the shiny, wooden chair placed against the wall in front of Ma’s room. My sister was sitting on a chair towards the grilled window, a little away from them.
The talk had been going on for sometime when I heard Barda literally drop a bomb:
“Achchha, Arun, is it true that you once had a go at Bonu (my Sis) with a shoe in your hand?”
The air in the room became all on a sudden suffocating. For me, the room started reeling all on a sudden. Not one to be perturbed very easily, Arunda, admitted to the happening neither too casually, nor too seriously either. I looked at Barda first to gauge his reaction and then to Arunda with winking eyes. The door was still kept ajar with the plaque visible from inside. The next thing I remember is looking up at the life-size portrait of Charlie Chaplin put up on the left, mosaic wall beside the door. The portrait came along with the flat when Barda purchased it. I kept looking up at The Entertainer of All Times for solace and comfort. But even the greatest of the comedians, one who drove away the sorrow from many heavy hearts for ages, couldn’t bring back the smile on my face! My world was coming tumbling down around me. The person I have always looked up to as my idol, was being interrogated in the witness box, and far from recoiling at the injustice of it all, he was confessing to the crime, trying to defend himself, his actions!
Now, in all fairness, I have to give this to my bro-in-law that he is a very good human being, and quarrels between married couples, are neither something unheard of, nor an unusual occurrence. If you would allow me, I’d love to share some of the terrible ‘SCENES’ that my wife, Jaya, and I made, and I can’t say that she was the one at fault most of the times, even if I’d like to. But that fatal, lifeless night at Barda’s Baguihati flat did something to me. It raised my love for my Sis manifold. Reason is not far too seek. My Sis and I grew up together. I know her ins and outs like few do. I am honest to God when I say that I have never heard her criticising her in-laws to Ma at any time when Ma was alive, forget about talking ill of Arunda, and that Arunda of all people trying to raise a finger on her!
My Barda then turned to my Sis: “You never told us anything about this. Only recently, I came to know from…”
“I didn’t believe it when it happened. Besides, how could I’ve talked about it when I married against the family wish, could I?” She replied with silent tears streaming down her cheeks.
That was also the first time, my bro-in-law came down from the high pedestal in my eyes. It was not long after this, when I was coming back to Bhutan, after the Summer Break with my family, that my Sis, wanted to join us, to our utter bewilderment. Foolish as I have always been, I didn’t realize even then that things could be falling apart between my Sis and Arunda, the person I have always looked up to, idolised, hero-worshipped, well almost! When the writing on the wall had been there for all to see!
