Dawn at Midnight.
Book 2: Blistered Feet. Chapter 4: Neoteric Vista
We started early morning from ChotoMa’s house. She was crying.
She hugged me on her bosom and whispered---“ShonaMa, be a good girl.” I was unable to control my tears also.
Himadri hugged me and gently ushered me in the car. He assured to ChotoMa that he would take care of her “daughter” like a pearl on a lotus leaf. I looked at the house. I looked at the window of the drawing room. Suddenly I felt that “Abhimanyu” was standing there. I smiled painfully and boarded the car.
We drove back to Dhanbad. It was a long drive of about seven hours. Niladri was driving and Himadri was beside me.
We reached the house. My new realm was waiting for me.
The house was in Hirapur, behind Durga Mandir. House was duplex. Not as large as my ChotoMa’s house. On the ground floor, there were two bedrooms, one kitchen and one huge drawing room. In one room, Niladri used to stay and one room was for us. There was a study in the ground floor, in which my father-in-law used to spend his time with his associates. He was a coal contractor. Due to that reason, our house was always filled up with lots of people. Mostly of which were rough and coarse in nature. There was a worship-room in the first floor. I used to get up early in the morning, take bath, and finish my daily worship before entering the kitchen. That was my daily routine since my childhood days. Even when I was in Kolkata, not for a single day I missed my worship.
I came to know that my father-in-law and mother-in-law got married at a very early age. He was only twenty-three and she was just nineteen. Himadri was their first child.
ChotoMa and Babu paid for all the furniture for my room. It was bought without my consultation. It was bought my Himadri and Niladri. I came to know that Niladri opposed to buy those furniture. He suggested that since we have to live together so all those should be bought according to my choice. But later I came to know that it was my father-in-laws order that the furniture to be bought so that his daughter-in-law does not sleep in a simple cot on her first night.
One side of the wall of my room, there was a huge cupboard. I looked around my room and was contended.
A typical old mitigated mentality of my mother-in-law was unfurled gradually. Kitchen was her main domain. I was instructed that the males were to finish their dinner before she and I could sit for dinner. I cursed myself. Not in my native, place neither in my house in Kolkata, I was instructed with such dictation.
The day I first stepped into the kitchen, my mother-in-law explained me like a teacher. The cupboard had several small containers of the spices and cookeries all labeled. The sink was in one corner of the black marble top.
She said, pointed to five glasses (what was different in them I could not make out) and said to me---“Everyone in this house has their own glasses to drink. You should remember this.”
On the first day of his office, after our honeymoon. He was getting ready for his office. I was near the cupboard arranging his shirts and trousers. It was January and winter in Dhanbad was an extreme one. He wore a black pinstripe shirt over his pair of jeans. I was watching him with the corner of my eyes as he was glancing and giving me a sly smile all the time while buttoning his shirt.
After sometime, he came near me. I flinched my brows as I expected him to do some mischief with me. He pressed himself against my back and stretched out to take out something from the cabinet of the cupboard. The metallic nozzle froze me there. It was a pistol. I became stiff in fear. I was dumbfounded to see the weapon. Every pores of my skin rose. I shook in his arms. He deduced that I was caught by a sheer panic.
Slowly I turned towards him, engulfed within his embrace and looked at his face. He figured out from my pale face that I was very much agitated by seeing the weapon.
He spoke in a very calm voice as he tucked the weapon behind his back, in the belt of his jeans.
---“Suchi, don’t panic. This is what I wanted to tell you long ago but somehow I could not.”
My eyes were filled up with tears of angst. I yelled at him---“What is this Himu?”
He took my crying face between his palms and asked me to stop crying.
---“Please don’t look at me like that, Suchi. I will explain everything.”
---“What do you want to explain? It is like that I do not know you at all, Himu. Why you kept me in dark?”
He gently wiped my wet trails from my cheek and with a persuading voice---“Suchi, Suchi, Suchi. Try to understand……”
I yelled at him---“Understand what, Himu?”
He let out a deep breath out of his chest---“I am a manager of a coal mine. To work in a coal mine is dangerous. I am always surrounded by rough goons. I have to handle coal mafias and dangerous people every day.”
I clasped my arms around him very tightly. I could hear his heart thumping loud inside his chest. My tears soaked a part of his shirt.
He gently rubbed his hand on my head---“Come on, Suchi. Nothing is going to happen to me. For past seven years, this was my bodyguard. Niladri works with my dad. He carries one. My dad also carries one all the time. It is a part of my life now, Suchi.”
It was more of a pain than fear that filled up my soul “Where I have come?”
Slowly, I unwrapped my arms from his torso and walked away.
He touched my hand and pleaded to me---“Give a sweet smile before I leave for office. If my darling wife cries like this, then I will not be able to work, dear.”
I wiped my tears and smiled at him---“Promise that you return in one piece.”
He nodded his head---“Promise.”
He stopped for a little while before going out of the room, looked back at me. I stood still, clutching the chair and was praying for his safe return.
He threw a flying kiss at me and said---“I will take you out today for dinner after I return.”
His office was in Jhamadoba Colliery, which was about sixteen kilometers from Dhanbad.
In the evening, after he returned from office, he took me out for dinner. We sat in the Kaveri restaurant near Bartand bus stand. It was a good restaurant.
Himadri sat beside me and nudged my shoulder---“Suchi, I am sorry that I kept many things in dark. I did not want you to take unnecessary tensions. I thought to explain you everything at proper time. But that will come in this way, I have not dreamt of.”
I looked at my plate and said---“I am your wife now, Himu. Don’t I have the right to know as what my husband does? How he spend his days in his office?”
He spoke in a persuading voice---“You do have the right. I will not conceal anything from you. My dad is a coal contractor and he moves around with goons all the time. We have many foes in our business. Niladri handles most of the goons in the coalfields. Therefore, he also carries a weapon along with him all the time. Even if I am a manager but I have to defend myself from the goons so I do also carry.”
My eyes glistened with pain as “Where I had been put off? Was this my fate that brought me here or was it man-made who wanted to change my fate?”
Very softly, he rubbed his finger on my cheeks to sooth my pains and wiped my brewing eyes.
I smiled softly at him.
He looked deeply in my eyes and said---“I will talk to dad about your teaching profession. Do not worry. Whatever happens we will face that together.”
I held his arms very tightly. I felt very much secured as he put his right arm around me.
One evening, third week of January during the dinner, Himadri was eating quietly along with Niladri and father-in-law. He looked at me and then said to his dad---“Dad, I was thinking that Suchi should take up her teaching job.”
My father-in-law looked at my face and said---“Why she needs a job? I told you beforehand that I wanted a homemaker.”
He sounded very stern. His voice shook me. I knew beforehand that he would not allow me to dwell outside his house.
Niladri said---“Dad, Boudi is highly educated. If she sits in the house then it will be useless.”
Himadri spoke---“Dad, I don’t want my wife to sit out in the house.”
My father-in-law suddenly said something that made me burn in shame and anger.
---“What about the household works? I want my daughter-in-law to cook for me.”
Himadri looked at my face. I was looking down to the table and my eyes were hazy. I could not speak a single word, as I felt that “Was I an educated maid? Was that they wanted?”
Himadri apprehended my pains and he said---“She will do her job, Dad. I have made a promise to her on the first day.”
After much of coaxing and explanation, my father-in-law gave the permission for my job.
After few days, Himadri took me to the school. The school was inside the ISM campus, Indian School of Learning. While we drove inside the campus, he showed me his classrooms, his hostels, his mess. The campus was huge. There were trees on both sides of the main road. The school was at one end of the campus.
I got the job of a Physics teacher of senior section, in the school.
I called ChotoMa on the day I received the appointment letter. From first week of February, I joined the school. I was very happy. A rickshaw was fixed, to take me to the school and bring me back to home after school. Until then I had closed all my doors and windows around me. Gradually I started to open the windows to let fresh air to breath in my soul. I had a job and I had a caring husband to look after me.
The day, I received my first cheque; I called ChotoMa and informed her.
ChotoMa was very happy to hear that---“So ShonaMa has at last got what you dreamt of?”
I pressed the phone with my ears---“Thank you ChotoMa. I miss you a lot.”
---“I also miss you very much.
Book 2: Blistered Feet. Chapter 4: Neoteric Vista
We started early morning from ChotoMa’s house. She was crying.
She hugged me on her bosom and whispered---“ShonaMa, be a good girl.” I was unable to control my tears also.
Himadri hugged me and gently ushered me in the car. He assured to ChotoMa that he would take care of her “daughter” like a pearl on a lotus leaf. I looked at the house. I looked at the window of the drawing room. Suddenly I felt that “Abhimanyu” was standing there. I smiled painfully and boarded the car.
We drove back to Dhanbad. It was a long drive of about seven hours. Niladri was driving and Himadri was beside me.
We reached the house. My new realm was waiting for me.
The house was in Hirapur, behind Durga Mandir. House was duplex. Not as large as my ChotoMa’s house. On the ground floor, there were two bedrooms, one kitchen and one huge drawing room. In one room, Niladri used to stay and one room was for us. There was a study in the ground floor, in which my father-in-law used to spend his time with his associates. He was a coal contractor. Due to that reason, our house was always filled up with lots of people. Mostly of which were rough and coarse in nature. There was a worship-room in the first floor. I used to get up early in the morning, take bath, and finish my daily worship before entering the kitchen. That was my daily routine since my childhood days. Even when I was in Kolkata, not for a single day I missed my worship.
I came to know that my father-in-law and mother-in-law got married at a very early age. He was only twenty-three and she was just nineteen. Himadri was their first child.
ChotoMa and Babu paid for all the furniture for my room. It was bought without my consultation. It was bought my Himadri and Niladri. I came to know that Niladri opposed to buy those furniture. He suggested that since we have to live together so all those should be bought according to my choice. But later I came to know that it was my father-in-laws order that the furniture to be bought so that his daughter-in-law does not sleep in a simple cot on her first night.
One side of the wall of my room, there was a huge cupboard. I looked around my room and was contended.
A typical old mitigated mentality of my mother-in-law was unfurled gradually. Kitchen was her main domain. I was instructed that the males were to finish their dinner before she and I could sit for dinner. I cursed myself. Not in my native, place neither in my house in Kolkata, I was instructed with such dictation.
The day I first stepped into the kitchen, my mother-in-law explained me like a teacher. The cupboard had several small containers of the spices and cookeries all labeled. The sink was in one corner of the black marble top.
She said, pointed to five glasses (what was different in them I could not make out) and said to me---“Everyone in this house has their own glasses to drink. You should remember this.”
On the first day of his office, after our honeymoon. He was getting ready for his office. I was near the cupboard arranging his shirts and trousers. It was January and winter in Dhanbad was an extreme one. He wore a black pinstripe shirt over his pair of jeans. I was watching him with the corner of my eyes as he was glancing and giving me a sly smile all the time while buttoning his shirt.
After sometime, he came near me. I flinched my brows as I expected him to do some mischief with me. He pressed himself against my back and stretched out to take out something from the cabinet of the cupboard. The metallic nozzle froze me there. It was a pistol. I became stiff in fear. I was dumbfounded to see the weapon. Every pores of my skin rose. I shook in his arms. He deduced that I was caught by a sheer panic.
Slowly I turned towards him, engulfed within his embrace and looked at his face. He figured out from my pale face that I was very much agitated by seeing the weapon.
He spoke in a very calm voice as he tucked the weapon behind his back, in the belt of his jeans.
---“Suchi, don’t panic. This is what I wanted to tell you long ago but somehow I could not.”
My eyes were filled up with tears of angst. I yelled at him---“What is this Himu?”
He took my crying face between his palms and asked me to stop crying.
---“Please don’t look at me like that, Suchi. I will explain everything.”
---“What do you want to explain? It is like that I do not know you at all, Himu. Why you kept me in dark?”
He gently wiped my wet trails from my cheek and with a persuading voice---“Suchi, Suchi, Suchi. Try to understand……”
I yelled at him---“Understand what, Himu?”
He let out a deep breath out of his chest---“I am a manager of a coal mine. To work in a coal mine is dangerous. I am always surrounded by rough goons. I have to handle coal mafias and dangerous people every day.”
I clasped my arms around him very tightly. I could hear his heart thumping loud inside his chest. My tears soaked a part of his shirt.
He gently rubbed his hand on my head---“Come on, Suchi. Nothing is going to happen to me. For past seven years, this was my bodyguard. Niladri works with my dad. He carries one. My dad also carries one all the time. It is a part of my life now, Suchi.”
It was more of a pain than fear that filled up my soul “Where I have come?”
Slowly, I unwrapped my arms from his torso and walked away.
He touched my hand and pleaded to me---“Give a sweet smile before I leave for office. If my darling wife cries like this, then I will not be able to work, dear.”
I wiped my tears and smiled at him---“Promise that you return in one piece.”
He nodded his head---“Promise.”
He stopped for a little while before going out of the room, looked back at me. I stood still, clutching the chair and was praying for his safe return.
He threw a flying kiss at me and said---“I will take you out today for dinner after I return.”
His office was in Jhamadoba Colliery, which was about sixteen kilometers from Dhanbad.
In the evening, after he returned from office, he took me out for dinner. We sat in the Kaveri restaurant near Bartand bus stand. It was a good restaurant.
Himadri sat beside me and nudged my shoulder---“Suchi, I am sorry that I kept many things in dark. I did not want you to take unnecessary tensions. I thought to explain you everything at proper time. But that will come in this way, I have not dreamt of.”
I looked at my plate and said---“I am your wife now, Himu. Don’t I have the right to know as what my husband does? How he spend his days in his office?”
He spoke in a persuading voice---“You do have the right. I will not conceal anything from you. My dad is a coal contractor and he moves around with goons all the time. We have many foes in our business. Niladri handles most of the goons in the coalfields. Therefore, he also carries a weapon along with him all the time. Even if I am a manager but I have to defend myself from the goons so I do also carry.”
My eyes glistened with pain as “Where I had been put off? Was this my fate that brought me here or was it man-made who wanted to change my fate?”
Very softly, he rubbed his finger on my cheeks to sooth my pains and wiped my brewing eyes.
I smiled softly at him.
He looked deeply in my eyes and said---“I will talk to dad about your teaching profession. Do not worry. Whatever happens we will face that together.”
I held his arms very tightly. I felt very much secured as he put his right arm around me.
One evening, third week of January during the dinner, Himadri was eating quietly along with Niladri and father-in-law. He looked at me and then said to his dad---“Dad, I was thinking that Suchi should take up her teaching job.”
My father-in-law looked at my face and said---“Why she needs a job? I told you beforehand that I wanted a homemaker.”
He sounded very stern. His voice shook me. I knew beforehand that he would not allow me to dwell outside his house.
Niladri said---“Dad, Boudi is highly educated. If she sits in the house then it will be useless.”
Himadri spoke---“Dad, I don’t want my wife to sit out in the house.”
My father-in-law suddenly said something that made me burn in shame and anger.
---“What about the household works? I want my daughter-in-law to cook for me.”
Himadri looked at my face. I was looking down to the table and my eyes were hazy. I could not speak a single word, as I felt that “Was I an educated maid? Was that they wanted?”
Himadri apprehended my pains and he said---“She will do her job, Dad. I have made a promise to her on the first day.”
After much of coaxing and explanation, my father-in-law gave the permission for my job.
After few days, Himadri took me to the school. The school was inside the ISM campus, Indian School of Learning. While we drove inside the campus, he showed me his classrooms, his hostels, his mess. The campus was huge. There were trees on both sides of the main road. The school was at one end of the campus.
I got the job of a Physics teacher of senior section, in the school.
I called ChotoMa on the day I received the appointment letter. From first week of February, I joined the school. I was very happy. A rickshaw was fixed, to take me to the school and bring me back to home after school. Until then I had closed all my doors and windows around me. Gradually I started to open the windows to let fresh air to breath in my soul. I had a job and I had a caring husband to look after me.
The day, I received my first cheque; I called ChotoMa and informed her.
ChotoMa was very happy to hear that---“So ShonaMa has at last got what you dreamt of?”
I pressed the phone with my ears---“Thank you ChotoMa. I miss you a lot.”
---“I also miss you very much.