A Day at Work

Tark se hai farq parta tune mujhe ye sikhaya

Jag andhera tu sitara mera

Bondita pleated her white saree with a navy blue border, neatly and pinned it. She tied her hair up in a neat bun and applied sindoor on her hairline. Looking at her reflection in the mirror she sighed. Then she turned to look around the apartment. Lekha’s clothes, toys and rattles were scattered all around. Koeli sat near the cot Somnath had gifted for the apartment, holding a rattle as Lekha half laid, leaning against the pillows in the cot and staring at her mother in awe. Bondita suddenly felt sad. It was supposed to be a happy day in her life, the very first day of her internship. Yet, that meant she would see less and less of Lekha. She walked up to her daughter, who had her arms out in the air as if to reach her. Bondita picked her up and gently kissed her chubby cheek.

“Koeli Didi, although Pishima is family and Sampoorna Didi will take good care of Lekha, I still want you there with her, till we arrive, is that understood?” Koeli nodded with a smile.

“Don’t worry, Choto Malkin, I will never leave her side.” She reassured Bondita who smiled.

“I better get to college, I will go to court from there.” She picked up her Jhola bag, and then, Lekha in her arms. Koeli rushed downstairs to catch a rickshaw. 

While Bondita handed Lekha over to Sampoorna, her eyes teared up as Lekha kept holding on to her index finger.

“Don’t worry, she will be fine,” Sampoorna reassured studying her face. Bondita was quick to manage a smile. "And I will make sure she is fed on time. Good thing that Sashuri ma hired the wet nurse to breastfeed Tapan. Patralekha will be fine." Her words made Bondita's heart sink a little. 

"I wish I could…" she stopped as Sampoorna held her hand reassuringly. 

"You are a good mother Bondita. Never doubt that."

“I hope she grows up to understand why I had to…”

“Oh, she will.” Sampoorna cut her short and cradled Patralekha, “Now go, don’t be late.” Bondita nodded. “We are going to have a good time with Kakima, aren’t we?” Sampoorna diverted Lekha’s attention away towards the house hoping it made it easier for Bondita to walk away. Bondita sighed and stepped back. She got up in the rickshaw without turning back and said calmly, “Cholun Dada, Calcutta University.” The hand rickshaw puller picked up his pace.

After her college hours, Bondita rushed to Aniruddha’s chambers, excited for her first day at work. While she stood at the threshold of his small chamber, with the nameplate "Barrister Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury, B.A. L.L.B. Kingston University" written above it, Bondita spotted two men, perhaps a little older than her, standing across the table from Aniruddha who stood in his white shirt, and black trousers, and the white neckband around his neck, instructing them how to proceed with the case. The men nodded as Aniruddha looked across to the threshold where Bondita stood. 

“Come in.” He nodded as she stepped over the threshold and the men caught a glimpse of her.

“Subhendu, Birendra, this is Bondita. She is a new intern. She is still in her third year of studies and wants to learn about the practice.” The men folded their hands in a namaskar as Bondita did the same. They then left the room, as Aniruddha was about to follow them out.

“So, we are off for a case. While we are at it, you…” Aniruddha looked around the room and picked up a file. “Study this case and come up with pointers to defend the client.” Bondita nodded, excitedly, taking the file from his hand. She had done this before, in the study room of Tulsipur, hidden from Aniruddha’s eyes, going through his case files. “I will come back and check,” Aniruddha spoke. He walked past her in a hurry and stopped at the threshold to glance over his shoulder while she sat down on one of the chairs, made herself comfortable and opened the file.

“Also, Welcome aboard, Bondita Roy Chowdhury.”

“Thank you, Barrister Babu.” She smiled back. He was about to walk away when she got up as if she wanted to tell him something. Aniruddha looked at her with questioning eyes.

“Straighten your neckband, it's crooked.” She suggested before going back to her file. Aniruddha smiled, adjusting his neckband as he left in a hurry.

Bondita had finished her pointers and looked around the chamber, thinking about what she could do next. Her eyes fell on a stack of files kept heaped in a corner of the room, and she proceeded to straighten them, one by one as her eyes fell on his table. There was a picture of the family there, during Durga Puja. Som, Batuk, Binoy, Trilochan and him. Bondita smiled. She then went back to her chair.

Aniruddha entered the chamber with the men in toe, to spot Bondita on the chair. She got up in a hurry, as he eyed her notebook.

“Have you finished?” She nodded as he took the notes.

“Birendra, wait back, I have some work for you. I will be back.” He spoke as he walked out with Subhendu behind him. Birendra was a tall built man, with a thick moustache over his round face with his hair neatly oiled and he looked a year or two senior to Bondita.

“So you are married?” He asked as Bondita nodded.

“I am too.” He smiled.

“Do you have kids? Birendra Da, if I can call you that?” He nodded. “Two boys.” 

“I have a daughter.” She smiled as Birendra nodded. His eyes suddenly fell on the stack of files she had sorted out and he let out a scared gasp.

“Did you do that?” He pointed at the pile as Bondita nodded cluelessly.

“Oh, what have you done?” Birendra shook his head. “Sir doesn’t like any of us to touch anything without his permission.”

“But the files were…” Bondita couldn’t finish as Birendra continued.

“Now he will be furious. When he loses his cool he shouts at everyone.” Bondita looked up at his words. Oh, that sounds familiar!

“You are in trouble on your first day,” Birendra stated the obvious as Bondita looked unsure. She was used to picking up after his mess all the time. But was this different?

Aniruddha’s eyes fell on the neatly set up pile as soon as he entered the chambers again as he looked up at Birendra and Bondita exchanging glances.

“Who did that? Who touched them without my permission?” He sounded irked.

“Sir.” Birendra seemed calm as he spoke, “She didn’t know.”

“Does she not have a voice of her own?” Aniruddha’s firm voice made him look away as Bondita looked up at him. Aniruddha glanced over at her.

“I had specifically told you to go through the file, didn’t I?” His voice reminded her oddly of all the times he had scolded her for getting her calculations wrong during matriculation. She nodded.

“Then what made you think you can touch those files?” Aniruddha was angry. He hated it if people meddled with his work. 

“I…” Bondita didn’t have an excuse. She had just forgotten the boundaries she had as an intern which didn’t quite apply to the wife. 

Aniruddha inhaled, trying to control his temper. “Let’s see what you did with the notes.” He walked over to his side of the table and opened her notes. His brows narrowed together in disappointment. He took the pen from his pocket, scratched through her pointers, and pushed the notebook across the table.

“Start over.”

“What?” Bondita looked a little startled as he spoke again.

“I said start over, if you can’t follow simple instructions you need to redo things.” Aniruddha sat down and undid his neckband. Birendra picked up a file and eyed Bondita who stood there. Birendra gestured at her to take the chair as Aniruddha sat with his hand on his forehead, eyes closed and appeared to be thinking.

“Bondita.” He looked up as Birendra hid his face in his file and appeared busy. Bondita sat down silently on the chair and picked up her notebook. “ What are you?”

Bondita frowned at his question. “What are you here to learn?” He asked again.

“Work…” She managed as he nodded. “Work. What is your work?” He asked, cupping his face and leaning forward across the table. 

“Pardon?” She looked confused.

“Your job is to be a barrister, right?” She nodded.

“It is NOT your job to decide who is right or who is wrong, that is for the judges to decide. You can obviously work for or represent people you feel are right.” Aniruddha continued as she nodded again. 

“Your job is to make pointers to defend your client. You are not a detective solving a case.” He looked up at her as he pointed at her notebook with his pen. “Do you understand the basic difference?” Bondita nodded. 

“Good. Then think like a barrister making the notes, don’t try to be a detective solving the case.” He shook his head. “The basics, understood?” Bondita nodded. 

Silence filled the chamber as Birendra worked on a file and Aniruddha went through another. Bondita scribbled down some points, scratched them out, and began again. Her heart thumped in her chest. Bondita felt intimidated. For the first time, she felt the need to impress Aniruddha. But, Barrister Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury was a person she had just met with no idea of how to please him. The silence of the chamber was interrupted by a client as Birendra packed his files and gestured at Bondita to follow him out into the corridor while Aniruddha spoke to his client in the privacy of the chamber.

“It is okay, your mistake was genuine,” Birendra reassured her. “He may be angry but he understands it.” Bondita nodded. 

“I hope he likes the second notes.” She almost sounded like praying. 

“You have ample time to learn from your mistakes.” Birendra reassured once again, “Sir is a good mentor.” Bondita smiled. She never doubted that.

“She was a good girl.” Sampoorna smiled “I sent Koeli home before you two, thinking she might help Bondita a bit beforehand, hope you don’t mind.”

“Not at all Boudi. Bondita could do it with some help. She had been busy.” Aniruddha managed a tired smile.

“I hope her first day at the internship went well.” Sampoorna smiled again. Aniruddha looked up at her words as she walked away from the threshold to fetch Patralekha. Till that point in time, it had completely skipped Aniruddha’s mind in his professionalism, that it was indeed Bondita’s first day at work. He could perhaps have been less harsh on her. But wouldn’t that be partiality?

When Patralekha saw her father after a long day, at the threshold of Bina’s house, she smiled a smile that melted Aniruddha’s heart. She jumped from Sampoorna’s lap to his and caressed Aniruddha’s face with joy. Aniruddha couldn’t help but smile as he thanked Sampoorna and got up on the hand-pulled rickshaw. Patralekha kept looking at him, as Aniruddha spoke softly to her, on the way home.

“How was your day? Mine was really hectic.” he smiled awkwardly. Patralekha looked up at his face a bit confused and babbled something as though she was telling him about her day. Aniruddha smiled.

“Is that so?” he asked, wiping the saliva from her chin with her bib. Patralekha shook her head.

When they arrived home, and Koeli let them in, Bondita was on the couch, writing a letter to her mother. She looked up at the threshold and ran to almost snatch Patralekha from Aniruddha’s arms. 

Patralekha let out a shriek of joy as Bondita hugged her, as Lekha held her cheek and licked her a little, making her giggle.

“Look, she missed you, Choto Malkin.” Koeli smiled as Bondita kissed her daughter.

“Oh, I missed her too.” Bondita hugged Patralekha tight as she straightened her semi-curly messed-up hair. Aniruddha walked away to freshen up as he heard Bondita tell Koeli to get the dinner ready.

Bondita was humming a lullaby as she paced the room, with Lekha’s head on her shoulder when Aniruddha walked into the room and shut the door noiselessly behind him. He tiptoed closer to check on Patralekha and gestured to Bondita that she was asleep. Bondita nodded and carefully held her head placing her in the cot as Aniruddha held it, and straightened her pillows. Patralekha moved a little as Bondita placed the Kantha over her and patted gently, still humming. She stopped moving and sighed, as she fell fast asleep.

Bondita got up, relieved as she went up to the mirror, to fetch her comb and undid her bun.

“I… wanted to apologise.” Aniruddha sat down on the edge of the bed, as she frowned at his words. “For being harsh on your first day.”

“You did what any other senior would do.” She shrugged “I misstepped my boundaries, beyond that of a new intern. I am used to being your wife. So, I am sorry.” Aniruddha looked up at her words with a sigh of relief.

“I guess we both have to learn to play our new roles better?” He asked as she nodded with a smile.

“Get some sleep before she wakes up the whole neighbourhood.” Aniruddha was quick to get to his side of the bed as Bondita smiled amused.

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