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Ha yoon mil hi jayenge jaise sanjh aur savera
World War II was slowly showing its effects around the country. Curfews were put in place, and occasional lights went out, and sirens tore through the night sky. Although the British Government was absolutely sure that Calcutta was beyond the reach of the enemy, the vigil around the city made it look otherwise. As yet another siren rang through the night air, Bondita sighed, turning the light bulb, already wrapped in brown paper bags, off and staring at the cot. Aniruddha sat up on the bed, anticipating Patralekha to cry as soon as the sirens went off. Bondita kept her books aside and rushed to pick Patralekha up before she gave out a startled cry and covered her ears with the end of the Kantha.
“It is okay, I am here. You are safe.” She whispered as she looked up, tired, at Aniruddha.
“Ma...mam?” Lekha’s babbling words made her smile. “Yes, I am here.” She reassured the child. He got down from the bed and offered to take the sobbing child, but Bondita shook her head. Not every day did she want a night’s sleep when her daughter was crying in fear.
“You have the last paper tomorrow.” Aniruddha reminded her as she reluctantly handed Lekha over to him. “Just one more. You need to sleep tonight.” He reminded Bondita.
They had feared that the final year examinations would be postponed due to the war, but thankfully, they were carried on as usual. In fact, the urgency of the war forced the University to declare the dates beforehand, and the result dates were a mere month from the last examinations. It was like destiny wanted Bondita to get hold of her degree fast.
Aniruddha had taken the days off on the dates of her examination. Ashapurna was expecting her second child, and that meant Koeli was now needed in Tulsipur. Bondita insisted on it. Although Patralekha was happy to stay at Sampoorna’s house and play with her son Tapan all day, Aniruddha knew Bondita was constantly worried for her subconsciously. Her worry would be lessened if he were with Patralekha instead. Giving Bondita the curd for good luck as she touched his feet in a hurry to leave, Aniruddha reassured her.
“Don’t worry about us, we will have fun.” She nodded, giving one last longing glance at Patralekha before she walked out the door, and Aniruddha found himself murmuring “Dugga Dugga.” Habits are often rubbed onto people. Aniruddha then proceeded to boil the rice and place the milk on the stove, only to hear Lekha walk up to pick her up.
“Good Morning, ma'am.” He said as she hugged him, with her tiny arms around his neck, and he kissed her cheek. “It is you and me again today.” He heard Lekha sigh.
“Dadda?” She asked as Aniruddha shook his head.
“We will go see Tapan Dada tomorrow; today it's you and Baba.” He made her sit down on the floor while he checked the temperature of the already-boiled water and proceeded to take her to the bathroom for a warm bath and cleaning.
“We will have rice today, with butter.” He said as he tidied her up, and she looked up at him.
“Doesn’t Lekha like that?” The child smiled and nodded. “Mamm?”
“Oh yes, Mach Bhaja too.” He nodded. “Your Ma cooked it for you in the morning.” He rubbed the water off her curled hair as she giggled. Placing the wet towel on his shoulder, he picked her up and proceeded to apply lotion to her hands and feet as she lay back watching him.
“Do you know how bad the war is?” he asked as she frowned. “Oh, you wouldn’t like to hear about that. What do we talk about then?” He asked as he powdered her and put on a bright yellow cotton Lucknow chikan frock. He gave a kajal bindi on her forehead and behind her ear like Bondita usually did, and applied powder over it.
“Here we go. Let’s have some milk.” He filled the feeding bottle with milk, carefully checking its temperature as Lekha stayed put on a mat surrounded by her toys to distract her. He made her half sit on the couch and pushed the bottle into her mouth as she held it with both hands, still staring at him.
“Okay, umm… let's read today’s newspaper,” he opened up the front page and read aloud.
“The search is still on for Subhas, who escaped from house imprisonment back in January. Some resources claim he is in Germany.” He smiled to himself. “Hmm… do you know where he is, Lekha?” He saw his daughter eyeing him with a frown. “He is perhaps going to free us after all.”
Lekha protested. She was in no mood for this. Her free legs kicked at the paper, sending it jerking off Aniruddha’s hand and tearing it into two as he held onto the page he was reading.
“Alright, you don’t like it. No need to be destructive.” Aniruddha shook his head as he picked her up and wiped her face.
“Do you want to hear Thakumar Jhuli?” Lekha nodded with an enthusiastic clap as Aniruddha picked up the book from the table and sat down facing her, on the mat.
“So Lalkamal and Neelkamal are off to kill the Rakkhosh! What does Rakkhosh say?” He asked in the most dramatically scary voice he could find.
“How Mow Khau!” Lekha put her hands up in the air, like claws, and said aloud.
“Yes!” Aniruddha imitated her, “How much khau. I can smell humans!”
He turned the leaf and showed her the printed image of an imaginary creature with large teeth and nails, and a tail. Lekha put her hands on her mouth like she was scared.
Aniruddha followed all of Bondita’s instructions to mash the rice and paste it to feed Lekha with a spoon. He had even mixed the fish in. But the child took one bite, puffed her cheek up with it and refused to take in another.
“We don’t have all day, Lekha.” He reminded her, “I am hungry too.” The child didn’t seem to care as she played with the toy car in her hands.
“Alright,” he sighed. “Here is an aeroplane. Lekha, look, an aeroplane!” He made a noise of an engine with his lips and turned the spoon of food a little in the air and straight to her lips. “Oh. The port is closed. Open it! Open It!” Lekha, engrossed in her play, opened her mouth. But the trick stopped working as soon as she realised what it was after exactly three spoons.
“Okay, a train now? A ship?” She kept her mouth shut and shook her head. Aniruddha was tired already.
“This is harder than studying or analysing cases.” He declared to himself and stared back at Lekha with angry eyes, trying to intimidate her. To his utter surprise, Lekha chuckled as though he was making funny faces at her.
“I am angry, Lekha, eat your food now, or the Rakkhosh will come and eat you!” He said in a serious tone as she chuckled again. Aniruddha looked helpless. All his life, he was used to intimidating people. But his daughter didn’t seem to care the least.
It took an hour and a half for Patralekha to finish her meal. Thankfully for Aniruddha, by then Mohi was back from school and came to see if Lekha would play, giving Aniruddha an hour’s window to finish his lunch and clean up before Mohi left for her dance class. He also hoped to play with Mohi, and half-crawling and half-tumbling after her would wear Lekha out, but he was wrong.
“Okay.” He said, placing Lekha down in the middle of the bed. “We need to get some sleep before Maa comes home and scolds us both.”
“Maa?” Lekha wiggled. “Maa.”
“She is not here, remember? She is taking the final examinations.” Aniruddha smiled to himself as he sat down beside Lekha. “We need to sleep.”
“Na na na!” Lekha shook her head as Aniruddha crashed his face against the pillow, making her laugh.
“Oh, you like that?” He asked.
“Abah!” She clapped. Aniruddha did it the second time, and she laughed harder. After five times, Aniruddha’s hair was dishevelled and his face red, but Lekha kept on saying “Again!” The power went off, making Aniruddha gasp. There was no way she was sleeping now. He opened the front door for some air circulation and sat down on the threshold as Lekha played on the floor of the apartment with her scattered toys. She leaned in to take a piece of a wooden block, stumbled on herself and hit her face on the wooden block and started crying.
“Oh!” Aniruddha rushed to pick her up “Did you get hurt?” She cried louder as he nurtured her “It is okay, it didn’t hurt much. We will get some balm. It will be fine.” He insisted as he checked her bruised lip. No blood, but it looked reddish as she pouted and cried, tears streaming down her cheeks.
“Here, here.” He tried to calm her down as she sobbed.
He rattled the toys, made noises and faces, and Lekha sobbed, still staring at him as if to command, “Do something else.”
Aniruddha shook his head, fed up and sat down under the dining table Trilochan had sent them when Bondita was pregnant so that she didn’t have to sit down on the floor. Lekha’s crying stopped as she inspected the wood over her head. Aniruddha looked at her wide-eyed.
“You have taken after your mother, haven't you?” He tried to crawl out from under the table as she wailed again, refusing to come out. Aniruddha placed her down under the table and crawled out to sit facing her.
“Yes, you stay there, I am better off here.” He shook his head as she smiled.
“Ay, Ay.” She extended her arm and waved her fingers at him. “Baba, ay.” Aniruddha shook his head, amused. He needed to get a camera and capture this. Bondita’s daughter was nothing less than a nuisance herself.
Bondita tiptoed into the apartment from the open door and placed her Jhola down as she saw Aniruddha engage in a meaningless banter with Lekha from behind. He was seated beside the table, and Lekha was under it, facing each other as she kept saying.
“Ay, Ay.” Aniruddha shook his head and said, “No, you come out first. No, No, you first!”
Patralekha suddenly spotted her mother behind her father, who was still unaware of her presence. She smiled seeing Bondita after a long day, as Bondita placed her index finger on her lip to stop Patralekha from calling her out. Aniruddha frowned at Lekha’s smile.
“What are you so happy about?” He asked as Bondita surprised him with a hug from behind.
“Me.” She said as she extended her arms to Lekha, who crawled out from under the table onto Aniruddha’s lap to reach Bondita.
“This is great, I spend the whole day entertaining her, and you come home, and she forgets me.” He shook his head as Bondita kissed her daughter, who hugged her tightly. She giggled.
“See how it feels to be on the other side.” She stuck out her tongue at him and returned her attention to Lekha.
“You know she had been hiding under the table.” He said, almost amused as Bondita placed Lekha down, and she went crawling back under, making her laugh.
“Did you teach her?”
“No. I was trying to make her stop crying.” He shrugged. Bondita looked up at him with a smile and back at Lekha.
“And she tore the morning newspaper before you could read it.” He pointed at the mess.
“It’s okay if I don’t get to know what is happening in the world, for one day. I have my world right here.” Bondita smiled, getting under the table with Lekha, who clapped and giggled at her mother, and Aniruddha sat down facing them while shaking his head.
