RAABTA

Bondita hugged her mother as if to find herself again.  "Are you okay?" Sumati smiled. Bondita suddenly noticed that her mother couldn't understand her state of mind just by looking at her face anymore. With that, she suddenly remembered how easily Aniruddha understood that she was upset. Once she asked her husband how he understood things without her saying it. Her husband explained to little Bondita in a way she would understand. Now that Bondita had grown up, she could perhaps never ask him that question again. Meanwhile, Sumati hurried to get her some Muri Murki while she sat down on the bed. Bondita's eyes fell on her feet. He had said, "When you are happy, your anklet sounds different, and when you are sad, it is different." Bondita stirred her anklets unmindfully. Today, she knew the difference was not in the sound of her Nupur but in Aniruddha's powers of observation. Why was she thinking about him? She came home to her mother. And she would not ...

The Zamindar Rajbari of Bhurkunda was bigger than anything Abhaya had ever imagined. As she peeped out of the bullock cart that had stopped before the Singhodwar, she saw Swadhin waving his hands, explaining something to the guard outside, as he told Swadhin to wait and rushed inside to inform the family. Swadhin adjusted his sleeveless black coat over his white panjabi and stared at his dirty shoes unmindfully, before taking a handkerchief out of his pocket and wiping his forehead. Abhaya stared at him through her Kohl-drawn eyes and beyond him at the large mansion. She was nervous, and her hands were extremely cold. She gulped at the sight of the house that awaited her. It looked hauntingly huge. The man came back in a while and opened the gates, nodding at Swadhin.  Abhaya had stepped into the portico of the house, hoping to go inside. However, two women sat on reclining chairs inside the threshold of the main entrance, and she was stopped before she could cross it. One of the ...