RAABTA

An outtake to be read after reading all the chapters of Protibimbo. T he men of the house don’t care for the happiness of the women. Nonibala Debi drew such an inference as she spoke her heart out to Mukhopadhyay Ginni. She gasped a little at her words, taking the Paan Nonibala Debi offered her, subtly eyeing the newly married daughter-in-law who had accompanied her to the Gangopadhyay house. It was winter, and Nonibala Debi’s firstborn was back from college while the others were enjoying the winter vacation. She was pestering her husband for a Choruibhati for the children, where the Mukhopadhyays could also join in the merriment. The boys would cook, letting her relax with the timid, homely wife of Sergeant Animesh Mukhopadhyay, who barely went out of her home and preferred to stay within the boundaries that her husband drew for her. For a change, she looked interested in the prospect, perhaps because of the children. It was painful for them both to manage their pack during the ho...

  This outtake can be read after Chapter Five. Adhir had always looked up to his father. From an early age, he had been home, taking care of his little sister, doing chores around their small Shanti in Barishal’s largest slum area while their father ran a Paan Shop in front of the Police Station. He had always seen his father wake up at dawn before the first ray of the sun, pray to the Lord with his wet clothes still on, and leave for work, dangling a Thali of Ruti and Torkari for his lunch that he had cooked the previous night. Adhir would wake up right after him, help his little sister, make their tiffins and go to school. Benimadhob had enrolled him in his friend Upendra Gangopadhyay’s school for poor children. That was where Adhir met Master Moshai and Bina. Through his teens, Adhir slowly and steadily discovered a new side of his father, along with Mastermoshai. The Paan shop would be shut around 9 PM, but his father did not return home well after 11. The neighbours gossiped t...

  Barrister Suresh Kumar Gangopadhyay lived with his wife and infant boy near Sealdah in Calcutta. Their home was a sprawling four-room apartment on one side of a huge mansion that had been sold to multiple families. Suresh was reluctant to return home to Barisal as soon as he started working in Calcutta. The reasons were more than one. And more than what his brothers made out of it. It was not because he forgot his village roots of Lakutiya and became snobbish in the city. It was not because he did not care enough for his parents. If anything, he cared a lot, enough to not hurt them. During his college days in Kolkata, Suresh encountered several kinds of people. Men from other beliefs and provinces away from Bengal. He had become more liberal. As a Kulin Brahmin who grew up in the village environment, he was sure his ways of mingling with the British at parties, drinking and enjoying a bit of dance and drama or even his inclination towards Brahma Samaj, would not go down well with...