Bhaunri: A Novel by Anukrti Upadhyay

Author:Anukrti Upadhyay [Upadhyay, Anukrti]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FOURTH ESTATE
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers India
Published: 2019-05-24T18:30:00+00:00

7

BHAUNRI ENTERED THE KITCHEN to find her mother-in-law wrapping rotis, onions and chillies in a piece of cloth.

‘Your father-in-law is leaving,’ she said, slipping a large pat of white butter between the rotis.

‘Is he going away on his travels again?’

‘Chhori, I don’t ask questions. He tells me, “Pack some food, I am leaving,” I pack the food and ask for God’s blessings to keep him safe.’

Bhaunri picked up the milking pail and left the kitchen.

After the hustle of his departure was over, Bhaunri and her mother-in-law sat on the house-steps in the brief shade of the overhanging thatch and sewed in silence. Bhaunri was helping her mother-in-law stitch a new set of clothes. She herself still wore the clothes her own mother had made. The long blouses and skirts her mother-in-law had given her hampered her arms and tripped her when she walked.

‘I heard Bheema shout last night. Was he angry at you?’ Mai asked.

Bhaunri raised her sun-filled eyes. ‘At me? No, he wasn’t angry at me.’ She smiled her secret smile. ‘He’s never angry at me.’

‘Daughter-in-law, I am his mother. I carried him in my womb for nine months and tore my body to birth him and I am telling you, don’t be so certain of him. He changes like the weather. Men do.’

‘Perhaps.’ Bhaunri caught the extra thread between her teeth and broke it off. ‘My mother said to me that, before all else, hearts must meet. Unless hearts meet, everything else is a burden of sin and must be thrown off.’

Mai looked down at the piece of cloth she was embroidering and pierced it with the long needle she held. ‘Mine had told me to tie an earthen pot to my neck and jump in the well if I ever so much as thought of complaining about my husband. I have always been afraid of wells.’

‘But you are afraid of my father-in-law too. Are wells more fearsome than him? The desert is vast, it reaches the horizon. There is room for everyone here. Why would you live in fear?’

‘There is more than one way for hearts to meet, Chhori. Sometimes they are twisted together, hurting each other but inseparable. You are a child. I pray your happiness thrives, but you must not let go of everything at once and become so immersed. I am afraid for you. You must keep safe.’

‘Where is the question of safety between him and me, Mai? I must not think of safety. You know the story of the princess who followed the peacock? She had to follow him, whether he led her to the cloud palace or to a pit full of serpents.’

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