The Mysterious Ailment of Rupi Baskey by Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar

Author:Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar [Shekhar, Hansda Sowvendra]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mobilism
Publisher: Aleph Book Company
Published: 2014-01-10T00:00:00+00:00

The Son with Two Mothers

Gurubari-dai can tell the future, was what Rupi thought. For just weeks after their conversation, Rupi realized that something was not right with her monthlies. Also, there was a swelling in her abdomen.

Gurubari smiled when Rupi complained to her about missing her period. ‘I knew it,’ she said. ‘So, how many months has it been since you last bled?’

‘I don’t know.’ Rupi blushed and wrapped her arms around her body.

‘Don’t be shy,’ Gurubari urged. ‘Tell me.’

Rupi shook her head.

‘I think it’s four,’ Gurubari guessed. ‘Maybe five. You should go to a dhai-budhi.’

Sido jumped with joy when Gurubari told him of Rupi’s pregnancy. That evening they roasted mutton and drank together—Sido, Bairam and the majhi. The next Saturday, which was two days later, Sido took Rupi back to Kadamdihi where she continued to work in the fields, despite her condition, and ended up delivering her first son in the middle of a rice paddy.

~

For the next eight months, Rupi stayed in Kadamdihi. Sido visited every weekend. All three of them—Bairam, Gurubari and Purnima—attended Jaipal’s chhatiyar in Kadamdihi. Gurubari gifted the baby a pant-shirt set.

‘How’s Gurubari-dai? How is Purnima?’ Rupi asked Sido on one of his visits.

‘They’re all fine,’ Sido told her, taking fidgety Jaipal in his arms. ‘They all send their love. They all look forward to your return.’

‘When will we return?’ Rupi asked. She did not know why she felt unable to stay away from Gurubari. And she didn’t quite understand why Jaipal was always very well behaved whenever he wore the clothes which Gurubari had gifted.

‘Soon,’ Sido said. ‘Are you ready to leave?’

‘Yes,’ Rupi replied enthusiastically.

~

In Nitra, Jaipal was blessed with the love of two mothers. And that came as a blessing for Rupi, too. For just weeks after her return she realized that she wasn’t feeling strong any more. Was it the breastfeeding? The overexertion? The anxiety? She just couldn’t understand.

She recounted the events of Jaipal’s birth to everyone. It was the one thing the women wanted to hear about constantly: Gurubari, the majhi’s wife, the servant girls, the women in the neighbourhood, everyone.

‘It must have been a difficult time,’ they told her.

‘Maybe something happened then,’ they guessed.

‘A difficult delivery like this has its consequences,’ they diagnosed.

‘You’ll be better,’ they consoled her. ‘It’s just a matter of time.’

Rupi trusted their experience and waited for the day when she would feel healthy once again. For everything else, there was Gurubari. Always.

It was Gurubari who took Jaipal in her arms and rocked him to sleep. It was she who poured water on him from a jug as Rupi rubbed his supple limbs, and it was she who then massaged him with mustard oil. It was Gurubari who was always at hand to wipe his mouth and chin after Rupi had fed him. Whenever Rupi felt especially poorly, Jaipal even slept in Gurubari’s room. There was, however, a difference between the ways in which Rupi cared for her son and how Gurubari cared for Rupi’s child.

Rupi’s care was natural and befitted a biological mother.

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