Lajja by Taslima Nasrin

Author:Taslima Nasrin [Nasrin, Taslima]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780143419211
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2014-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

Two

Kironmoyee’s father was an eminent citizen of Brahmonbaria. Akhil Chondro Basu was a successful lawyer. He had got his sixteen-year-old daughter, Kironmoyee, married to a doctor groom and then left for Calcutta with the others in his family. They had hoped that the daughter and son-in-law would ultimately follow them there. Kironmoyee had also thought that like the rest of her family—her parents and many uncles and aunts, all of whom had left one by one—she would also leave some time. But she found that she had become part of a rather odd family. She had lived with her parents-in-law for six years and during those years they had seen their near and dear ones, relatives and neighbours, wind up the lives they led there. Yet, never once did the Dattas even speak of leaving their country. Kironmoyee shed tears furtively, all by herself. Her father would write from Calcutta:

Kiron, my child, have you decided not to come? Do ask Sudhamoy to think again. We had not been keen on leaving our land but we were forced to come. We are not really very well and happy here. We miss our country. However, one has to come to terms with reality. I worry about all of you.

Kironmoyee would read such letters over and over again and cry.

‘Many of your relatives are no longer here. My relatives have left. If we continue to live here there won’t be anyone left to even give us some water to drink during times of illness or grief,’ she often told Sudhamoy at night.

‘Are you so desperate for water?’ Sudhamoy would ask, with a mocking smile. ‘I will give you all of the Brahmaputra. How much water will you drink? Will our relatives bring more water than the Brahmaputra?’

Her father-in-law, her husband and even her son, the fruit of her womb, never accepted the idea of leaving their country, their homeland. So, Kironmoyee had no option but to adapt to the ideas and character of this family. Much to her surprise, Kironmoyee found that the process of adapting had resulted in her getting enmeshed in the joys and sorrows, wealth and poverty of this family far more deeply than Sudhamoy.

Kironmoyee had sold her gold bracelets to the wife of Horipodo, the doctor. She had kept the matter a secret from the others in her family. And there really was no need to let anyone else know! After all, gold was not so priceless that one could not sell it in times of need. Right now, it was far more important to ensure that Sudhamoy got well. Kironmoyee could not explain why she felt such great love for the man. After that time in 1971, she had not really been intimate with him.

‘Kironmoyee, I have cheated you greatly, haven’t I?’ Sudhamoy had asked her occasionally.

Kironmoyee knew what this cheating referred to. She kept quiet. However, she never managed to say, ‘But where have I been cheated?’ She could not find anything to say.

‘I’m very afraid,’ Sudhamoy would sigh.

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