Short Story – Dr. Ketaki Datta
Love of Life
The road was chock-a-block with bus, auto-rickshaw and other such vehicles. The afternoon sun was not so soothing to the passers-by. It fell aslant on them, the shops, however, did not down their shutters; they pulled the long curtain to the front, to keep the piercing rays off, instead. Biva was on the chauffeur’s seat. As the car was about to take a sharp bend at the Deshapriya Park Crossing, Biva pressed the gear firm while the bus in the opposite direction was negotiating a bump in front. A little inadvertent move could shove her on to the brink of a disaster. Biva came out of the office a bit early today, nay quite early, keeping the files ‘in pending’, locked in her closet. Biva did not feel like talking to anyone, not even to Abir, her dearest colleague, who promised to stand by her at any crucial juncture of her life, as and when she needed him.
Biva, however, had a hunch that such a moment would pop up any time and she might be in need of Abir’s assistance. Biva cast a quick look at the sky that ran thousands and thousands of miles, like a canopy, above the busy metropolis. Biva looked around as the car got stuck in a traffic snarl, near Minto Park. She was to go to La Martiniere School for boys to get her child, Aneek. And after that, God knew where…!
But no, no, she did surely not find any point in going back to her Tara Road residence! Since a couple of months, she had been smelling rat in the relationship her husband was having with the plump, uncouth computer programmer girl in his office. Abinash was going out frequently on tour these days and his usual ruse being, “Business tours in the vicinity of Kolkata, not far-off, so no worries.” They were bosom pals since their good old college days. Now almost after a decade, after Aneek coming in between, how could Abinash take her for a ride, staying outside[mostly in city hotels with the flirtatious floozy of his office] for nights together?
Biva hardly suspected him till Abir blurted out yesterday, “Biva, I need to tell you something. I am sure you will be in for a shock. Yet…” Biva kept urging…Abir had to yield to her keenness to know, at last, “Have you any idea of Abinash’s staying out these days? A very authentic source avers that Abinash goes out on one-night stands with a young woman quite often lately? That evening, I had to go to a posh city-hotel to meet a foreigner client and I ran into Abinash and the poor man was caught off his guard with a very young lady, probably his personal secretary or the ilk. Later as curiosity got the better of me, I went a day after to learn from the receptionist that they had checked in just as I left.” Biva felt enervated, sky came crashing on her head. Her pillar of faith was crumbling down like the twin towers of America, after the terrorist invasion in September, 2001. She lost her words; exasperation was writ large on her face. Abir looked visibly perturbed for hurting her feelings for Abinash, though it was Biva who insisted her on coming up with the well-guarded secret! She walked off in a dejected mood, without reacting to his information.
The dazzling blue above smarted her eyes. One or two drops of pearly tears were about to course down Biva’s sagging cheeks. Biva tried to check her tears as best as she could. The salty tears, while being sucked in, revolted, nearly stifled her! Biva came to a sharp jolt, while negotiating her move, at the crossing. Another turn of road, a fresh pool of traffic!
***
“ Tubu, why don’t you come here, to this balcony? We can let our hairs open to dry up soon. Didn’t you have your bath right now? I too had.” Biva did not like the way her mother-in-law was coaxing Tubu to play with her. What would he learn in the days to come? He would be nothing but a fool, his imagination being fed on grandma’s fairy-tales, some stupid lullabies, and a few inane game-tricks a doltish toddler would love to play on! And nothing else. So, Biva being miffed at her mother-in-law’s rustic manners, implored Abinash to look for a flat somewhere. Any place in South Kolkata would do. A two-room-apartment would suffice. Frantic search went on for months together.
Biva still remembered how her mother-in-law took Tubu in a deep embrace and sobbed, “Tubu, my dear, apple of my eye, they’re planning to snatch you away, far from me! I feel hapless. What can I do to hold you back, my son?” She still remembered how her imbecile brother-in-law, who was the sole emotional and moral support of her mother-in-law yelled, peering into the drawing room and finding Tubu there, “ Are you going for good, Tubu, leaving us behind? Won’t you take us along? And our ludo-board? Are you going to the moon? To gaze at the stars alone?” Tubu with tears in his eyes flung to his ‘kaku’, buried his face in his lap and ‘kaku’ went on showering loving kisses on his face and kept drenching him with drool and silent tears. His granny sat silent at the corner of the sofa with a befuddled glance in her eyes. Abinash touched his mother’s feet and trotted out a fabricated reason, haltingly, “ Maa, do not get angry with me….in fact…the room at the corner was not spacious enough to cater to our need…Again, your ‘bouma’ has just joined an office…Tubu , too, is coming of age…He needs more space…your ‘bouma’ too does…” Abinash’s voice trailed off to silence. His mother rejoined nothing in turn save holding her cold palm, benumbed, on Abinash’s dishevelled hair. Biva touched her feet and feebly uttered, “Maa, I apologize for everything. Keep well, Maa. We will drop in quite often, do not worry. You must take your medicines timely. I shall try to come with Tubu, each Sunday.” Her mother-in-law sat stock-still, with her lips quivering to let out a few words of benediction, quite inaudibly. Tubu, Abinash and Biva got into the car. Abinash was on the chauffeur’s seat. Tubu waved and waved to Thamma[Grandma] and Kaku[Uncle]till they grew small, smaller and finally whisked off his view…Yes, Biva remembered everything, crystal-clear. Abinash—a dutiful father, a loving husband, a responsible son, a caring lover…and what not? Huh!!
***
The traffic-throng began to thin out as the red man on the signal-post altered his posture and turned green… “a bloke on the signal-board, just an electronic figure with peculiar protean gestures, rather too matter-of-fact! As he lifts his finger up in a direction, we take the course as he points in some other we stop awhile while the cars facing that direction rev up and follow the signal. Strange, isn’t it?” Biva mused and took the hairpin bend towards the right and drew up to La Martiniere School, she pulled the gear and the car screeched to a halt. She had already made up her mind. No recoiling in fear, no revamping her decision! No way! She and Aneek would rush straight to the Second Hooghly Bridge, but before that Aneek would love to romp and enjoy in the precincts of Alipore Zoo. Then a stroll in the maidan for a breather followed by driving on to the Second Hooghly Bridge! Evening would tiptoe in, the halogen bulbs would dazzle the eyes of all and parking the car at the edge of the kerb at the mid-point of the bridge, scrawling something on a piece of paper, torn off her notepad, muttering “ See you, Abinash, find what’s in store for you now,” under her breath, jabbing it in the half-open lid of First Aid Box on the left side of the dashboard, Biva would take her son to get introduced to the ripples of the fathomless Ganga, flowing below and to bid adieux to the crimson-purple evening, stretching lackadaisically across the length and breadth of the bridge ! She would not allow Aneek to lose himself alone in the welcoming gush of the river-water, she would follow suit too…
Aneek came running towards her. He was so happy to see his mother! Biva handed a chocolate-bar to him asking, “ How will it be if we pay a visit to Chiriakhana[zoo] today?” He looked at her, agape in delight, as though he could not believe his ears, was it a real promise or a waking dream? What was wrong with her ‘damn busy’ mother today? How was it that she was so keen on taking him to the zoo at this hour of the day? Anything gone awry? Aneek leaped into the car, Biva pressed the clutch and pushed up the gear, the wind gushed in to tousle Aneek’s hair! The wind had an edge to it too. Aneek drew the collar of his school-dress firm up his neck. Biva stole one or two askance at her son, her only son, the raison-d’etre of her existence. The busy thoroughfares, the pre-occupied, engrossed look on the street-walkers’ faces, gingerly, geriatric steps of the old populace of the metropolis, the cocksure, know-all stare on the young college-goers’ eyes, awaiting the bus to take them home—all popped up before their vision and melted into the air immediately after. They had a wonderful hour in the zoo in the early evening. She did not feel like going either to the Maidan or elsewhere, as planned before. They had Bhelpuri at the entrance of the zoo, as they were about to sit in the car.
Sticking out a ten-rupee note under the nose of the toll-tax collector, Biva cast a defiant look at him and galloped on the bridge with a newfound enthusiasm, reached the mid-point at breakneck speed and pressed the foot-clutch with an added effort of her heels. Aneek was in his seventh heaven to get such an unusual attention from his mother, he got down to enjoy the full-view of the sky, in which a flock of white birds with outstretched wings, kept traversing from one extreme end to the other, in a nice geometrical pattern. Aneek went crazy in joy, he shrieked, “ Maa, look how nice it is! Maa, can’t we form such a nice pattern—square, triangular or like the tail of an airplane, can’t we, Maa? Baba, Thamma, Kaku, you, me—all of us together? ” “ No, not your Baba, exclude him. I mean it,” Biva was so stern, but, the whirling wind gulped the words, their syllables, alphabets, accents, added emphases, everything and all! Biva cast a hapless glance at the billowy surface of the Ganga, the flock of birds in the sky, and tried to be firm.
She ran to the car, rummaged through the papers which rustled, she looked for the notepad, fished out a pen from her reticule, but….It was a windy evening, its beauty seemed really enthralling! The wind was loaded with a positive note, she thought. Aneek threw his arms, vertically wide. He closed his eyes in a delightful abandon. No, Biva failed to bid goodbye to this enchanting existence on earth! She shuddered at the thought of jumping into the river in spate, with little Aneek—her world, her life! However, she would not go back to their Tara Road apartment! Not even to her flat! She got into the car, Aneek curled up near her lap, demanding a sumptuous treat at a Drive-In bistro. They had dosa and coffee to their heart’s content.
Biva steered clear of all unwelcome thoughts, drove straight to her Keyatala home, where she had her own doll-family once, where her mother used to wait for her return from the college each evening, avidly, where her father used to praise her newly-mastered culinary skills to the skies! “Life is not just a series of gig-lamps”, Biva smirked. She felt free, taking after a free bird, with a pair of freshly-preened, clean, feathery wings, in lieu of her long, smooth arms!
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