|| কালির আঁচড় পাতা ভরে কালী মেয়ে এলো ঘরে || T3 বিশেষ সংখ্যায় Rudrapriya Sen

A long cold night

The night was very cold, so cold that the cool breeze tickled the hands of the poor people inside, and made their feet feel like they were made of ice. But what could be done? The tin roof was almost paper-like, broken and ready to fall apart. It was raining. And in addition to this, the stray cat which had been hungry for most of these days, came inside for shelter.

The old woman shivered, the blanket which she had wrapped around herself was patched up with pieces of cloth, once colourful, but it was not enough to protect her from the cold. The children were asleep. It was way past midnight, their mother knew how hungry they must have been for they were put to bed without a meal.

The father didn’t have much to do either, he waited patiently for something good, maybe! He knew that the sun would rise the next day and it would be a new beginning, but he also knew that they had to make it through the night.

It was the coldest hour of the night. The sound of the firecrackers which had been heard the entire evening, were long gone. An unwelcome silence hovered around outside the house. There were some candles; burning, fighting their way through the cold breezy night, trying their best to provide the little bit of warmth and light which they could. The flames, on top, looked like tiny balls of light, dancing, changing their forms. They could get extinguished any moment, but they didn’t, they got bigger and smaller and eventually adjusted themselves with the cold.

There was a candle inside the house too, but it had stopped burning a long time ago.

                              ******

A long cold night

The night was very cold, so cold that the cool breeze tickled the hands of the poor people inside, and made their feet feel like they were made of ice. But what could be done? The tin roof was almost paper-like, broken and ready to fall apart. It was raining. And in addition to this, the stray cat which had been hungry for most of these days, came inside for shelter.

The old woman shivered, the blanket which she had wrapped around herself was patched up with pieces of cloth, once colourful, but it was not enough to protect her from the cold. The children were asleep. It was way past midnight, their mother knew how hungry they must have been for they were put to bed without a meal.

The father didn’t have much to do either, he waited patiently for something good, maybe! He knew that the sun would rise the next day and it would be a new beginning, but he also knew that they had to make it through the night.

It was the coldest hour of the night. The sound of the firecrackers which had been heard the entire evening, were long gone. An unwelcome silence hovered around outside the house. There were some candles; burning, fighting their way through the cold breezy night, trying their best to provide the little bit of warmth and light which they could. The flames, on top, looked like tiny balls of light, dancing, changing their forms. They could get extinguished any moment, but they didn’t, they got bigger and smaller and eventually adjusted themselves with the cold.

There was a candle inside the house too, but it had stopped burning a long time ago.