Jalsaghar

Wajah Bewajah

Biren stood there and kept thinking is this how the Coma patients felt when they came back to life. His breathing went haywire and his heart beat like it came to life after 4 years. Mrinu turned but didn't look at him, she came near him but with a hesitance... and then she touched his feet like she always did, and Biren resented his formal shoes... he resented time, space, situation, people around them... somehow everything that barred him from touching her.

Mrinu noticed that Biren did not keep a hand on her head to bless her. She waited for a few moments and then sat there neither looking up nor getting up. Biren at last sighed and kept his hand on her head lovingly and yet hesitantly, his Mrinu was stubborn. She would not get up till he acknowledged her. She was about to get up when she sort of tumbled and he caught her in his arms and then held her chin to make her look at him.

Her eyes had dark tinge around them. Her lips trembled and then she caught the lower one in her teeth but her eyes swam with tears.

Biren couldn't talk. He held her hand and started to go upstairs towards his room...

Cheeni: Biren aap isse kaha leke jaa rahe hai? Abhi abhi toh aayi hai, kuchh khaya bhi nahi. Aur phir hum sabko bhi toh milna hai isse. Kitne saalo baad...

And Biren turned towards her with eyes which quietened Cheeni in mid sentence.

Biren: Main Mrinu ko apne kamre mein leke jaa raha hun. Aur mujhe koi disturb na kare see to that... aur jo bhi khana bhijwana hai jaldi mere kamre mein bhijwado... naukar ke haath..

Mrinu looked nervous and hesitant but she didn't dare to utter a word. Biren took her upstairs in his room... closed the door and then pulled her in his embrace. And then he didn't know how or why he broke down into tears. He cried and his Mrinu cried too. He held her close and she rubbed his back to pacify him. He came up looked at her face, swiped his hands on her face and hair then looked in her eyes... Kissed her forehead and cheeks again and again like she was a little lost baby he found after going through Nine kinds of hell. And Mrinu stood there quietly, helpless and still crying. Then she opened her eyes to look at his beloved face. The one face she searched through every other face.

Mrinu stood there in torn clothes and shattered emotions, with a bruised heart and in a desert of words. She held his hands in her own, wiped Biren's eyes like she did when he used to get up suddenly from his nightmares. She then looked at his shattered facade too. She could have never imagined that she would have hurt this man ever in her life but that has been her fate to lose the faith of this man who was her world. He was all she has gained in her life. The one gift fate has given her which managed to wipe off every suffering, pain and humiliation. Oh what she won't do for this man?

After again hugging her close for sometime and finding the first threads of being the Biren Kumar Ganguly of Jalsaghar and Bhawani Nagar.... Biren's anger and pride both came into play and started to rise. He held Mrinu hand in a tight grip and dragged her to the punishment corner of his room. Made her stand there and waited. Mrinu understood, this had been a part of their relationship for so long.... Mrinu took off her shawl and kept it on the nearby table and then held both her ears in her hands and stood there with a bowed head. Biren was now trembling with the fire within his core. In that moment Cheeni entered the room...

Cheeni: Oh come on Biren... look at her she is exhausted. Aur tumne use sazaa de dali, use kuchh khane toh dete. Kitni dur se aayi hai... (she kept a tray on Biren's study table.)

Biren bachchi nahi hai woh, yeh kya ho gaya hai aapko. Kya sochegi Mrinu ke Cheeni di ne isliye mujhe sabse milne ko bulaya... ke Biren apna gussa uspe nikale... (she started to come towards him)

Biren: (turned towards Cheeni) Shut up and get out Cheeni!! Mrinu knows what... its between us and everyone here should know in this household not to speak between my Mrinu and me. So get out.

Mrinu looked at Cheeni and nodded her head. So Cheeni left.

Biren paced the room for sometime like a caged lion. Then he looked at Mrinu and saw what Cheeni had said. Mrinu has always been lean but now she looked ready to fall. Her face pale and eyes tired but she didn't move even a bit. Neither she asked for reprieve or tried to talk to him. She stood there like a naughty child acknowledging that she had been wrong.... But Biren was also Biren, while he will punish her in various ways in the coming days he could not see her in this state. He noticed her trembling legs, weakness setting in or may be the fright of facing him. He picked up a mishti and fed her.

Biren: Muh khol (and his Mrinu opened her mouth while she trembled in pain and exhaustion and the moment he fed her, she closed eyes and her tears spilled)