Sampoorna sat in the mandir with Bondita in her arms. They both had been waiting because Bondita had faith that he was alive. The first of the sunlight could be seen from the windows and she wished it brought good news for her sister.
Bondita had prayed and prayed all night for him to come back soon. It felt like ages ago that he had picked her up with that smile. The whole morning ran in her mind as if she was reliving it. His voice echoed in her ears and with that her heart ached more. Fresh tears fell from her eyes as she held on to her Didi tighter. She regretted letting him go. Her shaka Pola had broken. It was a sign from Dugga maa. Bhagwan always tells his child of upcoming times. She was just too ignorant to see it. She should have taken care of him. She didn't believe that their breaking had caused the misfortune. No. But she did have faith in them. She did believe them to be a warning.
She should have not let him go...
And now...he was not back.
All the things Som Dada said about her Pati Babu being no more was plaguing her. That could not be true. Just...no...
But...who would survive something like that ?
She considered him her bhagwan but he was just a...
The widows had not left, adamant to turn her into one of them. They didn't care about her pain. They just wanted her shrinagar. Take away her pretty jewellery, those colourful sarees. All that was red in her life. She sat all night thinking what was the point ? Of resistance...
They didn't matter to her anymore. She would eat tasteless food all life if it meant he would walk through that door this moment. She was never into her looks, never cared about what she wore. Maybe because she knew he would not be looking at her. He won't notice how her skin glowed in a certain colour or how her hair shone. He never cared so she never bothered.
And now she won't be able to...
Looks didn't matter to her when he was around...they won't matter when all of that would be snatched in his absence.
The cruel news had started to etch itself in her heart even after her firm faith. She closed her eyes hoping that when she opened them he would be infront of her...
" Get back !" Bondita woke up to her Didi shouting angrily as she was pressed to her bosoms even more. " I said get back !!"
Bondita opened her eyes to look at her Didi and then followed her sight to the gate of the mandir where two widows stood. " Som !!" Sampoorna cried for help .
" It is time now." One widow said.
" It is time for nothing ! How can you be this cruel ? Let her atleast cry...! Give her time !"
" What is going on ?" Binoy and Som stood behind the widows as Trilochan followed them.
" Sarkar, we have to do the ritual. "
" No one is putting anyone on Sati fire." Som said.
" But Doctor Babu..."
" Widows..." Binoy recalled how he had called some widows to get rid of Bondita by putting Aniruddh to sleep. And look now. She was being taken by widows again when his son was... asleep. Your deeds did bite you in this very life. He wanted to protect her, for his son. His son had no children as his shadow left behind. She was the one, Bondita was his only legacy. The last imprint of his son. He could not let her...die. " You will not be taking her anywhere."
" You can't stop a ritual." The eldest widow came forward.
" I can stop you. Will that be Ok ?" Trilochan said. He saw that she understood the implication. " A few widows gone missing, no one will care. Will they ?"
" But she is a widow now. She needs to give up atleast the rights of a married woman." Trilochan looked at his Bahu sitting motionless, not uttering a word. The Bondita he knew would have dragged them down so bad but she didn't even look affected. " She can't wear sindoor now. She can't eat good food now." Trilochan could not take off his eyes from his Bahu. She ran around the house laughing, eating roshogulle after roshogulle, wearing those bright sarees he ordered only for her. But now...
" What would she do living in this haveli filled with every luxury a widow has no right on ?"
" You old..." Trilochan gritted his teeth. " Didn't you hear my brother ? She will be going nowhere."
" Fine. As you wish. Keep the walking and talking reminder of your son's death in front of your eyes for the rest of your life. You are rich people. You won't have problem feeding a useless mouth."
" Who do think you are calling useless ?!!" Trilochan had shifted from sad to angry in a moment.
" Isn't she Sarkar ?" The widow folded her hands and bowed her head. " Forgive me but a woman is brought for an heir. She did not provide one and now she can never. You are Zamindars. Such things don't bother you but for poor people. It is a burden to feed them, cloth them. Who would protect them ? I have in the ashram women who have been willingly abandoned because they are of no use anymore. But since none of those things apply to your family let us perform that one ritual even you can't deny."
Everyone knew what it was. They could protect her from everything but not the reality. And the truth was that she would have to give up living like a married woman. This haveli would never treat her like a widow, for Aniruddh, for his thoughts and principles, but she would have to give up on her husband. She would have to put down every thing that told the world her husband was alive and put on the attire of a widow. That was her truth now.
" Are you going to let them do this Kaka ?" Batuk asked heartbroken.
No one could say a word. They would take care of her like Aniruddh wanted but they could never take his place. He was gone. Forever...
Trilochan felt his heart sink, the lose of his young son bearing it down. His feet swayed as Binoy held his back.
" He is gone Binoy." His voice cracked and eyes watered up. " He....he is ..he..." He felt light headed and even Som had to come to him. " Binoy..." Trilochan tried to hug his brother. " Wh... what...will we...do..."
Binoy hugged his Dada tight and let his tears fall. After a night of agony, shock and uncertainty the family cried for the loss of its son. Batuk took refuge in Som's arm, his only Dada now. Som too felt the pain and weight of his elder brother gone. The pair of brothers hugged as the haveli was filled with their cries.
Sampoorna all the while trying to talk to Bondita who would just not respond.
No one had a reason to stop the widows stepping towards Bondita as Sampoorna kept yelling at them to stop. They finally reached them and pulled Bondita by her left arm and to Sampoorna's surprise she didn't resist. " Stop !" She yelled at them getting up and tried to pry the hand of the widow off Bondita. " Bondita ! Say something ! You were saying your Pati Babu is alive ! Tell them." Sampoorna being a woman understood her sister. She understood all this just too well.
She was a widow once.
Bondita didn't care. Just didn't care anymore. All she wanted was for him to come back to her again but why was he not doing so ? Why was he being this irresponsible ? She felt a tug at her arm as she was led out of the mandir. Where ? She just did not care. The cries of the men making it too real for her to even think of anything else but the possibility of him really gone.
Was he really gone ? He had never seen her Sasurji cry and she could hear his painful sound. He was sure that his son was gone ? Maybe not. He was not the one to give up easily that too on his son. He would look for him, she knew that. He will find him for her. With that hope she let herself be dragged by the women. She felt lifeless. Dangling between hope and death. Her life was already ruined. She didn't care if they ruined her looks too. She could faintly hear her sister cry.
" Jeth ji ! Stop them !"
" Sampoorna..." Binoy tried to talk.
" Aniruddh would not have let this happen." She sobbed.
" It's... it's ok Sampoorna. " He held her hand. " They will just wash...her sindoor."
" Her hair...!" Sampoorna cried desperately.
No one in the house full of men who had lost the most loved member just now had given a thought to the whole process.
" Hair...?" Batuk whispered but everyone heard.
" They will take her hair..." Sampoorna cried. " Stop them . Please stop them. Aniruddh won't have let this happen to anyone, you know that !" She held Binoy's hand. " For him. Atleast just for him, don't let this happen to his wife. Please !!"
" You...you are right." Trilochan said from where he sat on the sofa. " Aniruddh...he...he would have yelled...at them. Tried to...stop them. You..." He looked at the elder widow. " You will not touch her hair." He said trying to get up.
" This is reet Sarkar. Hair is the beauty of the woman. She has no one left to look beautiful for."
" I... don't know... anything. Don't touch her hair."
" It has grievous consequenses."
" What consequences ?" Batuk yelled.
" Sarkar. " She addressed Trilochan. " A woman with beauty and no man is always a target." All of them just stared at her. A certain unsaid power was given to her by the ill customs of the society to be able to have a say in a woman's life whose husband had just died. " Or sometimes she finds a target to fullfill her motives."
Kalindi had been sitting in a room in the haveli all night, crying. Worrying about how she would tell Sumati of this. She would break down. She was exausted by the devastation. Her young daughter, a widow. The night had passed and she still couldn't find enough courage to go down to look at her daughter who kept yelling about her husband being alive. Kalindi was not the one to hide but today she just could not bear it. How will she face Sumati ? The crying from downstairs twisted her heart. She decided she had taken enough time to gather herself. She headed down to face Bondita. To hold her if she allowed it. She knew Bondita had been angry at her for the cruel trick she had played on her. She heard what they said about her hair.
" What absurd words just left your mouth ?!" Kalindi yelled at such an insult. " My daughter is the most devoted wife and you...you just tried to blemish her ?!" She yelled walking upto her.
" I am speaking the truth." She said looking at Sampoorna. Every set of eyes followed her as Sampoorna bowed her head in shame.
Sampoorna very well knew what the woman meant and everyone else too. She had tricked a man into marrying her after she was widowed. She had tried to lure him with her beauty because she had no man in her life anymore and she wanted that security. He would have spared her no look had she had her head shaved which she was spared from as Aniruddh had taken her in. The man had helped him and she had stabbed him in the back. And now his wife was to suffer a fate he had saved herself from. She had used her looks to trap his father and so his wife was going to punished for it. " Don't..." Sampoorna folded her hands infront of Trilochan " don't judge... every woman just because...I committed a cr... crime. She is not like that..." She realised that just because of some women like her, very woman was punished to avoid the possibility of adultary.
" Loneliness will make her so." The widow said. " She is a child now but she will grow. How long can you put a leash on her ? There is a reason they are snatched of their beauty or sent away. They can break families, a woman with no man but all the desires."
Kalindi wanted to shoot the woman but she knew that it was the truth. There were women like Sampoorna who tried to get what they could not due to being widows. Just like a single man was not allowed to live in a house with young girls if not a brother or relative, a young single girl was not to be kept in the house filled with men too. If nothing else then by the view of her protection.
" Bade Zamindar Babu " the widow continued " we just are a part of the society who can just warn you of the ill effects of your thinking. But you are the part of a family who might have to suffer. After all, you have two young men in the house."
" MIND YOUR TONGUE !!" Somnath yelled at the top of his lungs. " It is a sin to raise a hand on a woman or else..."
" You can punish me all you want Doctor Babu but I say what I say for your good."
" It is just...hair..." Kalindi blinked back some tears. " They...they will grow back. She...has lost more...than that to...to worry about her ..hair."
" Thakuma..." Sampoorna begged.
" It is...a ritual Sampoorna. You don't know...what all she will get to hear if she keeps them. Men will ogle at her and women will call her characterless just because she didn't give up...her beauty. He is not there to protect... protect her anymore..."
Bondita was made to sit in the middle of a large circular metal tub in the aangan. She didn't even look up to see where she was. The white marble on the floor no more soothing, the large pillars no support to her. The tree today was not shady. Someone yanked her pallu down and plucked the pins from her bun letting her hair loose. The cream coloured but decorated gold boarded saree pulled from her right shoulder where she had pinned it, making it flow like her hair in the morning wind. Her eyes were still down, her heart had stopped praying. If Dugga maa loved her, she would know what she wanted. All she wanted to think right now was about him. How he looked, his smile, his eyes. A clanking sound brought her attention to her wrists. They were breaking her glass bangles. One by one. Her eyes stayed stuck to the set of shakha Pola. He got it for her. She smiled looking at them, remembering how he had smiled when she showed it to him after wearing them. And her smile vanished as she saw fingers on her shaka Pola.
Bondita yanked her hand away as if just realising what was going on. " No. Stay away from them." She clutched her wrists to her chest looking around in panic. One woman tried to grab her hand but she resisted hard. " Get away from me !"
" You have to give it up." One woman spoke up.
" No. He got me these himself. I won't give them up !"
" You have to give everything up you got because of him."
" I gave up my bangles. I won't let you break them." She said getting up.
" You have no choice." A woman standing behind her said pushing her down to sit again.
" NO...!"
" Hurry." She heard a woman tell as Bondita struggled but couldn't do that much as she had her hands to her chest. If she tried to push them, they might grab her hand and break his sweet gift. " Give me razor. You two, get her anklets."
" No ! DON'T TOUCH THEM !!" It was his gift for her birthday. But before she could react much a sting behind her ankle told her that it was being pulled from her feet. She tried kicking but could not over come them. Since she didn't allow them to open the lock of the anklets, they were painfully pulled off her feet and thrown on the floor. The sound of the jingle making her still. He liked them when they made that sound, he had told her once. Her vision got blurry as the back of her left ankle stung due to the pulling while the right one bled, blood ozzing out and getting mixed with the water in the tub as someone loosened her mangalsutra and thin gold chains from her neck. Taking advantage of her shock a woman put her hand on her forehead and in one practiced motion rubbed off the bindiya and sindoor as Bondita sat clutching her shaka Pola to her chest with tears falling down the cheeks he loved to caress.
" Pour water on her, I will take care of this. ' The woman who rubbed off her sindoor said. Bondita knew if she was given a chance to kill one person on the earth , this woman would be the one. Bondita looked at her with venom in her eyes as that woman held her arm again.
" Back.Down." Bondita warned.
" Give me your hands."
Bondita didn't think much before she kicked the woman making her fall on the floor and spread like a sheet. The woman who was trying to pour water on her was nudged full well, all this while a woman was pressing her down.
" Stop it !" It was Koyeli. Bondita turned to see her running towards the aangan door but could see nothing clearly due to her pain. " Stop !" She heard Koyeli yell again. Bondita struggled harder as one more woman held her from the back.
" Let it all go and get her hair..."
" Her hair..." There was a sound of the metal kalash being used to pour the water fall to the ground as everything went silent. Even her heart. " is not to be touched by anyone else..."
The voice was loud and clear even though it was coming from a little distance. She looked up and saw a blurry figure walking with fast steps to the angan and stop where Koyeli stood.
All the hands were pulled back as Bondita got up, stumbled by the edge of tub but still got out with the trail of her saree wet with the water meant to wash her happiness away, leaving behind red imprint of her feet she ran to the figure she could not see clearly but knew exactly who it was.