Barrister Babu Drabble- The Room

The Room

Somnath Roy Chowdhury stood still on the doorstep of the most unique room of Roy Chowdhury haveli.
He never entered here.
Whenever the sounds of his mind went overboard, he would end up walking up to the threshold of  this room unknowingly.
This is where it all happened.

Everyone thinks of  the room as Chote Malik's room,Dada's room,barrister babu's room or even Anirudh's room in general.But no one dared to say the same out loud.For quite a long while.
Fun fact is the so called Barrister Babu's room had not been occupied by ARC since forever. Except for the elder generation of the haveli,no one else remembered Anirudh staying over in that room.
Not even Somnath,the eldest in the kin after Anirudh.
But Somnath loved to believe that even his own dada probably forgot how his own bed felt like..
The last time his dada was peacefully staying in his room was some 18 years ago,before ARC left for London.
After Anirudh returned,He didn’t really get time to settle in his own room because someone else got the right almost immediately.
Somnath sighed remembering.
Those were some hectic days.Dada was always on some kind of high. He wanted to change & challenge everything around which most of the time ended as heated arguments  with either baba or kaka.

Ani would still adore batuk.
Kaka & Baba had all high hopes from Anirudh.
In between,Somnath was lost.He had to act like elder brother because he was older than batuk but couldn’t do as he wish coz he was not the eldest one.
He had to take up more responsibilities and act mature yet his opinions didn’t matter in family issues.
He couldn’t throw a tantrum coz everbody was actually too busy to notice even that.He had to tackle all between younger & elder generation often forgetting his own problems.
In those intense moments, how foolishly he believed Soudamini could come into their lives & bring peace upon them.
Fool,that he was.
He actually believed Saudamini had the strength to stand tall before Dada and make their haveli a home like everyone else's.
He was wrong,as usual.
Instead his Dada brought upon a nut case on their house in the name of a bride just within a few days of his arrival from london.Som facepalmed himself mentally remembering his attitude back then.
In no way he could digest the fact that the tiny goofball could be his Boudi.
Much to his aghst,everyone seemed okay with the idea.
All his hopes of a normal home came crushing down.
He was waiting for his brother to return.So that he wont have to act more than his age anymore.So that he could also be carefree for a while,leaving all the responsibilities on his elder brother's shoulder.But his brother came & got himself a huge responsibility, that too for lifelong.Anirudh was so burdened with all sorts of trouble about his new bride that Somnath didn’t even get the time to have his brother back to him.
His brother was not there entirely to even share some love, forget responsibilities.

To his utter dismay,even his sister in law got replaced.It was safe to say,more than his dada's comeback,Som was waiting for Saudamini to become a roy chowdhury bahu after getting married to Dada.People might believe he had some extra affinity for that Saudamini.But that was never the case.
He was so used to watching the warmth,glow & liveliness of their neighbour's houses that he couldn’t stop himself longing for the same.He could never remember feeling the same vibe in his much bigger and more comfortable house.
Granted, he was a zamindar yet something was always missing.
For as long as Som remembered,Their haveli was always a guy's place.They ate,slept and stayed there indeed. But they never lived.Neither they woke up to sweet sound of aarti of their mother nor to the aroma of a mother's hands food.They used to throw some big parties every now and then.
But they never geared up,decked up & celebrated a festival like even a normal farmer's household.There was pomp & galore in every hook & corner of roy Chowdhury haveli yet not a speck of euphoria.

So,in his haul of fulfilling a teenage dream, he ended up hating an innocent soul who was totally clueless of her fault.
A girl,rather a child was at his mercy & he played her enough to get her ridiculed before a whole village along with his own brother.
Somnath would never forget the haunted look on his dada's eyes.Anirudhh looked almost out of his mind trying to understand how could his sweet lil brother could try to monopolize a young kid's ignorance & ruin their family's reputation.
Aware of his dada's fury,Som stood quite awaiting his punishment.
That punishment for his grave sin,however, never reached Somnath.
Somehow,with some stupid reasons which som would probably level as quite ridiculous child talk,Bondita -the lil annoying piece of their haveli,saved him from his brother's wrath.
Som stood conflicted.
For the life of him,he could never understand how could someone he hated with everything, ended up being his saviour!
She did what no one in the haveli did for him in the longest time ever.

She cared.

And she didn’t expect anything in return.She didn’t make a fuse about his disdain towards her neither she asked to be called as her title demanded -his boudi.

She just went on her daily activities like it didn’t even matter.Like caring came to her as easy as breathing.

From that day,it started.

Somnath hated Bondita. For she was the centre of attention everywhere she went,dada's fitoor about her went on increasing in a maniac rate.she tried & failed over and over about mundane things yet within a year every roy chowdhurys were fan of her unique styled beverages and foods.For she brought laughter in their otherwise gloomy life.For she made a fan outta his super strict father too.For she never begged for her place from anyone yet she had the entire house running at her finger's snap.
Melancholy was not a regular visitor in their havely because of her.Her giggles,chatters,arguments,jingling sound of her jewelleries made sure the haveli never remained mum.
She was the reason som's dream of a normal home broke.And she ended up showing how shallow that dream was.
She proved how Roy Chowdhury’s never needed someone who appeared  super perfect like soudamini for a happy home.
In her very own clumsy,witty,naive way
Bondita Roy Chowdhury existed & just like that- she was breathing life on an otherwise  lifeless grand house.
She showed him how perfect life can get without even trying thus calling off all his blunders unintendedly.
He hated her because his groundless disappointment was proven wrong when she saved his family-again & again.
He hated her coz any last ounce of semblance of happiness was gone with her departure.

His forever conflict went on as thousands issues of Bondita made his family's life miserable yet he knew no one could cure them of those miseries rather than Bondita.
She was the nemesis of his whole family.They were hurt for her yet she was the ultimate medicine for all of them.Som knew every wound will be cleansed & healed just with a magic touch of Bondita.The ridiculously crazy willed girl would completely vanish every last sign of consequences of the disasters that her mere existance brought upon roy chowdhurys within a blink and yet again he would stood helpless before her omnipotent aura.

He hated her because Bondita was everything he wanted for his home.He hated her because he never wanted Bondita to be the one for his family.

Today,standing before Bondita Roy Chowdhury's room,Somnath Roy Chowdhury knew he hated her because he couldn’t just hate her.