Barrister Babu: Revenge or a Motive?

Chapter 12: Beginning of a new dawn- Part 2

Embracing a new beginning with a lot of hopes amidst the enmity, Anirudh was present at the chalet to prepare the girls of Tulsipur and Krishna Nagar for the intelligence test. Since none of them were literate, Anirudh had to focus more in order to make them capable up to the opponent team. After Tapur read out that was written on the board, everyone including Tupur and Anirudh was curious to know how and when did she learn to read.

"Tapur, tumhe padhna likhna aata hai? Par kaise?" asked Tupur to which Tapur excitedly replied "Arrey wo toh jab Bondita didi London se waapis aayi..." she stopped her track of sentence and apologetically looked at Anirudh. He understood her dilemma that she wanted to share her experience of learning but was scared to take Bondita's name who is now their opponent. Anirudh closed his eyes and sighed, after few seconds, he gave a small smile and uttered "Naam le sakti ho tum uska Tapur, aakhir jo humare khilaaf hai wo toh Suzie haina. Bondita nahi" To which Tapur slightly nodded.

"Toh batao, tumhe ache se padhna aata hai?" He asked. "Ache se toh nahi aata padhne par aapne jo waha likha hai, wo Bondita didi ne bhi mujhe padhane ke pehle yahi likha tha salet (slate) par." Tapur started to narrate the day when her Bondita didi began to teach her.

Flashback:

Bondita was in her room sitting on the desk writing something in a notebook. Tapur entered the room with a glass of milk for Bondita. She saw her writing something, although it was just a mere scribbled things on a paper for her but what she noticed that she was repeating the same alphabet in the same column and another alphabet in next row of lined partition and repeated it again in that particular column as if she was writing an imposition.

"Didi, aap ye kya likhti jaa rahi ho? Ek hi cheeze baar baar dohra rahi ho." Asked Tapur to which Bondita replied "Tapur, ye hindi bhasha ka varnmala hai, aise likhke sikhenge toh ache se yaad rehta hai."

She took a book where the entire hindi varnmala (alphabets) were written and said "ye dekho, hindi bhasha mein kul 52 akshar hote hai. Jinme se 11 swar aur 41 vyanjan hote hai. Aur angrezi mein kul 26 akshar hote hai." Tapur looked at the book shockingly and uttered "ye toh bohot mushkil hai didi, isse seekhne mein toh poora arza beet jaayega."

Hearing this Bondita laughed and said "aisa kuch nahi hai Tapur, mere sakha babu kehte hai, agar seekhne ki chah ho, aur uspe mehnat ki jaay, toh sab kuch ho sakta hai. Shuruaat mein mujhe bhi mushkil hoti thi likhne mein. Kyuki uss waqt mujhe darr lagta tha padhai se. Phir jab maine thaan liya ki main ye seekhkar hi rahungi, tab jaakar maine iske liye mehnat ki aur seekh liya." She smiled remembering those days.

"Par didi, aap toh itni moti moti kitaabe padhti ho, toh phir aaj ye varnamala likhne ka abhyaas kyu kar rahi ho?" As soon as Tapur aaked this, Bondita looked away as if she didn't want to answer her this question.

(At this point, Anirudh understood that she was doing the homework he gave to Vaijayanti who was apparently Bondita and the homework was to write the alphabets 50 times for practice.)

In order to change the topic, Bondita asked Tapur closing her notebook "Woh sab chhod. Tu ye bata, tu bhi seekhna chahegi padhna likhna?" Hearing this Tapur widened her eyes in fear and uttered "Nahi nahi, Thakuma ko pata chal gaya toh..." "Unhe nahi pata chalega." Bondita snapped in between and continued "yaad nahi? Kaise bachpan mein tumhari madad se main chup chup ke padhti thi." Both of them laughed. "Toh seekhegi ye?" Asked Bondita to which Tapur happily nodded in a yes.

Bondita took the slate and started to write something on it. A confused Tapur asked "Kya kar rahi ho didi, aap toh mujhe akshar likhna sikhane wali thi na, toh ab kya likh rahi hai?" After writing it down Bondita showed the slate and uttered "Maine yaha likha hai Seekhna aur jeevan mein aage badhna, yahi hamara lakshya hai." Handing the slate to Tapur she said "Aisa mere Shikshak Babu ne sikhaya tha. Toh ab jo mai sikhane wali hu, uske saath ye cheeze bhi apne dimaag mein daal lena. Theekh hai?" Tapur nodded in a yes and with this she started learning to read and write.