My Destination, My Bondita

62 - And Some Time Later, Sparks Fly

"I can't believe this. Again, all throughout breakfast, Anirudh and Bondita Bahu didn't look at each other," Trilochan Roy Choudhary said to Bihari, "I can't believe it has been almost a year and these two are still behaving like strangers." 

Eleven months had passed.

"Bahu is almost fifteen years old. Anirudh even helped with the new law to update the age for marriage," Kaka explained to Bihari. "And Bondita Bahu fits in that new age category now." 

Child marriage was now a crime across most of India. Anirudh had worked tirelessly over the last eleven months with many people across India through letters and occasional meetings, to help get this law passed. Now the legal age for marriage was 14 and 18, for females and males respectively.

"So what's the problem now?" Kaka was saying to Bihari. "Why won't Anirudh try to make it work with her now? Now she's very close to even fifteen, and they're still sleeping in separate rooms. Not only that, but they aren't even talking to each other!" 

Trilochan watched as Bondita was chopping vegetables in the kitchen. 

"Malik, what can we do?" Bihari asked sadly, his heart paining as well to see Anirudh and Bondita so distant from each other. 

"Let me think..." Trilochan said. "Now I've had enough. This is too much. They can't live under one roof and behave this way." 

As Anirudh was walking through the hallway, he paused by the kitchen where he noticed Bondita cutting vegetables. The window was open, and wind was blowing through it, making her hair fly in front of her face. She used the back of her hand to try and move her hair out of the way, but it was being stubborn and wasn't leaving her eye. 

He was blushing, as he watched her struggle to get her hair locks out of the way. She looked so beautiful. How he wished he could go there and play with her hair. How he wished he could go and tease her, joke with her. He wished he could laugh with her. 

In all this time, even though he and Bondita rarely spoke, it had become apparent that she was growing and maturing. She was tall now, her height just above his chest. Her voice didn't have that childish undertone in it anymore. She looked like a woman, and she spoke like one too. 

He didn't speak to Bondita, but he observed her from afar. Even though she was older, she was still a child at heart, and knowing Bondita, he didn't think that could ever change. She could be fifty, but she would still have the heart of a child... and this was a quality that he loved so much about her. 

Anirudh knew that Bondita was upset with him. She might even hate him, to the point where she wouldn't speak to him for her whole life, but Anirudh had grown to be at peace with this fact. The fact that perhaps him and Bondita were never meant to be in this life. 

He had grown to lose himself in the beauty of one-sided love. The beauty of watching the one you love smile and be happy, even if it was without you. He learned to find his happiness in that. He learned to be happy just for her happiness. 

Bondita put the knife down in the kitchen and finally tucked her hair behind her ear. It was fluttering in front of her eyes far too long. 

She glanced up for a moment and saw Anirudh there, outside the kitchen, looking at her with a soft smile on his face. 

Anirudh averted his gaze and walked away from there immediately. 

This had been about as big as their interactions got in these many months that they hadn't spoken. 

There had been moments where they would hide and watch each other secretly, without anyone knowing. Sometimes they would get caught, like today, but then they would avert their gaze immediately and walk away.