Letters from Dalhousie to Tulsipur

Part 8- Anirudh and Bondita

"On the days, when the world forgets about your existence or your so called good friends make you feel less,

Remember to love yourself a little more for that self love will save you from the ultimate damnation of depression."

Bondita was helping Sampoorna preparing the dinner and was also showing Malika various spices and making her sniff them to remember their tastes for future just like Trilochon had shown her once.

She almost felt like a mother figure to Malika and the way the lonely girl used to cling to her made Bondita protect her like a mother hen.

Sampoorna was trying to initiate a conversation with Bondita about the past and trying to apologize to her but Bondita was dodging it very cleverly by turning the conversation about Sampoorna and Binoy.

She had talked greatly in the letters about her happiness for her estranged and in the past a vengeful sister.

But she found it very hard to face the people, that she in letters wished great happiness for.

Bondita had finished her preparation and was about to move with Malika to the temple for a conversation with Trilochon, who wanted to talk with Malika about spirituality.

Malika wanted to escape but at the last moment agreed, for it was better to agree with the man than make him upset at her.

Bondita had made an excuse a little later and made an escape to arrange her clothes along with her friend.

Trilochon sighed at his bahu's escapist behaviour but didn't say anything for he was still guilt ridden about his involvement in the past.

Anirudh had been trying to create an encounter with Bondita but she was also dodging him and his efforts making him quite frustrated.

He knew that they had a lot to talk for but didn't know, how to start their conversation at all.

He had first got attracted to her like a man after her Fourteenth birth year and that attraction had scared him the most along him making him feel disgusted at himself.

And when she had got distracted from everything under the pressure of the society, he had met Manorama and used her as a rebound for Bondita.

But subconsciously or unconsciously, he had always maintained a distance from her as a man, always remembering about his status as a married man.

He had tried to justify his attraction as love to himself but even his heart had felt disgusted with his mind's conviction then.

But Anirudh had truly became stubborn then to dress up as groom and bride to come at the Haveli with her.

He had thought to help her with her mission and her helping him getting Bondita back on track but it had all went downhill.

Bondita didn't react at all that day. She had became a statue and only looked at him trying to find some sort of an explanation.

He had spent that day completely in isolation in his study. By then realising his folly.

He had planned the next morning to let Manorama go out of his life and apologize to Bondita fully for his wife's silence had made him more restless than the accusations, she could have thrown probably with her sharp tongue.

He was ready to go on his knees in front of Bondita then but the next morning, he had woken up to find the entire house in panic as Bondita had left with Somnath to join the school at Dalhousie not willing to share the same roof with another wife of her husband.