Barrister Babu

Chapter 4

Bondita was helping her mother and other widow's to cook dinner,all the women that came here went back home after they had their fill.

Anirudh was out rooming the village with dipak,he wanted to take Bondita too but she refused saying she wants to stay with her mother, it's half truth though,she didn't tell him the whole truth, nowadays she is hiding a lot of stuff from him.She knows if she goes with him he will figure out that something is wrong with her,she needs a bit more time away from him to mask her emotions,and those friend's of her will again say those "things" if they hear that,she isn't afraid of facing them and their talks,her patibabu has made her strong but she can't stand her own reaction to their words,she doesn't know what to do and she hates feeling helpless,plus she also needs to talk with her mother about this,she is looking for a chance but she has no luck.And she also actually wants to spend time with her ma.

Sumati was cooking Bondita's and Jamai Babu's favorite dishes,but she has noticed that Bondita is lost somewhere,she is here physically but her mind is somewhere else, what's bothering her bacchi again.'i have to ask her about it later, niroloma looked out of it today too,I need to look into that too,and Jamai Babu was the only one who didn't Look like anything was going wrong with him,well that's new,after Bondita's marriage with him, everytime she meet him he was in some kind of trouble"

Niroloma was one of the widows who works here,she was sampoorna's age,sumati liked her,she was quite and helpful kid,but unfortunately her beauty and luck was a curse to her.Sumati always tried to treat her like a daughter too.
Niroloma was widowed at Bondita's age,her husband also wanted to educate her,but he lacked the strength and courage to fight against the society for her.but she still respected him.when she saw Anirudh last time when she also tagged along with sumati to visit bondita and give them the money earned from this garden,he was fighting with the entire world for his wife,I wished for it and someone else was receiving the benefits.And the peace she saw on sumati's face when she talks about her jamaibabu was out of this world,if only her mother too had the luck to feel that kind of peace.

Niroloma was a rare beauty,when she was first hired here, everyone said he will use her,she was really scared but Anirudh never came here,so with time people had to literally eat what they said.other widows weren't that young,so it wasn't a problem, it's true that man in the society can't see women being independent but as they were servants of a fitoori barrister they didn't dare to do anything except talking behind their back,but lately that lessened too.she felt a pang whenever she saw Anirudh caring for bondita,she also had a caring husband like her,but look at her fate and look at Bondita's fate.

Sumati: niroloma?you are burning the Curry dear.
Niroloma quickly tried to hold the hot pan and burned her hands,in the process she dropped the pan and all the curry fell, bondita was sitting just beside niroloma,so some fell on Bondita's almost healed burned feet again"ahhhh.. patibabu",but fortunately it was a small amount unlike last time,only three fingers of her left feet was touched by the curry but the pain,damn that was out of this world,she was directly hit by the hot Curry.
Sumati came rushing towards her, bondita looked at her feet and thought though the immense burning sensation that,'what's with my luck this days,all the hot stuffs and troubles keep finding their way towards me,so cliche,just like the damsel in distress in those cheap novels butuk reads'.

Sumati: bondita,my bacchi.Are you all right?
Bondita smiled a bit to assure her mother,then she heard another widow slapping niroloma, bondita was shocked,"why are you slapping her kaki?it was my mistake to sit this close".

"No bondita,you don't know these kinds of women,they are too poisonous,you wouldn't know the difference as you are so innocent."
Bondita had a flashback of her past,when she was tagged as "chori hoi aurat",this same aunt who was a married women back then taunted her saying these similar things just because her patibabu wasn't by her side,and now she is saying she is innocent and niroloma didi is poisonous,the irony.These women will never change.