Brave Enough To Break Free

The Unexpected Encounter

A week slipped away thus, but Jayanta was not seen again yet after that day. Every day as Anita passed by Mr. Chatterjee's house on her way to college, she would turn her head, expecting a glimpse of the young gentleman, but all she could see was the empty little garden with two broken swing sets in the midst of the long unkempt grass and a little concrete path to the doorway which usually remained close. Not a single human spirit would be in sight. This vacant lifelessness of the Chatterjee household was enough to give Anita a nostalgic vibe.

Anita clearly remembered the time when she as a small child would play along with her little cousins and neighbourhood friends at the small garden of the Chatterjee household. In those days the garden used to be well-maintained. Mrs. Chatterjee was very fond of gardening. She used to grow orchid flowers in small flowed beds in her garden. The broken swing sets were not broken then and neither did they lack playmates to play along with; since children of the locality haunted the garden twenty-four hours round the clock. Children were always welcome in the Chatterjee household. Mrs. Chatterjee herself being childless showered her affections on all the children of the locality. Anita was very special to her and Mrs. Chatterjee used to call her Anu with love and Anita addressed her as Bomma. Every Sunday afternoon, all the children of the locality would sit in rows in the Chatterjee's garden and Mrs. Chatterjee narrated them tales from "THAKUMAR JHULI".

But now those days were gone. They grew up so quickly and life took a complete different turn for each of them. But the most pathetic thing happened to Mrs. Chatterjee. As she reached her later 40s, her memory started deteriorating and her speech too got impaired. She was detected with Alzheimer's disease. And she had totally forgotten every familiar face. She no longer recognized her dear Anu. Sometimes she could not even recognize her husband. But poor Mr. Chatterjee never left her side. He would always perform all household chores and make things comfortable for Mrs. Chatterjee. But when her condition deteriorated at times, he would call a doctor and appoint a nurse to take care of her. Life was very miserable for Mr. Chatterjee.

All these thoughts occupied her mind as she walked to her college. These thoughts disturbed her and drew a pensive picture of life before her inner eyes. She sighed deeply and tried to get all these out of her mind. She looked at her watch; it was twenty-five minutes past ten. She was going to be late for college. So she increased her pace and walked fast. But there was something that discomfited her. She could not anyhow take this out of her mind. She thought to herself, "Where has this new-comer vanished all at once? Is he gone somewhere else or is he a kind of person who doesn't like mixing with people and usually stays within the four walls of the house, apart from work hours? "

"Anita, come quick! The class is about to start..." a voice broke through her thoughts making her return to reality. The voice was of her friend Simran. Simran was standing at the college gate and waving to Anita. Anita had already reached her college but was so engrossed in her thoughts that she didn't even notice. She rushed to join her friend.

Meanwhile at her house...

Anita's uncle Shyamal had come with the new-comer and introduced him to everyone, "Meet him, he is the new head postmaster of our town, Jayanta Goswami." Jayanta folded his hands and retorted "Nomoskar" and then he moved ahead to touch the feet of all the elders which is considered a courtesy among the Bengalis. Then Jayanta was warmly welcomed by everyone in the house and he seated himself along with Shyamal babu in the small sofa in their drawing room. As they discussed on topics of current affairs, Shefali came with two cups of tea for them.

As she put the two cups of tea on the small wooden table, she questioned, "So Jayanta babu where are you from?"

Jayanta replied in his low-pitched voice, "I am from Kolkata." His eyes glimmered and his lips drew back in a grimace on the mention of his homeplace Kolkata. Shefali noticed this and smiled to herself. She continued, "So you are now staying at the Chatterjee's? "

"Yes, they rented the ground floor to me," he responded taking a sip of tea from the cup.

"The Chatterjee's are undoubtedly very good people," Shyamal said thoughtfully.

To which Shefali added pitifully, "But I feel so sad for poor Mrs. Chatterjee."

"Yes Mr. Chatterjee told me about her illness. It's sad. They say she is suffering from Alzheimer's which is totally incurable-"as Jayanta continued, the door bell rang.

Shefali sprang up from her sofa to open the door.

Anita came in.

"How come you are so quickly back?" Shyamal questioned surprisingly.

"Today we had just one class and the other classes were dismissed as the professors had some conference with the University board members." Anita replied plainly. As Anita was involved in her conversation with her uncle, Anita hardly noticed the other unfamiliar figure that was present in the drawing room apart from them.

But Jayanta's eyes were fixed on her. As she spoke, the inkling eyes of Jayanta praised her inarticulate beauty. The crimson-red Dhakai jamdani she wore with her short-sleeved golden blouse seemed to enhance her beautiful features. And her fair complexion complemented it. Her long black open hair cascaded down her shoulders upto her waist. Her little curly locks were neatly put behind her ears. Jayanta just could not take his eyes off her. What attracted Jayanta the most was the little red bindi that adored Anita's forehead, adding divinity to her gorgeousness!

When Anita's eyes finally rested on Jayanta, she froze to her place. Their eyes meet with a grimace on each of their faces.

The silence finally broke with Shyamal's hushed voice. "Anu come and sit over here, let me introduce you to our new neighbor Jayanta babu. You will be happy to know that he has a great depth of English literature. And I guess he would not mind much if you sometimes go to seek his help to get your problems solved?" he ended with a grin.

To this Jayanta replied rather humourously, "Of course not" and smiled to her as Anita seated herself in a wooden chair by the table along with them.