Friday, August 12, 2011

Benu Mama

"Titir, gujiya khaabi?"

....Amar Benu Mama amar kaache gujiya nei sheita dekhte padtona. Boro hoi ami jokhon mama ke bollam je amar gujiya aar pochondo noi, onar kharap to laglo kintu tateo shey shuntona...jaanten je ami kono akta shomai bolbo je "Benu mama, tumi amar jonye mishti niashlena...". Eita chilo amar highlight kolkata trip er shob shomoy. Mama amar jonye mishti niashbe. Jawar dine taaka deben. Raatre bala khawar pode - ice cream, nahole pepsi, nahole aarek round mishti. Aar shei bank theke notun note'er bundle. Ak dom kadak. Tarpor shei carrom er tournament Akrur Dutta lane e......ami Kolkata e jawa maane, Benu Mama khushi je bonji aashbe aar or jonye mishti, kochu, chingri niashahobe. Dokaane niye jawa toh kom chilo, kintu amar shate Benu mama'r khoob jomto. Class 10 e jokhon nombor kom pelaam, shobai dukho peyechilo kintu mama chilo ak jon je amake shahosh diyechilo. Ma golpo bolto je mama amake choto bala te ghum padanor jonye kole dolato aar golpo bolto.


Shei mama aajke chole gelo. Kauke kichu na bole, shobar bhalo kore, shey chole galo. Taar atta jaano shanti paye....

Monday, August 01, 2011

The Hoped End continued....

Disclaimer : I'd written this in 2007, and I hadn't expected myself to revisit it to continue the story. Until today, when something in me has triggered the breakdown of the writer's bloc. I'll try and continue this story regularly.


Not until recently did Kathy know what she wanted. It was time to move on. It had to be. That's how things play out in the larger scheme of life. This time she was sure. All those things in the past had held her back for too long. She'd missed out on her favorite plays, her favorite musicals, her friends, her family and most of all...no that was not an option anymore. All because she couldn't decide whether things were headed the right direction. Or for that matter, if they were in deed right for her. She knocked on her dad's door. Her father, a retired army man in his 60s, looked up from his book, smiled at her hoping, like everyday for the past year, that this would be the day his daughter would come out of that unwanted shell.

"I'm going to move out dad." Mr. McDowell was not expecting that. He'd hoped for her to get back to her normal self but this was drastic. He sat there awestruck. She couldn't look straight at him, she looked seemingly having said that. "I'm going to go to New York and stay with April for a while", she continued. "She's studying film at NYU and I want to do something like that I think. I can always find a job in New York and help out with the expenses and things like that." "What about your mom", Mr. McDowell didn't even realize that's what he'd said. "That...unfortunately will have to be your work. I don't think I'll have the heart to tell mom that I want to move out, especially after what she's done for me this past year. You are going to...". "But do you realize what this is going to do to her?" "have to handle her. She's not going to like it, but it is what it is right now". The two of them had always somehow managed to talk at the same time. The cuckoo's clock and Mrs. McDowell's gentle knock on the door, signaled it was time to lunch in this quite little house in suburban Ohio that had lost all its charm a year back. Father and daughter followed Mrs. McDowell. Kathy kept glancing at her dad with a look that oozed out "Handle it, please".

But there was something else that didn't seem in place at the table. Denise had started to eat. She'd forgotten to say grace. In all of her 25 years, Kathy had never seen her mom forget to say grace. There was something going on.......


Shreya