Diya Masi

All characters, names, dialogues, situations, events, incidents, and places are the products of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual events, places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. This book has been written in autobiographical style, so that the reader feels, as if he/she was at the places of occurrence. "Since Baba used to address the landlord Indranath Bose as InderKaka, the sons of Indranath, Pradeep and Swapan used to call my Baba as KanuDa, or one of their elder brothers. So I used to call them, as if they were my uncles, as PradeepKa and SwapanKa. Ma used to treat PradeepKa's wife Cherry as her younger sister, so I used to call her Cherry Masi. After SwapanKa was married to a girl called Diya, she became a member of the Bose family and I started calling her Diya Masi.I had to play an important role when Diya Masi first entered the house as a bride of the groom SwapanKa. PradeepKa wanted to ensure that the bride's feet won't touch the ground. He pulled the bride out of the car and rested her on his shoulder; the groom SwapanKa had no other options but to drop the shawl off his shoulder. Diya Masi was scared that she would fall on her head; so she grabbed PradeepKa's waist with both hands. Her shoes fell off her feet and the end of her saree tied with SwapanKa's shawl was tangling on the floor. I jumped to her rescue, promptly picked up the pair of shoes in one hand and held the shawl and saree end together in the other hand. I walked up four flights of stairs behind PradeepKa, watching only the rear of Diya Masi's head, as her face was on the back of PradeepKa; I went on assuring her, 'Don't worry, you won't fall, I'll hold you, in case you fall.' One day after lunch at the students' association building of Jadavpur University, I came down to the hall and watched more closely that girl, playing ping pong. She was wearing blue skirt and green top, and found that face is quite well-known to me - that girl was no one else but Diya Masi. After the game, I started talking to Diya Masi, when she told me that she had started M.Sc. in Mathematics in Jadavpur University. When she started for the university from home she was wearing a saree over her skirt and top, so that no one at home or on the road took her to be none other than a very domestic house-wife. After reaching the university, she took off her saree and packed that in her bag.I was not in touch with her for a few months; I did not know when she was pregnant. I was sorry to get the bad news from her and could not share my bad news with her or anyone at home. I was more overwhelmed a bit later, when Diya Masi was alone with me; she cried as she narrated the tiny baby she lost an hour ago - its tiny head, hands and legs. I couldn't but cry with a mother who had just lost her tiny baby.As both PradeepKa and SwapanKa had already left for work, I had to call a taxi and take Diya Masi to the hospital. The daughter, born to Diya Masi, was the first grand-daughter for Pari-Dida. She was not very happy that a girl was born to her son Swapan, even SwapanKa was not happy, but she was a piece of joy for Diya Masi.I didn't know what I could do to help Dolly. I was looking for a better job, so that I could earn more money and help Baba, Ma and Dolly. I thought I should never get married; we tried hard to get our sisters married, but could not get them happily married. Most often the groom family and the bride family do not treat each other as their own people. Even the groom and the bride do not love each other.After the farewell dinner at Pari-Dida's place, I came home and went to bed. I woke up after a dream of my childhood days. I pushed the blanket off and found a woman, lying beside me. Was I still in a dream, another different dream? I looked at the woman; I had never seen before any woman with no clothes on. Is the face known to me? Yes, it is of Diya Masi. 'I'll go Delhi with you', she said."