Love is Blind

Aunt wanted to listen to this popular song from the movie Piyasa, her favorite song. Sitting at her feet and singing the song, Vandana's mind went back to the time when she and her aunt lived in the same quarters of Assam Oil. Thinking about those days still fills my heart to the brim, and then I feel nostalgic. My mother had a small singing school there, and all the children from the neighborhood used to come to learn singing. Most of them were the children of the staff, and Vandana first started playing the harmonium on the lap of those sisters. My mother, a Sylhet woman from Silchar, had singing in her blood, and she sang folk songs very well. There was a lot of singing in my mother's family, but my mother's youngest sister, her younger aunt, had to hear a lot of things said about her for knowing how to sing at her in-laws' house! Her mother-in-law also gave her the nickname "Baiji's daughter from the house of Baiji". She had seen the little aunt crying while hugging her mother, and had heard that the railway officer in Lamding had not even let her go to her husband. The girl who knew Somatta's songs would be left alone in the quarters, what would happen...what would happen to her? Finally, her mother-in-law was happy that the little aunt's forehead was not a 'girl' but a 'boy', and with the efforts of some family members, the man got permission to stay with her husband. That incident when Vandana was a teenager had made her mind so sensitive about so many relationships that it is impossible to tell! She would have to carry the poisonous consequences of it for the rest of her life!

- Whatever auntie says, auntie, you will obey it exactly, right?

Vandana said to auntie with a smile, auntie pursed her lips like a child.

- Hmm, I just have to swallow the patient's diet...I have fallen under the care of two strict aunts! You know, sister, last night I dreamed of such a big box of chital fish! The box was arranged on the plate of food that your aunt gave me at the rice-cloth ceremony on the day of the wedding.

- Oh, father! Do you still remember that? Vandana laughed as she said it. Hearing this, her aunt laughed and said-

- If you can eat half a meal by smell, you can eat a full meal in a dream, right? Vandana laughed at her aunt's words, and all the weight on her chest instantly fell off.

As she turned around, Vandana was glancing at the life she had left behind like she was looking at a farm ledger.... Vandana, government, Barinda Kayastha. Barinda-Radhi... Brahmin-Kayastha, these terms would never have imagined that Vandana would take such an important place in her life. And her age? That too, she had not played a small game with him! As it became too much pressure for her mother to take care of her while taking care of the household chores and singing school, she was admitted to school at a very young age. As a result, when her original age was thirteen years and nine months, she was made to appear for the Assam Board Secondary Examination by affidavit, which was made fifteen years old. As a result, her classmates were much older.

Vandana completed her graduation with chemistry honors from Dibrugarh College. Her father wanted Vandana to do a masters in petrochemistry like him. She replied-

- As you said, I have studied chemistry, now I want to study a little bit about rasa or rasasbadan - Vandana laughed saying this. Her father also laughed when he heard it. Her mother or father never forced anything on her and said, you have to do this. They gave her a lot of space, she herself did not misuse it till then.

- What do you like? Singing and dancing or drama and drama etc.?

- You can tell. Your daughter is a jack of all trades, a master of none. Actually, I want to do a course in singing and dancing from Visva-Bharati...and also practice classical music a little-

- When you taste that taste, everything else fades away...I used to play tabla too, and while doing that, I got the hang of your mother's tiki- Vandana hugged her father with a smile at her father's words.

Her life in Shantiniketan began. So far, her father, Sushant De Sarkar, a high-ranking officer of Assam Oil, has taken her and her mother to Naharkatia, Digboy, Duliajan, and Dibrugarh. She expressed her desire to retire and settle down in Kolkata, but her mother wanted to stay in Guwahati or Dibrugarh, because her father's house was in Silchar. But her father, who had come from East Pakistan and spent his childhood in Barasat, decided to spend the rest of his life in Assam and move to Kolkata. His mother did not object. His father and mother smiled and assured him that if he wanted, he could come and spend some time at their house in Dibrugarh.

Vandana's roommate and classmate in Santiniketan was a girl from Burdwan, Sonali. Within a month, they became close friends. The girl, who was very sweet and sociable, came from a traditional family in Burdwan and was very family-oriented. This is where she differs from him. For Vandana, who had always grown up in a carefree environment, family meant mother and father... Since her father's job was transferred, she did not have much roots anywhere, and as a result, she became a carefree-bohemian type. On the other hand, Sonali is a very practical, organized, family-oriented girl. She would sometimes laugh and joke with her-

- I have never seen such a busy girl like you who spends the whole day making the bed with her mobile in hand! Isn't there anything to do in the world?

Vandana would laugh in response. She knows that the girl is very organized and family-oriented, the whole Ginni has been created under the pressure of the house! She would answer in her face-

- I have become a brave artist... open air, and you are the Ginni of the forest house, I heard that you are the Suryavanshi of Sitabhrada Nadia--

- What is that again?

Sonali would frown and sneer.

- You mean kings and landlords... your affairs are completely different! You are the Suryavanshi of Burdwan, the landowner of Thudi, and your Sitabhra is from Nadia. And we have become down-to-earth people.... Both father and mother are refugees of partition-

Well, the girl could not answer any more, she would come and pinch her cheeks. Then she would say-

- Sitabhra is a relative of our sister-in-law's side, the sister-in-law's groom, Shuvendudar's maternal cousin. I met her at sister-in-law's wedding.... You missed the wedding for a moment. Sister-in-law got married six months before coming here.

- Love or relationship?

- Oh father! Will our daughter marry for love? Whose head is on her neck? My aunt's relationship--

- And the love you are carrying on is that time?

Vandana would say laughing. Sonali's face turned red on hearing that.

- No matter how much Didibhai assures me, there is a little tension about this! Aunt, mother, aunty is not a matter.... It is about my father.

- But the solution?

- The solution is Didibhai, Shuvenduda, and Sitavra himself. Shuvenduda and Sitavra can make the impossible possible!

- So?

- Yes, look, how beautifully they married Didibhai!

- Does that mean Shuvenduda already knew Rupalidi?

A mischievous smile appeared on Vandana's face.

- She was. But what an advantage Shuvenduda Bandopadhyay has had... Our Palti Ghar, Radhi Brahmin, respectable family -- it has been very advantageous.

- Hmm, but imagine if there had been someone who was not from Palti Ghar, not Brahmin, not from Radhi caste.. then what would have happened to the marriage?

A smile appeared on Vandana's face.

- Straight back to the pavilion... no question of marriage. My orthodox father could not be convinced.

- Well, when you two sisters chose such a husband, they fell in love, and there is no worry-

- Of course there is worry.... more than us, he does not accept any of this.... Hanuman is one!!

- Your brother?

Vandana said with a smile, she had not seen her brother yet, she knew the boy completely after hearing from the mouth of her ravishing sister. He did computer engineering from Durgapur NIT and is doing M.Tech in software at Guwahati IIT.

- Hmm, Hanuman Chander--

- I have not seen your brother yet, but he is virtually present here through his brother's mouth.

- He is going through the semester and next week, he will be visiting Santiniketan with his brother-in-law, then his sister-in-law will come, so he has decided that he will be with them, having eaten his brother-in-law's kebab.

Hearing this, Vandana laughed out loud, the boy's sense of humor was truly amazing! Maharaj appeared exactly a week after the incident. Vandana saw a young man with a sweet and beautiful face, full of vitality, who had molested her brother-in-law. When the boy called her Miss De Sarkar, Sonali's eyes widened in her natural way.

- She is your sister's classmate, Ark, you can call her Bandanadi-

- No, I will call her Bandana aunty, Chodibhai, Thudi Thandidi--

Ark laughed and said, then looked at her and said--

- This sister is two years older than me, and you?

- I completed my graduation last year--

- That means you completed three years of graduation last year, and I completed four years of graduation last year. This means that you are one year my junior after completing secondary and H. My little brother couldn't take the exams for a year when he was young, he got typhoid, he got admitted in the science stream again in HS, dropped out and studied in the arts stream again. It's not his fault... Jeethu forced him to take science - as a result, he lost another year, so Didibhai passed HS a year after me, while I studied a year ahead. Last year, he also completed his graduation with honors in Bengali. Now tell me, what was your subject in graduation?

Sonali had been sitting with furrowed eyebrows listening to her brother, now curiosity was visible in Sonali's eyes. Because the discussion about what he studied in graduation was never discussed with Sonali. Sonali has always considered him weak in studies, a cheater.

- Last year, I completed my B.Sc. with honors in chemistry from Dibrugarh College.

- Arebbs! Where is chemistry and where is music and dance!

- Why? Don't those who have studied science have the right to taste music and dance?

Vandana asked with a smile.

- Yes, but rare, you understand, Miss De Sarkar, Vandanadi, Vandana Aunty, Vandana Rasvati, chemist--

Vandana died laughing at the boy's words.

- Still, I am a didi now because of being your didi's classmate--

- Oh, didiji, when you are my Chhordibhai's friend, then you will be a didiji, no matter how young you are--

- Who said she is younger than you, you rascal?

Sonali was furious. Ark laughed when he heard that.

- Don't be afraid, Chhordibhai--I won't run away with your friend--

- Hanuman, will I let you do this? You are the only son in our house--

- So? My ears are ringing hearing you are the only son in front of everyone!

- I understand. You are imprisoned in a golden cage of love!

Vandana stood up as she said this. She smiled at her friend and said-

- No, talk to your brother Sonali, I am coming-

- Where are you going?

- I will go to Kanak, show me a picture he has drawn, and I will also shake him up a little-

- Why?

Sonali frowned again. Ark looked at her in surprise. Vandana told them-

- Addiction is quite rampant these days--

- Why do you mix with such an addict boy, Vandana?

Sonali said in a calm voice. The girl always kept an eye on his good and bad!

- Don't mix like that. He is a familiar boy, we grew up together in the same place... that Dibrugarh thing!

- Oh my God Vandana, I didn't get a good report about him, he uses ganja and hashish!

- I'm trying to get rid of that as a friend.

With that, Vandana almost ran out of the canteen.