ANIDITA: A TALE OF ETERNAL LOVE

CHAPTER 2

The Hostel ,where Bondita stayed for her further studies in London, issues a notice one month prior to every Mid Term and End Sem Exam, that informs the students that they can now write letters to their respective families and inform them about the Examination Schedule so that everyone gets a chance to talk to one family member or a friend for five minutes before the Exam takes place on that same day. Likewise, This time too Bondita and her fellow hostel mates wrote letters to their families informing about their Exam dates. In her letter, Bondita wrote that she wants to seek blessings of her

Mother Sumati as it is her last year and also the last law exam in this Law School. Anirudh agreed to her this request as he always gets to talk to her but somehow or the other Bondita misses a chance to speak to Sumati as she remains out of the village for almost 20 days a month. Anirudh knew the fact that if ever Bondita is forced to choose between him or her Mother, she would always choose her mother , without even thinking for a second.

When she opened the door, she found her warden standing. " Why are you not yet ready for the exam? Did you for---" . Before she could complete her sentence, Bondita interrupted her, " Is it my turn now to talk to my mother?" to which The warden nodded. Off went Bondita , running with a lightning speed to talk to her mother. Even if it was just for 5 minutes, She was going to listen to her sweet voice after almost 2 months. But when she reached there she found that there was a long queue in front of the telephone. Seeing this, Bondita became disappointed and this is when she remembered that the Hostel allows only 10 students at a time to be near the telephone. There were still 7 students standing in front of her. If only I woke up a bit early, thought Bondita. But what is the point of crying over spilt milk? All she could do was wait and wait. It had been hardly 10 seconds when Bondita checked the time in her wrist watch, gifted to her by her Sakha Babu and she noticed that it is already 10: 52 am. The exam starts at 11 am. If she waits anymore, she will miss the chance to talk to her Maa. " Hey Dugga Ma ( O Goddess Durga) , I have only 15 minutes before the commencement of the Exam. Now what will you do Bondita?" , she said to herself.

An idea struck her.

In Bondita's college, there was not a single soul who was not afraid of Prof. Smith, who was also in-charge of the hostel mess as well as the one who looked after the discipline in the College. He had had an accident in the past which lead to him having a serious fracture in one of his legs. Thus to save him from standing for long hours, giving lectures to the students, the College accepted his request of appointing him as the supervisor of the Hostel Mess. He was the most strict and stubborn Professor in the whole college. Not only the students, even his colleagues preferred staying away from him. Amongst his many peculiar characteristics, he was such a person who was very punctual and was extremely strict about time and always forced his students to report to the Auditorium for the Morning Assembly or any function 10 minutes earlier. If he found anyone entering the hall after those 10 minutes, he would severely punish them by making them wash the dishes of all the 150 students for that one day. In addition to that he would also give the defaulter a sound thrashing on his or her hand with a wooden scale. Naturally, any student would avoid getting into trouble by disobeying him. No one knew the reason behind his this weird nature.

Bondita whispered into the ears of the girl standing ahead of her informing that she just now heard the voice of Professor Smith. Frightened, the girl passed on the information to the ones standing in front of her, and finally this reached the first boy who was on the telephone, talking to his family member. Since Bondita was the favorite of all the Professors in the college and also the topper of her college, somehow all the students had an assumption that she always speaks the truth and every word spoken by her is God's word, after all Professors won't love a student so much if he or she lies. Although she never misused this to bully or lie to anyone, but this time she had to do this as she needed to seek her blessings of her mother. Soon all the students tiptoed their way out of the room from the backdoor, frightened that may be scolded by Prof Smith. In a hurry, no one noticed that even after knowing that the Prof is approaching Bondita was still standing there, smiling. Bondita giggled and clapped her hands, jumping happily as her mission was accomplished. 

Without wasting a second, she dialled the number of the Das Haveli in Krishnanagar. As expected, her mother picked up the call after just one ring. "Hallu, Bondita. My child!" , Sumati said. As she was listening to her voice after almost 2 months, Bondita's eyes filled with tears and she got very very emotional. She cannot tolerate living away from her mother for even a second. Even when she was leaving her house with Anirudh to go to London, she cried like a 1 year old, refusing to leave her mother and kept on running back to her to hug her. Composing herself , Bondita replied, " Ma, tell me one thing, were you sitting on the phone itself that you picked up my call just after the telephone rang only once? ". Listening to this , Sumati laughed and said, " I was so excited to talk to you that I kept hovering around the phone the whole afternoon since I had lunch. It seems as if decades have passed since I heard your voice". Bondita felt herself choking and could not stop herself from crying. Even Sumati cried. Glancing at her watch, Bondita saw that it was already 10:55 am. So she says, " Ma I have to go now. I have my exam in 5 minutes. I just called you to seek your blessings". Sumati said, " My blessings are always there with you, My child. May you pass your exam with flying colors and make us proud". Bidding her mother a tearful goodbye, she cut the call.

Since the last night Bondita had been making up questions of what she would be asking her mother and what all stories does she need to tell to her. But today , when she called her, she was not able to speak properly. She wondered why this happened to her, while walking towards her exam hall, tying her hair into a bun. Maybe she got very emotional which did not allow her to speak her any further, she thought. Now Bondita felt a strong urge to return back to India, to her mother, to her village Krishnanagar, to her Sakha Babu.  

Lost in her thoughts, Bondita reached the Exam hall late. It was already 5 minutes past 11. On entering the hall, she saw the Warden glaring at her with anger in her eyes. She ignored her and went up to her seat and started writing. Talking to Sumati after such a long gap filled her with confidence and positivity.

3 hours later, the bell rang, indicating that the writing time is over and now students have to hand over their copies to the invigilators. Even though she was late, Bondita found the questions to be very easy and so she was able to finish writing before time. While leaving the hall, Bondita was stopped by her warden, but right Bondita was not in a mood to talk to her and also listen to her bakwaas (rubbish talks) , that is what Bondita thought she did. " Why were you late for the exam? I told you to hurry up but you ran out to talk to your mother. How many times do I--". She was again interrupted by Bondita who said," Madam, look there someone is calling you." The warden turned around but after searching a lot also she could not find the one who called her. She immediately understood she became the target of yet another mischievous stunts of Bondita. She turned around to scold Bondita, but Bondita was nowhere to be seen. Bondita was successful in making the warden a fool again and in no time , she ran away from there. Furrrrr...