ANIDITA: A TALE OF ETERNAL LOVE

CHAPTER 4

" No Anirudh Babu, we cannot accept this. You have already done a lot for Bondita and our family too. Moreover, Tapur and I have never set our foot outside Krishnanagar, London is out of question", said Tupur. Anirudh had come to Krishnanagar to give the Das family tickets to London so that they can go with the Roy Chowdhuries to Bondita's Convocation Ceremony. In these 8 years, Anirudh had literally taken care of every need of the Das family in Bondita's absence just to keep the promise he had made to Bondita.

" Sakha Babu, promise me that you will take care of my Ma and Thaku Ma and will never let them feel my absence. Promise me that you will take care of Tapur and Tupur just like you take care of Som dada and Batuk", an emotional Bondita had said to him, 8 years ago just before they parted ways. Cupping her face , he had said, " I promise Bondita, that I will take care of your family and look after Tapur and Tupur as my sisters".

Since then, not even for a single moment did he leave the side of the Das family. He had encouraged Thaku Ma to send Tapur to a newly built all girls school, to which she had agreed.But unfortunately the Das family business was doing very bad and they were unable to pay for her education, and thus Anirudh came forward to pay the fees. Tapur always admired her Bondita didi and considered her as her role model. Tupur also loved Bondita and would often miss chatting with her. Anirudh had also taken the responsibility of paying for Bondita's education in London and did not let Thaku Ma to repay a single penny for what he was spending. For Anirudh, it was more than just paying for his Sakhi's education. He was investing in their dream of making her a Barrister.

When Tupur was 18 years old, Thaku Ma and her Sumati kaki had married her off to Chandrachur Banerjee. The Banerjees lived in Chandannagar and were well known industrialists. Chandrachur's father, Mr Anirban Banerjee , had established their first ever textile industries in Chandannagar which was a makeshift cottage , having just three employees. At present , they have managed to establish many more textile industries in Bengal with the help of the British officials. The Banerjees may look polished and sensible people and a very happy family to the rest of the world , but the reality was very different.

When the Banerjees were sent letters by Thaku Ma inviting them to their house , they were not told that Tupur was dark skinned. When Mr Anirban visited them along with his wife, Mrs. Kalyani Banerjee, they were utterly diappointed with the fact that Tupur had a skin tone a bit darker than all the others in her family. They got into several quarrels with Thaku Ma. After requesting a lot and urging them a lot to let Tupur become their Daughter-in-law, they agreed only on one condition : They demanded a huge amount of dowry as compensation. Initially Thaku Ma agreed to pay the hefty amount but later on she understood that it was too costly for them to pay such a huge amount. So on the day of Tupur's wedding, Thaku Ma very cleverly made Tupur sit on the wedding mandap and paid only half of the dowry demanded without letting the Banerjees know. Since Chandrachur was always busy in taking care of his father's business, he was unknown to all that was happening between the two families. He had earlier agreed to his father that he would marry anyone his parents selected for him.

On his wedding night, when Chandrachur lifted Tupur's veil, he noticed nothing but only her dark complexion.He stared at her face, shocked and utterly disgusted. In a fit of rage, he pushed Tupur so hard that she fell off the bed causing her right elbow to get seriously injured. Ignoring a bleeding and sobbing Tupur, he stormed out of his room to reason with his parents. " I agreed to marry whomever you chose for me and you married me off to this kaali (black) girl? Why did you do this? I did not expect you to bring such an ugly girl in your house as my wife. This is the price I am paid for taking care of your business, Baba (father)? Moreover, in the first place, how did you even agree to bring this girl home? Ma, wasn't it you only who used to dream and assure me that you will bring me a beautiful wife? How could you commit such a blunder? How am I supposed to live with this girl now?" , he said furiously, his voice loud enough for Tupur to listen each and every word. She cried even more profusely, more due to the words spoken by her husband than the deep cut she had on her elbow. It was then that Anirban explained everything to him. A dejected Chandrachur fell down on the chair. His father said, " And you know what Chandrachur, Thaku Ma has betrayed us by paying only half of what she demanded". This made Chandrachur even more angry. She has the nerves to marry off her ugly daughter to me and then pay only half of what my parents demanded, thought Chandrachur. He again stormed off to his room. He held Tupur by her hair and thrashed her black and blue. A night which was supposed to be the best night of her life turned out to be the beginning of a never ending ordeal she would have to face for her entire life.

Even after two years of her marriage, Chandrachur had not consummated their marriage. He touched her only when he wanted to beat her. Even his family supported him in whatever he was doing to Tupur. They harassed her for not paying dowry, and also blamed her for being dark skinned, something which was not in her hands and was completely out of her control.

Tupur had told about all this to Thaku Ma but she would always dismiss it saying the wife should tolerate a bit and accept everything she got from her husband as prasad. She would say , " Don't worry my child, such fights and disagreements are common between a husband and a wife. Once you become a mother, you will get all the love of your husband and in laws. Let me teach you some fasts and penances you have to perform so that you can conceive". Little did Tupur know, that a woman cannot get pregnant by fasting or praying.

Anirudh was oblivious to all these things as Thaku Ma never told him anything, thinking it would be better if these issues are kept a secret. She knew if Anirudh found out, he would not let his sister suffer so much and would force her to divorce her husband, giving the society a chance to insult them.

Anirudh said, " But Tupur, it is Bondita's biggest day and she will be very disheartened if she does not find her dear sisters by her side. Thaku Ma, please , please come with us to London. I assure you I will take care of you all and you will not feel even a bit of discomfort. Please Thaku Ma, already Bondita is angry with me as I told her that I have a very important case and that it would take time to wind up the case". The family loved and respected Anirudh a lot and so when he requested them like this, they could not help but agree to him.

A day before the Convocation Ceremony

Back in London, everyone including Bondita, Aritrika and William were busy preparing for their D day. The colour code was white for girls and black for boys. Almost all the boys decided to wear Black suits with red bowties whereas most of the girls were going to wear a white gown to the Ceremony. But Bondita has something else in her mind. Since she was going to fulfill the dream of her Sakha Babu and her family would be there with her that day, she wanted them to see her accepting her degree wearing a saree. So she had managed to locate an Indian store earlier that month and she bought a beautiful white saree with white blouse. She was still mad at her Sakha Babu for whatever he said that day and for not being present here in London on her Convocation Day. Still she eagerly waited to meet the rest of her family members, especially her Ma.

On the other hand, the whole Roy Chowdhury family and the Das family had reached London and were eager to meet Bondita. Anirudh was more excited than anyone that day mainly because of two resons: first being, he would be meeting Bondita after 8 years and secondly he would be seeing her getting her Barrister degree and also he would be the one who would be making her wear the Barrister Robe. But he was also excited to see her reaction when he surprises her by paying her visit on her Convocation.

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