Anirudh- The Story Of A Misread Barrister

Chapter- 37- Bondita Invites Her Krishna (Part-1)

(The spree starts with this and ends with leap probably . Enjoy.)

After an adventurous week, it was finally Saturday, which means there will be no court and I will have two days to rest. I sat in my recliner lost in a Bengali romance novel called 'Doorgeshnondhini' written by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee when Bondita came to me with an invitation to witness her final dance performance which was supposed to be in the evening. It was her test technically, after which the teacher will give a declaration of whether she had passed in the course or not. Subbu's house was decided as the venue to host the dance finale of the girls as his mother was also a fine arts enthusiast and they had a big hall in their house that could accommodate many people which was considered ideal to host the dance examination.

"Sakha babu, you should come on time without fail.", she ordered while placing a folded paper in my hands. On holding it, I felt it was not merely a paper but something else too was there. I opened to see what it was and found a beautiful peacock feather fastened to the paper with a string of pearls. It brought an instant smile to my face. Then I carefully opened the string and freed the feather; after which, I read the contents on the paper that said,

"Dear sakha babu,

I want you to be there sharp at 5:00PM. Don't get drowned in a book and lose track of the time.

Your Bondita."

I couldn't help but chuckle. She was so sure that I will be immersed in some book which is very true. At that time, I was really so engrossed in the love story of Doorgeshnondhini (the daughter of the feudal lord) and her lover.

"Are you laughing at the invitation, sakha babu?", snapped Bondita.

"Oh, not at all. The invitation is so beautiful and I want to really appreciate your creativity, Bondita. I just laughed thinking how are you so sure about my involvement in a book.", I admitted.

"Oho, sakha babu", she said while hitting her forehead with her hand, "Do you think is it a big mystery that I can't decode? I have been watching you since childhood, you may even forget to eat at times but you will never forget to read. After all, books are your wives in true sense than Bondita.", and she bit her tongue as soon as she finished saying.

"Umm..I.. I mean....I was talking about those days.", she made up to the sudden slip of her tongue as she twisted the free end of her half saree nervously, while I felt a kind of unexplainable weird sensation within my heart.

"Well, my point is please come on time, since I want you to see my performance from the starting. Okay?", she quickly changed the subject.

"Is my presence really required? The other girls and ladies may feel uncomfortable as I heard it is an exclusively ladies affair. Anyway my best wishes are always with you, so, you may carry on.", I said, recovering from the previous jerk that she gave me.

"I am not going to take a no from you, sakha babu. I understand only ladies are invited to watch but that doesn't mean you can't come. Everyone coming there knows you very well and the girls are your students too. Moreover, it is happening in Subbu dada's house, so, dada and his father are also there. Please sakha babu, please, please...", requested Bondita in her usual cute way. What else could I do, other than giving in to her demand? I agreed.

"I will leave now. I have to make so many preparations.", Bondita said and turned to leave but I stopped her,"Bondita, take this".  I showed the string of pearls while keeping the invitation and peacock feather inside the book I was reading, which was placed on the wall of the porch.

She stopped and took a look at the string of pearls in between my fingers. Then, without any further talking she took the string along with my right hand into her hands and tied it around my wrist. Without a little bit of resistance, I stood there wondering what she was up to. Before I could ask her anything, she admired my hand saying, "Beautiful!", as her fingers gently caressed the pearls and my wrist at the same time.

"While making this I didn't expect it to look so beautiful on your wrist, because, I doubted that your skin tone won't let these pearls shine, but I was wrong. Your hand enhanced the beauty of these pearls even more. In fact, these pearls are looking more beautiful on your skin than on mine.", she said while clapping her hands merrily.

"First will you tell me what's all this? And where did you get these pearls from?", I asked nonchalantly.

"During my last days in Roy Chowdhary mansion, your kaka, my uncle-in-law, gifted me with a chain of pearls. On the day of our marriage annulment while packing my stuff, unfortunately the chain fell down, resulting the chain to break and pearls to scatter. However, I collected all those pearls in a box and mindlessly put it inside my bag. Recently I remembered about it and thought of giving them a new form. So here they are.", she narrated the entire incident.

"Why didn't you tell me before? I should have got the chain fixed.", I said.

"On the same day when the chain broke, our family also broke. The coincidence of the events somehow did not make me feel like assembling these pearls, since they resemble my broken family, my broken nest.", replied Bondita. Her words came like hundred arrows towards my heart, piercing and making it bleed.

She then smiled and went on saying, "Those were the thoughts I had that time. It would have been very nice if home is only about bricks and relationships are only about names. However, home means relationships and relationships mean emotional attachment. So, for a child, getting separated from a home where she got immense love and care is obviously disheartening. Now I understand that due to this very reason, child marriages shouldn't happen; as children struggle to withstand the burden of the heavy responsibilities and also at the same time cannot even detach themselves from those relationships so easily.

Now that I am growing my wings and walking towards my independence, I could see the pain that I had as a child slowing fading away. So, I thought of gathering these pearls again and make a string, but this time I wanted to give it to the right person, to their rightful owner."

"Why, because my kaka gifted them to you?", I asked.

"Not just that, but, you alone can match their standard. Pearls are considered to be the purest and according to me you are the one with the purest heart just as these pearls. So, you should own them rightfully."

I gaped at her with admiration. Her maturity in dealing with grief, her deep sense of understanding problems, her strength to come out of disappointments with much positivity and the way she always keeps me above everyone is touching my soul. Bondita is innocently entangling me in that bond which I never thought I had an access to.

"In that case you should keep these pearls with you, because according to me, you are the purest human being. Even there is a possibility to find some vices in my mind, but not in yours. Your fair heart, the innocence and your goodness makes you the loveliest human being on earth. Not only these pearls but you deserve all the finest and best things in the world, dear Bondita.", I spoke my heart out. My eyes welled up for being so fortunate to meet such a person in life.

"You cannot have any vices in your mind too. I can say it with one hundred percent confidence because I am your reflection. About the string, whether it stays with you or me it is the same thing right?", she asked.

"Then keep it with you, since I don't use jewellery.", I coerced.

"Keep it as a token of our friendship, sakha babu. Consider it as a friendship band."

"Does our relationship need these physical tokens of representation?", I asked.

Bondita answered back saying, "Tokens of representation may not be needed to state relationships but they definitely enhance the beauty of relations in the form of souvenirs. Whenever you look at this, you will remember this day and the memories will make you happy."

Then suddenly she quipped in a dramatic tone, "Oho sakha babu, you are trapping me in your conversations and wasting my time. I have so much to do. I should help Iyer aunty in decoration, I should do a final practice of the dance and the toughest part is to get ready in the dance costume. I should run now. See you later!" and even before I blinked my eyes, she left the place.

"Who trapped her in a conversation, me? Badmaash Bondita!", I thought and laughed as I unconsciously hugged my hand with the friendship band close to my heart, breathing in some air of peace. 

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(To be continued...)

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