The Unnaturals . Book 2

Part 8 Limbo

Chapter 8

Limbo

Three weeks had passed since Duke and Piku's confrontation .

Duke was studiously avoiding him . Whenever they crossed each other's path at school , he was meticulously polite and always pretending to be busy .

With the matric exams coming on , he was genuinely busy and too harried to need to pretend any more . The distance between them seemed to stretch further and further apart and thus almost a month went by without them talking , playing or sharing a meal together .

Piku kept telling himself that this was good . This was what he wanted . This was the right thing to do .

" Me and Duke .. does it even make sense ? Even the thought is absurd . What will people say ? They'll say the same thing as THEY did . That we are unnatural , that we are disgusting . That our love is this dirty thing to be sneered at . Jethu could easily send me to jail . One word from Her and he'll destroy our lives . He could destroy my entire family . "

He tried to find a compromise, telling himself , " but I don't have to stop loving him . I can feel whatever I like as long as no one finds out . We can be best friends as usual . I'll just hide this inside . I can control myself . I must ! I can't succumb to these urges . I must not . "

Yes , he told himself over and over again through the dark , lonely , endless nights , this was the right thing to do .

His heart felt as if it was being squeezed in a vice . Sometimes it was thundering rapidly in some unknown fear , sometimes aching dully as if someone was sitting on his chest .

He spent the days in a dull haze mechanically going about his routine , longing desperately for Duke .

Something was brewing at home which created further chaos in his troubled mind .

His maternal uncle had come for a visit .

Ranadeb Banerjee was a lawyer practicing in the northern city of lucknow . He also ran a small printing press and was successful in both his careers . He had 5 daughters and the disappointment of being unable to father a son had very early in the day, turned him into an advocate of womens' rights .

He wrote and distributed pamphlets about his favorite topic and harangued anybody within earshot about his views on the pathetic state of women in India .

Piku's father , ever the stalwart of hindu culture , considered all this total nonsense and a bad western influence . Never could he see eye to eye with his brother in law about this .

When he was planning their move out of their home in Dhaka , Piku's uncle had offered him a partnership in his firm and welcomed the family to Lucknow .

Bhattacharjee babu had refused to even consider it and had instead chosen to work in this interior rural area of Bengal as the older Roybahadur's secretary .

From that position he had risen to his present rank of personal confidant of the current zamindar . He was his lawyer as well as his chief accountant . His workload was truly stupendous considering the varied businesses and landholdings the Roychowdhury family owned . He felt very proud of his achievements and his brother in law's equal success in his own field was a thorn in his his side .

One morning the two men were sitting together talking politics . Rana uncle was extrapolating about India gaining independence soon . He declared that Eastern India was taking an active role in the freedom struggle and that made him feel very proud .