The Unventured Passions Book-2

Kaal Ratri

"So... Bondita gets to indulge in all those delectable sweets?"

"Yes."

"And Bondita gets to don new garments?"

"Yes."

"And she's the one partaking in the function while I'm left out?"

"Yes."

"And all this because she's superior to me?"

"Perhaps." Anirudh's dark, arched eyebrows lifted slightly as he responded to the final inquiry. Shifting his gaze from the typewriter and dispelling his tangled thoughts, he finally acknowledged his younger brother, who had stood by his work table for half an hour, a scowl on his face, absentmindedly rolling the glass paperweight on the mahogany table.

"So, Bondita is indeed better than me?" Anirudh heard Batuk let out a sharp, warm sigh, emphasizing the verb.

Anirudh attempted to conjure that charming smile on his preoccupied lips. "You are the best, Batuk," he reassured tenderly, "only if you believe you are."

Finally capturing his brother's attention, Batuk looked up with a brightened expression. "Is that so?" he asked cheerfully, and Anirudh nodded.

"If that's the case, then I believe I too should get to relish those sweets, wear new attire, and be a part of that feminine event, whatever it may be!" He folded his arms across his chest, asserting his thoughts.

Anirudh smiled and affectionately tousled his brother's unruly hair. "You said it yourself... It's a feminine function. Are you a girl, Batuk?"

Anirudh withdrew his hand from Batuk's head and placed it on the typewriter. "No, I'm not. But don't you always say girls and boys are equal? So why now? Why are they excluding me? And Bondita too!"

Anirudh smiled at the accusation. He had resumed his work, and without shifting his gaze, he casually inquired, "What did she say?"

"Said... Said I can't be here, because I'm not married."

"She did?" Anirudh responded innocently, although this inquiry reignited Batuk's enthusiasm to accuse his only partner in crime, who had seemingly abandoned him without notice.

"And she called me a monkey too!" He rolled his eyes and pouted his lips to emphasize the severity of his accusation.

Anirudh broke into laughter. "Well, you are a monkey, Batuk!" He pulled out a paper from the typewriter and glanced at it once. "And yes... Perhaps you aren't meant to be there, with them, in their function or ritual. Have you seen me attending it?"

Batuk pouted further and nodded in disagreement. "But you're married! It means you can attend if you want?" His eyes brightened suddenly.

"Perhaps. But I'm not interested." Anirudh stood up from the chair. "And I think you shouldn't be interested either."

Batuk didn't object further. Countering his brother was not his habit; it was Bondita's. Letting out a sharp, sad sigh, he left the study room disheartened.

Time rolled in anticipation, and the door finally creaked open, as peering out with one eye was Bondita, his best friend, his dear Boudidi, but with absolute annoyance on her face.

"I told you, you can't be here!" She retorted with a frown, as her elderly, grown-up female friends giggled from inside the closed room.

"But you said married people can."