Aatma

The Bangles Part 1

The Bangle

A  family of five lived very happily  in Surat .The  man of the house was an engineer , he had a grown up daughter and a school going son ,a dedicated wife and widowed mother ,all lived happily and very contend in life,their needs were basic ,they never desired more then what was needed,always showed their gratitude to the Divine , they used to have lot of religious ritual in their house .They were god fearing people ,very humble and satisfied people .The man of the house always had to go on tours for his work as he was an government employee he had to go where ever the project was . So most of the time only his family stayed together and managed the house .The house was built by his ancestors ,it was a huge house with lots  of trees , and flowering plants and creeper, mostly maintained by his mother and wife ,They were very interested in gardening ,the young son used to go to a private school ,,his friends used to often visit him at his house as they loved to be in the garden and enjoy the fruits and also the food prepared by his granny.The daughter was engaged to be married soon.The father most of the time being away from home pampered his family a lot whenever he came down to stay with them ,sometimes it would be for months he would not come ,and when he would visit it would be for a weak and at that time he would  bring lots of things for the family ,and he would take them out a ,he loved his family a lot and missed being with them .This time when he came he made his family sit and they discussed the marriage of their daughter , and the things which she needed for the wedding .He told them the jewellery he would buy from Kolkata,as he liked the traditional jewelry of that part of the country , he told his wife and daughter ,he liked to see the women dressed in their traditional dress and the ladies of bengal were most beautiful , he would also bring lots of saree from Kolkata ,He wanted to see his daughter as a bengali bride, he said he has seen the whole country during his work ,but he liked the bengali bride the most,so he desired to see his daughter in that getup.The family laughs at his obsession for bengali beauties.,He tells his mother he has already collected many bengali cotton sarees for her but he could not bring it this time when he comes again , for the marriage he is going to bring many sarees and jewellery for them , and they have to see all other arrangement ,regarding the marriage hall , food and the rituals ,they prepared the guest list .As he would be going back in few days he wanted to give all instructions to his family about the wedding,he did not want anything to be left out , he wanted the best for his daughter . In the night after a hearty meal he praised his mother for her cooking skills and told her the thing he missed when away from home was her hand cooked meals, his mother tells him jokingly he should be missing his wife and not the food, as his wife is so lonely without him, she never shows it but she being a women can understand how her daughter in law may be feeling ,she feels bad for her as she has to be away from her husband .and only day in and out take care of the house and the family .She tells him after the daughters marriage he should take his wife with him to Kolkata for few days so she will get some change and can relax. The mother tells him he need not worry she will call her sister to stay with her and the grandson .But he should seriously think about taking his wife with him to kolkata for a change ,and she will manage the house with her sister and grandson.The man promises her he will try taking her after the daughters marriage if she insist .The wife is very excited and thanks the mother in law for suggesting the idea to her husband, but she is worried how she will take care of the house and her grandson who was only 12 years old and very naughty , latter while sleeping the man takes his wife near him and tells her that because of his touring job he could not give her time ,and he feels very guilty about that most of her days have gone without him but he will surely.make up for it , by taking her along with him after the daughters marriage.Morning both husband and wife look very happy and are in good mood the daughter sees the chemistry between the parents and makes joke out of it and laughs with her granny ,she tells her granny she is getting married but her parents are planning a honeymoon more excitedly then her. Her granny tells her the way her father is obsessed with the bengali beauties she is scared he might end up bringing a bengali mother for her grandchildren so it is better he plans a honeymoon with his wife and remembers he has a wife and a family to look after ,otherwise one never knows what a man will do in the moment of vulnerability. So for the wellbeing of the family she thought about this idea.The man looks at his mother in mock anger ,and his wife feels shy.He tells his mother he misses his wife no doubt but he has never cheated on her ,as he is too god fearing person , so rest assured he will never cheat on his wife .All laugh heartily .After few days the man leaves for his work and promises he will come few days before the wedding with all the items he had promised .He leaves for Kolkata were he is working on a project..After he leaves his wife starts thinking on the issue of her husband falling in love with a bengali beauty, the fear her innocent mind never had ,now she started thinking on those lines , she felt deep within her that her husband will never cheat her, as whenever he returned he made love to her the same way as he did on the first night of their wedding she never felt his desire for her has become less even after 20 years of marriage .She felt the same way in his arms as she felt the first time in his arms ,he showed the same excitement while making love to her , how could he fake love to his wife if he was getting involved with other women for keeping him satisfied.Admiring beautiful women is normal for a man ,beauty is for admiring it does not mean you need to own it.She was very occupied in justifying herself today and was not paying to what her mother in law was saying to her. Her mother in law noticed her daughter in law was very tensed and not her usual self ,otherwise to occupy herself after her husband goes she would get involved in her gardening work ,but today she was not interested in her plants ,she was holding the water pipe and pouring  water on one patch of the garden for long time ,so her mother in law saw something is bothering her a lot, she goes towards her and tells her she is waiting the patch for a long time now she should water other patch otherwise the plants will die due to overwatering. She tells her daughter in law, we should not think too much on something necessarily we might tend to spoil the relationship, we should ignore few things and concentrate on other work keep focusing on things which gives us happiness.She tells her just because she made a comment on her son falling for a bengali beauty ,she has started suspecting her husband it was just a passing comment made by her .She should not waste her energy in thinking about it.Instead now is the time to prepare for her daughter’s wedding ,as then there will remain few days for the preparations .As her son has  given most of the main and important work to them to do .The daughter in law apologises to her mother for suspecting her husband for a silly comment made by her mother in law, she tells him he has never neglected her needs and has never made her feel less than anybody ,,he has always loved her and appreciated her for bringing up the children in good manner, and taking care of his mother and the house he always acknowledged her contribution to his success, saying if she would not have been able to take care of the house and the children he would never been able to concentrate on his wprk and take up different projects and work without thinking about the house.She has done her jon very efficiently so he wants to take her to Kolkata to spend few days wiih her alone,without the children and the mother only they both husband and wife and discover each other once again..In few days the house is full of relatives who have come to help them with their daughter wedding as there is going to be four day celebration ,so they had to arrange s caterer and all other people to coordinate ,as there were many people at home there was lot of confusions..There after reaching Kolkata , the man used to go for shopping of sarees and brought few authentic jewelry.he liked a particular bangles itas called as kangan (a local language work was Kangan ,ro the bangles )he was mesmerised when he saw those kangans it was a pair a very thick fat bangles ,he wanted it for his wife as her hand was fair and round and plump he felt it will suit her more.He spent a lot on purchasing clothes and jewelry he had packed to come back for her.He calls up his family about his coming back for the marriage ,he tells his mother to call her elder sister and tell her even after the marriage gets over she should  not go back but to stay with her, as when he takes his wife she will feel lonely ,his mother tells him not to worry on that account as she has already told her sister and she has agreed to stay back and take care of her and the grandson..The guest have started arriving at their house a huge pendal (a kind of temporary shelter) outside the house is erected for the guest to sit and dance .Next morning the man arrives with many bags with all the things he wants to give to his daughter on her wedding day His wife is the happiest to see him after three months again and she herself feels as if its her wedding as she will be going with her husband to Kolkata soon after her daughter’s wedding , so she was also very excited about her future ,though it would be for few weeks/She was herself feeling as a bride while seeing her husband of 20 years , and secretly thanks her mother in law for planning a trip for her, she pays gratitude to their house deity for giving this opportunity to spend few weeks with her husband ,after they finish the responsibility of getting their daughter married , and sending her to in laws house.Seeing the father the daughter comes running towards him and hugs him tightly as now it will not be the same ,she will be married and gone to a far of city and her contact with her loving father will be less she will not be  party to the excitement of seeing her father every time he comes from his official tour with bags full of goodies for them she will be missing so many things like going for outing and eating lunch out with the family as she will be busy with her new family . She cries a lot on her father’s shoulder.He tells her she should learn from her mother hoe she is a pillar to her family and took and nurtured them , taking care of their needs and forgetting her own desires. She should also accept her new family and let go her at

tachment to her maternal family and try to keep them happy and in return they will respect her and give her love. That is the way a girl becomes a part of her husband’s  family. All the ceremony starts according to the Hindu customs The bride is applied the turmeric by all her friends and relatives on her face,hands and feet , she wears a yellow colour attire and then , the next day henna is applied to her hands and feet and the third day all the relatives and friend dance with joy ,and food and drinks flow freely and on the forth day she is married to the boy and send to his house .After the marriage when most of the guest and relatives leave the family feels sad but also shed tears of joy that their daughter has got married and will now raise her own family and will keep coming to visit her parents with her own family.After settling down a bit now it is time for the parents to leave for their journey .They reach the airport early as the man wanted to show his wife the whole airport as she had never travelled in a plane .She was always house bond so her husband wanted to show her every thing.She marvels at all the good things and then she enjoys her first trip on the plane .She misses her children and her mother in law as she had never enjoyed anything without them ,but her husband tells her to relax and enjoy without any guilt feelings as this is meant for her ,he also tells her when they reach home there is a surprise for her which he did not want to give her in front of the family so now when they reach his Kolkata house she will get that gift.She is not that excited to know about the gift as she is to mesmerised with the things she is seeing around her , the people the women and when she arrives at the Kolkata airport and she sees the beautiful ladies with long black hair dove shaped eyes red lips well draped in beautiful cotton sarees ( the country’s attire is saree in India) she understands why her husband liked the beauties of bengal.She suddenly wanted to look like them ,dress like them and make her husband happy.After a long drive in the cab ,they reach the house by then she was very tired so they order food from out and after finishing it they fall asleep. In the evening ,she gets up and takes the tour of the house , it was a spacious house with three bedrooms, a huge hall ,and a kitchen.She is intimidated by the size of the house ,and then she looks of the window she see a road with busy motorist and then her eye catches the ground just opposite her window avast ground with many tall trees and a very big gate she tries to see it properly and after a long time she sees people going in with a coffin all are dressed in black dress and are holding a cross , she is terrified and she runs to the bedroom and gets

. back under the cover. And chants a prayer her husband gets up and asks her what happened why is she shaking so violently , is she having fever after the  long journey .She hugs him tightly and tells him why he had not told her about the cemetery in front of the house .How could he stay in front of a cemetery . And did not even tell her about it all these months he was staying in the house. She tells him how can she stay alone whole day looking at those tombstones and such a big house , she starts crying .He tells her it had never mattered to him as he got up in the morning and left for work and came home in the night went to sleep so he never had actually seen it and given much importance to it.He tells her not to open that side of the window and to just focus on good things and relax and enjoy ,as she has worked very hard for so long now is the time to pamper herself.She settles down and keeps her head on his chest and smiles he caress her hair and feels as if they are back to their young days.they hold each other for long time and then he kisses her forehead and tells him not to worry and just go with the flow.He tells her , should he order  for food , she tells him she will make some khichdi as they had eaten outside food in the afternoon ( khichdi is.a rice and lentil mixed and cooked dish eaten by Indians as a fast food takes very less time to make) She kisses him on his lips and gets up to go to the kitchen ,he follows her and quickly closes the window facing the cemetery .She ignores him and goes .to the kitchen and starts cooking and he hugs her from behind and tells her he is very happy his mother suggested to bring her here and was ready to take care of their son. .He tells her after dinner he will give her the gift which he has brought for her.She tells him she does not want the gift today as she is already too overwhelmed with all the things around .She tells him to save the gift and give her on her birthday two days latter,he agrees.They eat the khichdi and then talk a lot about the day they were young .

He takes her to the bedroom and holds her hand tenderly ,and makes her sit on the bed then he climbs and keeps his head oh her lap she runs her fingers in his hair ,she bends down and kisses his forehead .then she keeps his head down and lies down next to him unbuttons his shirt and removes it from his body and than keeps her head oh his chest and kisses all over, he enjoys her every move ,she then climbs over him  and sits on him and very aggressively makes love to him he is so happy and wonder’s from where she got this art, she had never taken this position in 20 years of their married life.he was pleasantly surprised to see her other side but does not comment just enjoys and takes her in his arms and both fall asleep..In the morning she gets up and goes for a bath , and then prays to her deity and enters the kitchen and starts making breakfast,her husband gets up hearing to her talking to someone in the kitchen ,He gets up goes to the washroom ,and when he comes out she has made breakfast ans has opened the window ,and staring out ,he asks her to whom was she talking she says a women came in and told her she works in this house and cleans the house daily ,so she told her as she has come to stay for few days to stay with her husband she will do the cleaning .Her husband says but how she came in his wife says she had a spare key.He tells his wife he never employed any maid to clean the house and has never given key to any body, he used to bring a work from his company on his off days and get the house cleaned .He asks her why did she open the window ,he had closed it and told her not to see the cemetery.his wife says the window was open and fresh cool breeze was blowing so she was standing and enjoying the breeze today his wife didn’t seem to be upset with anything ,the unknown women who visited her,claiming he had given her the keys of the house ,or how the window opened or the sight of the cemetery.She was very cool as if nothing bothered her now .After breakfast he told her not to open the door for anybody and told her not to go out alone he will come in the evening and then they can go and he will show the place in and around their house and will have dinner.He told her to have lunch on time and then relax and read some books or watch TV . and if she needs to talk to him she can talk to him on his mobile.He got ready and took his bag and embarrassed her and kissed her passionately , she closed the door and went to the kitchen and cleaned the vessels,took her medicines and planned to lie down ..Soon she falls asleep after sleeping for long time  ,she  wants to get up  ,but can’t she  goes back  to sleep  after some time she feels small girls are playing in her room she can hear them laughing and can feel them running around her room and jumping on her bed and cross her and go round and round she can feel their frocks brushing her cheeks,she tries hard to open her eyes and shout at them for entering her room ,After trying very hard she gets  up and shouts who is it ? she sees around her room and does not find any body ,she comes our in the hall and sees the window still open she closes it and she hears someone in the house humming and sweeping the floor, she feels scared she slowly picks a broom and goes towards the huge hall and now can hear only the humming ,it’s  12 in the afternoon she wonders who could it be , there are four pillars in the hall ,its coming from one off the pillars , she slowly goes behind the pillar and sees a the same lady the one who had come in the morning to her house, now she has worn a cream colour saree(indian national dress )and a big red mark of turmeric on her forehead the symbol of a married women and she was dusting the furnitures .the lady of the house is taken aback and is shaking with fright and anger, she shouts at her and asks her how dare she enter the house without her permission ,the women in the saree turns back to look at her and tells her ,the man of the house has given her the keys ,and its her responsibility to obey him and keep the house clean for him. The lady of the house tells her to shut up and go out as her husband has told her he has not given any key to anybody and she should take her children who were playing in her room few minutes back and go out of her house and not to come again as she doesn’t  want her to work in the house. When the lady finishes telling her to go away she sees the servant lady has disappeared , the lady of the house searches her everywhere but she is not there .She goes and checks her main door opens it but no one is at sight.She closes the door and puts all latches tightly. And then sits on the couch and switches on the Tv but she can’t concentrate on any channels.She is wondering who is saying the truth  , her husband or the lady .Has her husband really employed the lady to take care of the house and is not telling the truth to her. Suddenly she heard a bell and she jumps in fear then sees her mobile is ringing  .She picks up the mobile and sees her husband is calling her , she talks to him ,he asks her how she is doing is she having any problem,did the lady come again ,for every thing she says no problem and the lady did not come again. 

In the evening her husband comes home early ,she is surprised ,she asks him  that he is used to coming home late ,then how today he is early .He tells her he used to come home late as there was no one at home so he used to spend time with his colleagues and then sit in the park and then have food outside take a stroll and then come home change and sleep ,but now she is at home so he need not spend his time out.so he came home straight .He also reminds her he had told her he will be taking her out to show the places  in and around the house and later dinner ,to usher in her birthday .They both change and lock the door and go out , he shows her the grocery stored te vegetable markets ,the doctor’s clinic ,and many more places ,They visit the Kali mata Temple .she buys the red and white traditional bangles  worn by a  married bengali  women ,and the red powder worn on the partition of the hair in the middle of the head.Then they go to a restaurant serving  authentic bengali food ,they order lots of fish and meat dishes and  enjoy the dinner. After coming home .He goes and gets the gift which he had bought for her ,and gives it to her saying he wants the return gift like last night ,she feels awkward and takes the gift ,and opens it up she is amazed to see two gold bangles ,which is a traditional bengali kangan . She sees the intricate designs on it and likes it a lot . She  thanks him and keeps it back .

Her husband pulls her toward him and asks her for the return gift . She feels shy and tells him as they roamed a lot today and after the heavy dinner she is very sleepy . He tells her he had told her to take enough rest and not to work .He asks her what did she do the whole day, how did she spend her first day alone in the big house all alone ,did she enjoy the experience away from her children and mother in law ? She thinks a lot and tells him it was  a very exciting day right from the morning till he presented to her the gold bangles , it was full of surprises for her. He feels happy she has adjusted to the house and kisses her passionately and they both hug each other and fall asleep.