We Are Together

Nidhu Bhusan Das : Look into my eyes. What do you read? ‘No – thing ‘, said I, doubtful. She smiled, her pomegranate lips trembling. She said,’ Yes, you are right. An emotion cannot be a thing. ‘In the Suharawardy Udyan, adjacent to the Arts Faculty of Dhaka University, under a tree we were face to face. She took me there across the Mymensingh Road. She said she had something important to share. I was at first taken aback. Though we were childhood pals and read at the same school at the primary level, we were not intimate at the English Department we belonged to at the university. Rather we avoided each other. That day it was a different story. In the morning after the tutorial class, she said she would be in the library at 3 p.m. She expected me. I could not disoblige. I said,’ Well, I will come.’ That was all, after so many years. She left our school after class V and studied at Holy Cross School and College in Dhaka. I saw her after seven years at English Department where we took admission, unaware of each other. We saw each other but did not talk. I thought I should not until she came forward. She also thought in the same way, as she told me that day. She is a five feet four inches blonde, her complexion tawny. During our childhood we played and studied together, quarreled, and again cuddled each other. That was an innocent phase. Now we were experienced. O, when she asked me to be with her in the library a train of thoughts and emotions ran through me. I came back to the residential hall, bathed and had lunch in the dining room.I was delighted. At last Nilu asked me. But why? Back to my room, I lay on the bed for a couple of hours. I could not find any definite answer to the question. Excited, I could not sleep. I was also afraid –‘If I sleep I may miss the tryst ahead.’ Five minutes to 3 p.m. I left the room and turned up at the library on time. She was there in the magazine section on the ground floor leafing through a journal.As soon as she saw me, she rose and we came out of the library. ‘Let’s go to the Udyan,’ she suggested, as we walked side by side, smelling each other, after years. The Mymensingh Road running between the campus and the udyan is always busy with fast vehicles wheezing down. In the July afternoon when the sun was in the west we crossed the road and went into the arbor where many other university students already had occupied cozy spots under the trees. We sat under a krishnachura. Nilu broke our silence: ‘Then you are confused as to why I have called you?’ I said, ‘A bit.’ She said,’ Do you remember what your uncle, our teacher, and my father decided one morning while we were in our math session?’ ‘Yes, but that was a joke,’ I said. ‘Not at all. You are still a simpleton. They were serious and meant business.’ ‘How do you know?’ I asked her. ‘Your uncle is no more. My father has come to Dhaka. He loves you. Papa asked me last night how I rated you, and if I remembered what he shared with your uncle regarding you and me.’ She blushed as she was reproducing the conversation. She told her father she distinctly remembered and was not averse to see their wishes being materialized. So, she would like to know my opinion and fathom my emotion. She looked at me, her face brightened, and said,’ What do you read on my face?’ I could not say anything. I took her beautiful hand into mine and kissed on the back of it. She leaned on me and we had lips on lips, and again she enjoyed the touch of my wet lips on her rosy cheeks. We were there till sundown, and before parting she told me her father would be waiting for having breakfast with me at their flat near our hall next morning. I turned up at their flat at 8 a.m. Her father, our beloved teacher, was waiting with other members of the family, including her mother, the tender hearted lady. At breakfast the issue was raised by her parents. They were straight: ‘Will you tie knot with Nilu to honor the wish of your uncle? We are ready.’ I am willing if Nilu has no reservation,’ said I , frankly. ‘Why reservation?’ asked papa. ‘Because we belong to different religions,’ I said. He laughed and said unequivocally that was no problem. That day we were engaged and after one year we were married. We have one daughter, living in Maryland, the USA, still single. Nilu says our daughter will settle as and when she finds the right person to partner with for life. I agree.