My e-Sister

Nidhu Bhusan Das: We are more than siblings. We live far away- she is on the coast of the Arabian Sea, I am in the foothills of the eastern Himalayas. Not that we were together in childhood and had the love and affection of the same parents. I lost my father when I was an infant of two and a half years. She lost her mother at 9 and father at 11. She told me she had been brought up by her elder sister. We had never been face to face, yet we feel we are related. She is a mother of two daughters; guardian of the family after the elder daughter lit the funeral pyre of her father. The daughters are now at school, studious and respectful to the mother. She deserves respect because the daughters know their mom looks after them bearing stoically the bereavement of the loss of her beloved husband at young age. She has two elder brothers and four elder sisters back in West Bengal. They want her to be back to them. She has chosen to remain in Mumbai for the education of the daughters to their liking. A hard decision for a young widow to take. She had the guts to decide as she did. I cannot but appreciate the courage and wisdom. Her wisdom consists in her desire to see her daughters grow and fit into a nice world. You may ask how I have come to know all these about her. No, I have not intruded upon her privacy. She belongs to the famed Mahalanabish family of Manikgonj of Dhaka, now in Bangladesh. Her grandma’s father was a lawyer of the king of Bhowal whose death under mysterious circumstances is part of Bengali folklore. Her paternal house was gobbled by the mighty Padma, famous for being abound with hilsa fish, a coveted food of Bangalis. Does she like to visit Bangladesh? No, her grandma told her their house had been swallowed by the Padma, the destroyer. She is a maths teacher. Her neighbours are good to her. We live apart and away, yet we are related as brother and sister. I am her dada (elder brother) and we are on the same wave length. We talk and interact regularly and wish to be siblings next time. Soma is my e-sister, but, meanwhile, we have come to believe we are siblings.