She Won't Reveal 12

.

     She Won’t Reveal (12)                               Nidhu Bhusan Das

Amal Bose has already overstayed at Amlarem. At 9 a.m. today, he came to visit Anu and bid farewell. “I leave tomorrow. I’ll go by the North-east Express, Nilu goes with me,” said Mr. Bose. “Won’t you visit your friend Prof Sanyal?” Anu asked, smiling.She reminded him he had told he would visit the Professor on his way back to Kolkata.” I’ve been late, and must rush home. I’ll visit him another time. Soon I’ll be back to the north-east,” he promised.

Anu could read three meanings in what he had said. Her story of mom-son relation between Sujata and Prof. Sanyal might have prompted him to change his itinerary. He might have been scared of the possible presence of Sujata when he would be at the flat of Prof. Sanyal. Besides, his new paramour Nilu might be reluctant to let him share time with any other on the way, particularly when she may fear Prof. Sanyal might know about her lasciviousness which was a public knowledge at Guwahati University. Moreover, it’s clear he would often visit Amlarem for Nilu. Mr. Bose isn’t aware that Anu knows all about his recent engagements with Nilu.So, he’s a bit puzzled that Anu reacted only with a smile when he said Nilu was going to accompany him to Kolkata.

Anu and Sujata are in regular interaction by phone. On the day of their first acquaintance, she told Sujata of this Amal Bose, an alumnus of St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata and resident of Bullygunj.Sujata shuddered and told everything about the masked gentleman Amal Bose. “Amal was my classmate since childhood. He ditched his gf at St. Xavier’s College. The hapless girl Rituparna Ghosh committed suicide. In the name of trekking he ensnares girls and does all the bad things. Don’t believe him,” said Sujata in rage.

“Mr. Bose, how do you like Sujata in the story I told you?”  Anu asked and added, “She is an alumna of St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata,” to understand his mind.

“I should say, she’s a great soul.”

“What do you think about her decision to live unmarried?”

“I don’t know her mind.”

“Could it be she was crossed in love?”

“May be.”

Do you know any such case?”

“I ain’t aware of,” he replied as his face turned pale.

“Had you no crush in your life?”Anu asked, looking at him closely.

“No,” he said laboriously.

“There must be one crush in life, and you’re an eligible bachelor,” she said, enquiringly.

“I ain’t fortunate enough,” he said, promptly trying to put on a brave face.

“At St.Xavier’s one girl ditched by her bf committed suicide. This is the only such case in the history of the prestigious college. Would you tell something about it?”

“I ain’t interested in all such dirty things,” Amal said, visibly perturbed.

Anu understood Mr. Bose was a hard nut to crack. He’s an ace adventurer in the realm of sex, and his mask of innocence is impregnable. The trekker is, in fact, a poacher of virginity.

True, there was no secret crush on him, but Amal has the astuteness to ensnare girls with his mask. Rituparna is such a victim. He recalls:” It all began in the college canteen. Rituparna was frigid, and engrossed in study. She’d spend spare time in the library. One day she was found in a gossip session in the canteen with friends.Amal joined them. He took the opportunity of the presence of Jyotirmoy in the group, began to use his street-smartness while they were discussing Milton’s misogyny. Rituparna, as usual, was a listener, and was focused on the smiling smartness of Amal. They had many an aromatic moment for about a couple of years after that. Amal promised to marry her which he forgot towards the end of the college days. He made love many a time with her and then one day refused to date her. That night she journeyed to the other world. Important family connections saved him from police interrogation and being in the dock.”

Sujata was bewildered at the death of Rituparna and the remorseless erotomaniac Amal Bose, and decided to live a spinster when she saw how Kuldip betrayed Mita, common friends of Anu and hers. In fact, these two incidents made her a misandrist.The chance acquaintance with Prof. Sanyal has changed her a bit, and she’s now the virgin mother of an elderly scholar. She’s a commonality with Anu in this regard. Both of them had God-given sons, and a traumatic experience, though it had engendered from different reasons. Anu had the trauma from unrequited love; Sujata doesn’t have any love experience.Anu and Arup had been classmates and friends since school days. They developed into gf and bf at one stage and began to dream of being partners-in-life and promised so. Sujata and Amal were also classmates till St.Xavier’s days but never became friends.Anu’s disenchantment with Arup is too subtle to be understood even by a keen observer, but it’s clear Sujata’s become scared of men whom she’d identify as ‘eroticism thy name is man’ after the two incidents in Kolkata and Delhi. In adolescence and early youth both of them spinned dream of an El Dorado of permanent love in marriage, and eventually both shrank from it vis-à-vis the reality they saw and perceived in the passage of life.

Nilu’s busy till late afternoon readying baggage and taking calls from Amal. As soon as the baggage’s ready she rushed to the hotel to meet her new paramour.Amal spent the day so long longing for amorous breath of Nilu to blow over his face. At 4 p.m. the doorbell rang and Amal opened the door. She hugged him warmly and once the door‘s barred, snuggled up to him. They felt they’re in a state of bliss. For them pleasure‘s bliss. When innocence’s bidden adieu, pleasure’s sought after as an alternative to joy.

They’re now two heads in one body, clasping, pushing and pulling each other to the extreme. They’ve Grecian faces and Roman physiques.Nilu in excitement has pushed her nipple into the mouth of Amal, and he sucks it like a baby. He fondles her with his left palm running incessantly between her legs and fingers into her wet softness. They’ve made love again and over again.Nilu’s concerned: “We wouldn’t have room for this oneness aboard the train tomorrow. So, let’s enjoy the evening, I can’t have you be idle with me.”

“Do you think I would like my girl be passive with me, darling? I like my Nilu for her active habit.” Now he pushes hard and enters into her as she smiles in satisfaction. “Where’d we stay in kolkata, honey? Won’t you be with me always?” asked Nilu, passionately.

“Would you mind being with me at my flat? There I live alone,” said Amal fingering her tussled hair.

“Oh! How I’d love it.”

“We would continue with the happiness...”

“With the recurrence of the heavenly experience we’ve now, being one.”

“Am I not luscious, honey? 

“You’re heavenly, I can’t lose you.”

“We’re so innocent, aren’t we?”

“We’re, dear since we’re nude like Adam and Eve before their fall.”

Human mind is so creative in the use of language, and in attributing new meaning to an existing word, Innocence and Nudity have been attributed special meaning by Amal and Nilu to sanctify their love making and, perhaps, to justify their impending live-together in Kolkata. (  continued on 5^th  June 2014 )

She Won't Reveal (11)

She Won’t Reveal (11)

Nidhu Bhusan Das

A drastic change swept India in 1990s onward in tune with the all-sweeping process of globalization, expedited by the fall of the socialist edifice in east Europe and ultimate collapse of the Soviet Union presided over by Mikhail Gorvachev. The minority government of Prime Minister Narsimha Rao unveiled the New Economic Policy, drawn up by his Finance Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh. The new policy ushered in a liberal market economy breaking the stranglehold of Nehruvian mixed economy with the dominance of the State sector, resulting in a stunted growth for decades, and ultimate stagnation. A neo-rich emerged and, for the time being, economy flourished, accompanied with scams in share market, disinvestment initiatives, spectacular growth in real estate sector and strong headway of consumerism and a deluge of western values, predominantly the Yankee culture consequent upon the flow of the strong current of Cultural Imperialism with breakthroughs in satellite technology controlled by the USA and her Silicon Valley in the unipolar world. The new generation of the elite and middle classes imbibed the Yankee values, and their imagination and thought got rooted in the remote, away from the Indian ethos. What remained in place is the dream of life, though different, to be happy. They are for pleasure, not joy, with a few exceptions. They live the moment.

It’s well-said, India presents unity in diversity. It has been true in different senses. One of them is economic. In the wake of the launching of the New Economic Policy, there has been a spurt in the five star culture side by side with the growth of slums in the great urban centres and crippling poverty in rural India. It’s said, albeit ironically, that India lives in her villages where poverty and illiteracy are a stark reality against the backdrop of which the elite tend to be proud of the ‘largest democracy of the world’ where rigging is complained of after every election by the politicians. The ‘Unity in Diversity’  theory may be seen as ‘Unity in Duality’ in the sense that a section of the new generation find their root in the spiritual India while the other section embrace western materialism, and jeer at the former as anathema to the new reality. The duality’s there also in the economic sphere reflected in terrible inequity.

What’s happiness, what’s joy? These are questions that agitate the minds of people from every walk of life. Everyone has his/her own way of looking at the issue, and drawing conclusion. We dream of happiness and joy, pursue the dream, and we live in dream. Once we cease to have such a dream, we lose sight of the meaning of life.  Is there anyone absolutely happy? Maybe, Lalon, Kabir or the Buddha knew it. Anu, Sujata and Prof Swapan Sanyal seek bliss in their communion with the other world.Nilu and Jerry are for pleasure and worldly achievements.Mr. Bose has a murky past, and the contact with Nilu has provided the erotomaniac another opportunity for satisfying his carnal desire. This time his partner-in-sex isn’t going to be an innocent victim.

Those who are heart-broken or don’t find the world around capable of satisfying them, transport themselves to the world beyond for bliss.Now, what’s the other world. Some of us may believe in it, but don’t know how to get into it. Michael Bassey Johnson   says,” A good traveller is one who knows how to travel with the mind…..Silence is the best way to confabulate with the unseen…..Blessed are those that know the path out of their carnal flesh, for they shall attain intuition.”

We understand, we can travel to the other world with the active, and perhaps, creative mind attaining intuitive capability when we can forget carnal desires.

Tom Cowan says,” Mystical insight and enlightenment occur when the veil between the worlds is lifted, the worlds are bridged, the gap closes, and we cross over.” The other world, obviously, relates to insight which is mystical, and which is attainable through enlightenment.

In addition to the so-called objective (or outside world) and the (inner) subjective world of the modern western worldview, Patrick Harpur defines another reality that he calls ’diamonic reality’. The human soul mediates between spirit and body. The world-soul, Anima Mundi in Latin, mediates between the One (the transcendent source of all things) and the material, sensory world. Anu, Sujata and Prof. Sanyal understand this while Nilu and Jerry don’t. Anu lives in the Upanishadic India, and has chosen the idyllic against the strong tide of migration from the impoverished rural areas to the squalor of urban centres.When many in the LIC are reluctant to go to the rural areas of the Assam Himalayas, Anu’s volunteered to go to a forested remote area, 11 hours from Guwahati, to officiate as the head of a new branch for now since the day of inauguration. It’s an additional responsibility she’s shouldered. She finds joy in exploring the rural psyche and in the process knows her own self in-depth.

Arup, last week, came to Amlarem. He called at her office. The encounter was brief, confined to hi-hello and formal exchange of goodwill. She could pour cold water on his interest. He isn’t a Nature-lover, doesn’t have the mind to go into retreat in the Himalayas for an occasional break, away from the madding crowd of the metropolis. Yet he took pains to have the passage to the remote place, for the first time. Anu bade Arup adieu in tears, escorting him to the bridal bed with Mita never again to see the former bf, and to bury the past. She left Delhi and instead of Kolkata opted for the Assam Himalayas to keep him out of sight and out of mind. Had she not been able to go transcendental, she couldn’t but invite him to her house. She’s no longer a turbulent sea of emotions, but a placid Mind. She manages time for meditation everyday which gives her peace and strength. So, she could tell Arup, smiling,”I’ll attend the wedding ceremony of your son, if I’m alive then”, perhaps, to mean she isn’t bothered about what has separated them nullifying her dream, and isn’t interested in responding to his gesture for reconciliation.

 “In life, our ability to pause and dive into the infinite ocean of silence allows us to breathe into the fullness of our being in the midst of our daily experiences,” says Julianne Moore. Anu now breathes into the fullness of her being. Time and circumstances have changed for her and that have influenced her attitude, thought and feeling. Western model of development and the power elite that spearhead the process have deprived the rural mass leading to their impoverishment following a skewed growth with urban bias, and Anu appears to be there to atone for the sin of the class in which she was born and which she was brought up to perpetuate. Having abjured the values of the elite, she’s become unique.

Like Anu, Sujata’s also a rebel, but her rebellion is against erotomania and hasn’t gone beyond. Unlike Anu, hers is the passive resistance, not an active revolt.Prof.Sanyal’s metaphysical approach doesn’t have any implication for the wider society where affluence of the chosen few stares at the poverty of the mass. Had they been like Anu and had the forces joined, the mission of Anu against inequity could gain strength and spread further. Circumstances have ignited Prafullada but it’ll take time to gain momentum.

Anu’s at the table reading Reader’s Digest. The telephone buzzes, the name of Sujata has appeared on the monitor.

 “Hello Sujata, how’re you?” Anu’s eager.

”Fine, you?”

“It’s okay out here. Any news?”

“My son’s the note of caution for you: Beware of Amal Bose. He’s a seducer and womanizer.”

“Is it? Looks so gentle and innocent!”

“The serpent is there under the façade of gentleness.”

“He’ll visit Prof. Sanyal on his way back to Kolkata, he said.”

“Ne’er.My son knows him very well.Amal’s aware he isn’t welcome here.”

“Is it? But he says Prof Bose’s his senior friend.”

“He’s in the habit of basking in the glory of others, his technique of projecting him as belonging to intelligentsia.”

“Very difficult to know people.”

“True. But we must try to know, not to be amenable to deceit.”

“Should I tell him I know the truth?”

“I don’t think you should. He’s dangerous, will disturb you.”

“He goes with Nilu,I told you about her.”

“My son knows her, and about her unscrupulous and scandalous ways at the university.”

Anu understands Nilu shouldn’t have been allowed access to her. She apprehends mischief against her. She may misuse the information she got from her diary. (  continued on 22^nd may 2014 )