She Won't Reveal 25

            She Won’t Reveal (25)

                      Nidhu Bhusan Das

Professor Sanyal and Sujata have come to sort out the problems of Anu and help her restore emotional balance and mental peace so that she could put her house back in order. They’re, so to say, on a goodwill mission because they feel for Anu.Unstable, she isn’t reluctant to listen to them but, meanwhile, her own plan of action’s drawn up. She’s developed a new relationship which might have rendered the present relationship within the close circle redundant. For reasons best known to her, she’s in friendship with a girl who toes her line as a loyal and ardent follower. She’s found one in Anuradha Roy. Not Sujata but Anuradha’s her soul mate now.Sujata came to know about the new found ally of Anu from Juliet Sangma who’s sent with her to a remote village on the occasion of the opening of a  new branch of the LIC.She’s all praise for Anuradha and quite exuberant while talking about her, reported Juliet to Sujata.

          Anuradha’s a nice girl – soft-spoken, meek, loyal and trustworthy. Above all, she never questions the person she thinks she should believe. She’s the right person for Anu to befriend because she cannot accept that which questions her decisions and actions. She’s decided to let Angshu and Prafullada leave her, she’d live with Anuradha in a rented house. She’s looking for jobs for Anuradha and her paramour in her area so that they could live together in joy.Anu’s fond of coming into new relationship and experimenting with it. Her experiment with Angshu ends soon if she ultimately can execute her new plan.

 Anu never goes back once she decides. She hasn’t shared her plan with Sujata during the course of their post-lunch discussion.Sujata’s earnest and would like to see Anu emotionally settled. She doesn’t know Anu’s already psychologically settled with Anuradha and her paramour who’s been her friend since the college days.Sujata also knows about him but is unaware that the friendship between the handsome Kashmiri boy and Anu still exists.Sujata knows who’s responsible for the breakdown of the relation between Anu and Arup and, therefore, quoted Oscar Wilde when Anu brought her failed love with Arup up during the discussion,” Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future.” Anu wore a forced smile.

               In fact, Anu tells the story of this failed love to everyone she befriends. Every new friend feels pity for her and comes closer to her. The story of the failed love’s assumed mythical proportions for her and the new friends.Anuradha’s empathy turned into sympathy for her Ma’am when she’s told how her newly-heard-of-Arupda had left the ma’am in a lurch. She’s never mentioned her Kashmiri friend who’s now the paramour of Anuradha.To Anuradha her Madam’s like Miss Havisham in Charles Dickens’s novel Great Expectations. She’s heard of Miss Havisham but doesn’t know the details. She only knows Miss Havisham’s betrayed by her fiancé. She’s reluctant to understand that betrayal isn’t exceptional in love. A wealthy dowager, Miss Havisham would inspire Pip, the protagonist, to love her adopted daughter Estella: “Love her, love her, and love her! If she favours you, love her. If she wounds you, love her. If she tears your heart to pieces—and as it gets older and stronger, it will tear deeper—love her, love her, love her!”

 She knows what her ma’am tells her about life and love. She’s come to be enamoured with the ma’am as she understands the madam’s passionate, indulgent, honest and loving. When Anuradha tells the ma’am of her day-to-day philandering with her Kashmiri soul mate she’s going to tie knot with soon, Anu laughs which evidently encourages the credulous post-graduate girl. She isn’t aware that she’s immature in respect of love through social networking, and her rationality’s overcast by a romantic idealism and innately good conscience.Anu’s fond of both of them, and knows whether the scale of the fondness tilts to the right or the left.Anuradha believes it’s to the left of her paramour while he believes it’s to the right of his new-found beloved.

              Anu’s logic, sound or not. She’s come to understand Prafullada and Angshu have questions in their minds regarding her relations and soundness of her decisions and actions. Angshu’s junior to her by eight years, and she accepted him as her son because she needed him when she’s in an emotional vacuity. She still loves him and respect the sanctity of their heavenly relation. But Anuradha’s come to her life, and she’s a long emotional attachment with the lover of the girl. If Prafullada and Angshu leave, there will be no difference in number in the family.Anuradha and her Kashmiri lover would replace them immediately. Only the quality and the structure of the relations will change, and Anu would restructure the relations to her advantage once the knot’s tied between the girl and her most coveted lover. The Kashmiri boy’s interested because he expects a jolly life with two girls in a peer group.Anuradha doesn’t have any other consideration than finding the right husband to fulfill her dream of having a status in what, she understands, is the five-star intellectual ambience. It’s to be seen how the new arrangement, when implemented, comes to the benefit of the girls, and who of them will be able to extract the maximum joy out of it.

Sujata and Prof. Sanyal are ignorant of this plan of Anu.They’re now in the garden with Prafullada and Angshu.Anu’s gone to the local market to buy fish and some vegetables.Angshu volunteered to accompany her but she frowned.Sujata marked it, and was disappointed.Prafullada and Angshu have the same information and assessment of the situation.However, both of them have a strong feeling for Anu.They’re constrained to decide to leave.Prafullada works for Anu and Angshu’s enough to support himself and isn’t a burden for her He’s a software engineer. After discussion with Sujata and her son, they’re ready to stay with Anu and support her. But Angshu shared information which was disturbing. He said,” The day before yesterday MAA talked by telephone in a conference call to a girl and a boy. They’re going to marry and stay with her.”

“Is it? How is it possible?” asked the professor, stunned.

“MAA called her Anuradha and said Kashmiri boys’re the handsomest. I tell you he’s my classmate, a very brilliant boy, now an engineer. Religion’s no problem. All Muslims of Kashmir aren’t bad. He’s excellent. You come. The marriage will be under the Special Marriage Act. Don’t worry. Both of you’ll live with me. I’m making arrangements for your jobs,” reported Angshu.The professor looked at Sujata askance.Sujata asked Angshu,”Are you sure this was the conversation?”

“It’s a long conversation. They’re likely to come next fortnight,” he said, confident.

“Who could they be?” the professor wondered.

“I know. Juliet told me about Anuradha being the new friend of Anu. The boy must be… I’ll tell you,” Sujata stopped short of naming the boy.

          Anu returned beaming. She went straight to the kitchen, asked Sujata to help her in the cooking. Sujata and the professor have marked that Anu shows indifference to Prafullada and Angshu.Now they try to visualize the unfolding situation. It’s a critical juncture and they’re baffled.( continued on 6th November 2014)