Kill You, Sure (3)

              Kill You, Sure (3)

                                        Nidhu Bhusan Das

               After dinner, Anik’s in the library. At JNU the library functions round the clock. He isn’t alone there. Many other students are engrossed in study. But he doesn’t have the mind in the book. It hovers over Dhaka where she is now. He doesn’t know much about her and her parents. The book he’s before him deals with the history of the evolution of the society in Bangladesh. The reason’s obvious. He cannot explain to himself the logic behind the reason. Subjective choice cannot contain objective logic.” I’m afraid I’ve become subjective, but what else could I be? She’s simply so enchanting,” he thought.”No, the physical beauty isn’t the reason. She’s a personality. Not a michelangelo, but an adorable personality. Time glides, doesn’t keep the usual pace. Don’t know when the vacation will end. I see her, does she see me? God knows!”Anik’s uncertain. It’s natural. He’s addressed the air in the space that has separated them. She hasn’t interacted, anyway. Yet the pride of Jat patriarchy isn’t hurt. True, he doesn’t share the traditional Jat pride of this kind. But anyone can feel hurt when ignored. Not Anik, in this case.

 “True, she doesn’t betray any emotion other than the pursuit of knowledge. She prefers to be lonely in the company of books. This is a rare quality which makes her personality unique. She’s an elusive dream for me,” the emphasis is on ‘elusive’ as he thinks.

 “Her eyes’re green.”

 Sure, the colour of the eyes has made him get lost in them. “Green-eyed people have an incredible zeal and zest for life and for living life to the fullest,” he believes the idea’s perfect.

 “They are passionate about many things.”

 “They tend to be very attractive and beautiful,” he’s sure.

“Her brown hair points to her independence and self-reliance, competence and stability,” he tends to be analytic like a psychologist with his head propped with two elbows and cupped between hands.

“She’s a heart face. It’s characterized by a wide forehead which is widest at the temples and hairline.”

“She’s prominent cheekbones,” he observes like an anatomist.

“Her thin lips reflect a personality endowed with strong mental acuity.”

 “A girl with such a face could be ambitious realistically, quirky but shy. Her thin lower lip suggests she’s reserved and the thin upper lip means she’s secretive,” he analyzes, as it were he’s a biological anthropologist.

“What are you upto?” asks Divya, his chum since college days in Haryana.

The question punctuates the thought of Anik.He’s been so absorbed he’s been unaware of the presence of others in the reading room. Looking up, he faces Divya Lal who belongs to a farming family, and is an excellent student. She’s doing her masters in Linguistics.Anik perceives she adores him. He likes it but never have they gone beyond academic matters.

“You’re dozing, perhaps. Let’s go and have tea,” she suggests.

Anik cannot resist the temptation. He follows Divya.

Sipping the tea she says, enquiringly,”I wish you weren’t morose!”

“No, no…just thinking,” he defends.

“Okay dear! Then what’re you thinking about,” she’s eager.

“Maybe, I don’t know, exactly.”

“Any new hypothesis, say on impact of new media on social relations?”

“I don’t think so. Know anyone with green eyes?”

“Green eyes! I’ve heard some Irish people have green eyes.”

“I’m occupied with green eyes, you know.”

“Interesting, really! You may read a book on Irish people for that. I’ve seen a book in the catalogue of the library.”

“Thanks for the suggestion.”

“Recently I’ve read a novel that deals with Irish society, their love-life.”

“The heroine green-eyed!”

“That I cannot remember, exactly.But she’s very nice, has fidelity.”

“Won’t you tell the story, please?”

“Well, in a nutshell, she’s Holly, a very young widow. Her husband died a year back. Gerry and Holly, sweethearts since childhood, married in love. She doesn’t respond to many amorous advances. None can replace Gerry in her life, she thinks.”

“She’s like an Indian widow.”

“But there’s a difference, very important.”

“What’s that?”

“She could have married, quite a number were there to pick and choose. No inhibition and prohibition there for widow remarriage. Her family wouldn’t mind. Even Gerry in one of his notes addressed to Holly to be received after his death tells her to remarry. She refrains on her own.Self-regulation, you may say,” Divya explained.

“A strong personality!”

“Moral strength, a rare quality. This is her choice, not imposition as it’s in our society, despite the reform efforts of Vidyasagar and Ram Mohan in the 19th century and enactments.

“Modern Indian girls don’t tend to go by such social tenets, I believe,” said Anik, doubtful.

“Why should they? They’ve the choice to make like Holly. Law’s there on their side,” Divya asserted.

             They’ve three cups of tea each. Divya rises to go back to the reading room. She doesn’t show she’s stirred at the interest Anik’s shown in green eyes.Anik follows her.

“Why is Anik scared about green eyes?” she continues to think even when her eyes’re on the page of the book. She’s an avid reader, but now she cannot proceed.Anik’s brooding on green eyes intrigues her:” Has he developed tenderness by now, that too to someone with green eyes?” She saw Bithi in the reading room, but it’s casual look. She doesn’t care for beauty as she knows in her heart she herself is beautiful. “Still why, Anik!” she is puzzled.( continued on 16 July 2015)