Roha's body
was calm. As calm as it could ever be. It has been hours since her body was
fished out of the Ganges by the morning villagers who had came to bathe in
the river. There was quite a crowd around her wet, mum, carcass basking under
the sun.
Roha's
father Chotan Das was sitting besides her gazing constantly at the dormant body
without slightest bit of emotion in his eyes as if he has lost all of his
feelings along with his only daughter. Topa Das, Roha's mother, was
crying considerably. She was in pain, yes, she was. The last time she met
Roha was during DurgaPujo, Roha had went to her Baper Bari
(father's home), when she had shared about her miserable state, that
her husband Susnath Manzi and his mother used to torture her and even used to threaten
to kill her. She had also said to Topa that she was thinking to lodge a police
complain against her in-laws.
Topa knew
the inside tales of Roha's married life, and maybe so the whole village, but
it's unlikely anybody would speak up against the rich and prominent in-laws of
Roha.
Topa had no
idea that it would turn out so ugly for her daughter. However, she knew that
nothing went right for her 17 year old only child after she was married to the
42 year old, wealthiest businessman of the village Susnath. She was beaten,
abused, and raped by her husband and was even being used as a commodity
of entertainment for his rich and powerful friends.
Yes, Roha
had told her all, but ah! She could do nothing, but console her daughter to live
with the sin of being a woman, being an insignificant someone and pushed her
back into the hell she was destined to endure.
But how did
Roha died? She might have killed herself, or she was killed by her
in-laws. Topa did not know. So what if she would? Is anything is going to
change?
Roha's
body, was being taken to be cremated. She was wrapped in a red sari, with
vermilion on her forehead. The bruises in her body were still visible, but
nobody dared to mark that. Topa's tears have dried now, she is standing all
alone there by the side of the Ganges watching the crowd take away her daughter
far away somewhere, maybe to the place where she will be free from all the pain
she had to live with.
Awesome story.
ReplyDeleteThank you sir.
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