Pinaki & Priyanka Sanyal were brother & sister. Their Mother ,Kumkum Sanyal, was from a remote Kolkata suburb but their Father , Prakash Sanyal, was from proper Kolkata Dumdum and could be called city bred since he had gone to the best of schools and mixed with mostly educated & intellectual class of people.
Prakash was a no-nonsense man always kept a safe distance from Women. He had developed a slight weakness for a very beautiful Muslim girl in his college but had dared not approached her cause he knew she would never be accepted by his parents who were both very orthodox. So it was an arranged marriage between the two. Compared to Kumkum, Prakash was way too handsome. His parents had gone attending a marriage party of some distant nephew of theirs and had seen a bubbly Kumkum actively participating in serving and receiving people they had taken an instant liking for her and had arranged for the marriage. She was poor in studies and had failed in Class 10th twi ce. She had given up studies but was a good cook and knew stitching / embroidery very well.
Prakash was a very adjusting type of a man. He had gone to see her with a couple of his friends. One of them had remarked about her academic performance and had warned Prakash of the consequences of marrying someone with a poor academic background especially him who was extremely intellectual. Since Prakash was too courteous a man he could not reject Kumkum for he felt it might insult and humiliate a Lady if he does so and moreover her parents had arranged for such VIP treatment for him that he accepted the proposal and gave his green signal to marry her.
Thus started their married life. She made a good house wife and Prakash quietly performed his husbandly duties and later his fatherly duties to perfection.
Pinaki was born first and after two years ,Priyanka. Kumkum , being a typical Indian idiot woman had a major weakness for her son and it was evident in her b ehavior that she used to pamper Pinaki more than Priyanka. Priyanka had taken after her father she was a very adjusting type and seldom fought back. Pinaki was very poor in studies whereas Priyanka stood first in class always !
Pinaki , at 17, became a Casanova of his colony. He used to take every advantage of any girl who showed even a wee bit of interest in him. Kumkum knew of her sons romantic & sometimes even cheap - escapades and was rather proud of it !
Once it so happened that Priyanka (15 years old) had gone to attend her friends birthday party and had got stuck in a traffic jam for an hour or so. Back Home she was received with a tight slap by her mother before she was even given a chance to tell the reason of her late coming. Priyanka could not tolerate her Mothers partiality and while all this was happening Pinaki was giggling and munching away some snacks- much to Priyankas irritation!
Prakash had told Kumkum about his weakness for the Musl im girl in college ever since then she used to be sarcastic about the whole affair and used to belittle Prakash in front of both Pinaki & Priyanka.
Once , when Priyanka was some 13 years old she had gone visiting her Grandparents when she happened to meet a distant relative of Kumkum. She had revealed to Priyanka about her Mothers affair with some Ashok Ray , a rich business man in their locality and the fact that she had even become pregnant by him ! Priyanka could not believe her ears and ever since then her hatred for her mother had increased in leaps & bounds but she had kept quiet about it as she knew of the consequences that might follow if ever such a revelation came out in the family !
Probably this was the reason why Kumkum used to belittle her father regarding the Muslim girl since it was a defense mechanism working constantly at the back of her mind all the time. The fact that she slapped her immediately on her arrival meant that she judged her d aughter by her standards and probably thought that she had been sleeping around just as she did during her adolescence.
Priyanka sat for Engineering Entrance Exams after her 12th class and got through in the very first chance. She opted to go to Bangalore since she wanted to move out of Kolkata as speedily her Mothers very sight made her irritable !She only felt bad for her poor father for the grave mistake he had done in marrying an illiterate from a remote Kolkata suburb. She wished her father had married the muslim girl instead of getting stuck for life with the cheap, illiterate, failure and a typical Indian idiot woman (blindly loving her son) that her mother was.
Years passed. Pinaki did his B.Com Hons and tried his luck with Computers and later became an Accountant in a good Company with the help of his fathers recommendation. Priyanka faired very well in the campus interview and was recruited by a very big Engineering concern.
She was given a flat and so she decided to invite her parents over to Bangalore to see how she was living in style. Her father felt very happy for her but her mother as usual looked for loop holes and typically she found one as well. There was a Bachelors Mess very near her flat and her Mother assumed that Priyanka was having a gala time inviting those men to her house. Her Mother in fact was more keen on seeing the bachelors than Priyanka ever was ! She used to be seated by the window to see if anyone was making any signs at her daughter ! She couldnt stand her mothers whorish behavior and she felt that Pinaki had totally taken after his Mother whereas she her father Intellectual and having the sense of utilizing education for the right cause.
They went away. Pinaki got married to a Lady of his choice she belonged to a rich family his Bosss daughter and she was the right person to give Kumkum a good dose of her life! Pinaki was a spineless fool had to keep his wife happy and followed her blindly. So Kumkum was more or less treated like a Head maid servant in her own house. Things were moving fine somehow till Prakash died a sudden death heat stroke. After Prakashs death, Kumkums stature became like that of a total maid servant!
She rang up Priyanka & pleaded to take her away from her son as he had been treating her very badly ! Priyanka was getting the chance of a life time to go abroad. She declined the proposal and said as sarcastically as she was spoken to her during childhood to lick her sons spit as she always did and kept the phone down.
After 3 years,Priyanka came to know that Pinaki had sent their Mother away to the Home for the Aged and had asked Priyanka to share the monthly fees of the Ashram every alternate month. Priyanka had decided to tie the knot with a British citizen, a Christian but before doing so she had come to visit India one last time. She went to visit her Mother and was shocked to see the choice of the Home that her brother had chosen for their Mother ! The Monthly fees was only Rs. 800/- an extremely dilapidated building and the others roaming around were mostly from extremely lower class families! Priyanka immediately found out the best Home for the Aged Ashram in the City and decided to shift her Mother there.
On seeing Priyanka Kumkum thought that she had come to take her away with her it was then Priyanka told her Mother about all that she had done in her life and the fact that there was no escape but to suffer for her deeds she even included the Ashok Ray episode much to her Mothers shock and then took her to the expensive Ashram. It costed her Rs.18000/- per month Her mother was happy to have an AC room all for herself with an attached Bathroom and TV ! Priyanka then told her brother not to bother about the fees at all since she had already given the entire years fees in advance and would continue doing so.
At long last , the meagerly educa ted Indian Idiot Woman - Kumkum - came to know the difference between the girl child and the boy child !!
Aparna Gangopadhyay - http://www.itsybitsy.co.in - also - http://www.creativity.itsybitsy.co.in
Author:: Aparna Ganguly
Keywords:: Home,Aged,Aumaparna,Shortstory
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