Aniruddh took a sharp breathe and sighed as he saw his little wife taking baby steps towards his study room. His lips curved into a smile, knowing why she’s here, again. She had a piece of paper in her hands and her forehead had glabellar lines as she was frowning looking at the paper. He had lost count of the number of times she had approached him ever since he asked her to prepare for a speech to perform the next day in front of the village. While Bondita was apprehensive about the idea of it, owing to the catastrophe a similar request of him had caused just an year ago, Aniruddh was quite confident with his wife’s calibre, especially now when she had managed to learn how to read and write.
“Careful, Bondita!” Aniruddh called out as he saw a Bondita lost in thoughts almost dashing onto the glass door of his study and instinctively stood up from his chair. However Bondita stopped at the right time to open the door and make her entry and Barrister Babu sighed. As she approached him, he couldn’t help but smile mischievously at the curious face in front of him.
Bondita looked up at him and then at the paper in her hands as she spoke up. “Pati Babu, ek baat poochun aapse?” Aniruddh tilted his head in a knowing way as he made his way to lean on the large antique study table while Bondita stood in front, not really far from him.
“Poocho Bondita.” Said Aniruddh, with a full smile on his face. He remembered how he would have frowned if it was just a year ago, getting irritated by her extreme curiosity. Well now he liked curious kids, didn’t he? At least he liked this curious kid ‘wife’ of his. Bondita looked at the paper again with a small pout and handed it over to him, Aniruddh took it looking at her in a questioning way while she scratched her head.
“Pati Babu kya aap zara padh sakte hai jo aap ne likha hai?” asked Bondita with her eyes dripping questions out of them.
Aniruddh kept his hands on the table for support as he leaned down towards her asking; “Kyun Bondita? Tumne jo padhna likhna seekha, sab bhul gayi kya?”
Bondita’s eyes widened and she pouted in anger. She raised her head to glare at Aniruddh and Aniruddh knew it wasn’t the time to joke around.
“Theek hai, Theek hai Bondita... padhta hu!” said Aniruddh with a terrified face, waiting for Bondita’s glare to cool down a bit. But Bondita didn’t cool down in fact she hardened up more. Aniruddh repeated; “Kaha na Bondita padhta hu.”
“Toh phir padhiye na, mujhe kyu ghoor rahe hai aap?” An irritated Bondita almost shouted, which earned a stare from Binoy who was passing by, but didn’t pay attention to it knowing how big of a ‘joru ka ghulam’ his son is.
Aniruddh sat down the couch as he took the paper to read.
“Namaskaar. Me Bondita Roy Chowdhary Hu. Bahu hu Roy Chowdhary Parivaar ki, par aap meri bhaari saadi aur gehno mein mat jaiyega, aap sab ki tarah hun me. Toh bataiye Brinda Kak-“
“Bas, Bas pati babu!” interrupted Bondita. Aniruddh looked at her confused. “Kya aap woh pehla vaakya phir se dohra sakte hai?”
Aniruddh gasped. “Namaskaar. Me Bondita Roy Chowdhary hu?”
“Kyun?” asked Bondita.
Aniruddh was getting a bit irritated now. “Kyun matlab kya Bondita? Naam hai woh tumhara.”
“Yeh mera naam kaise hua?” asked Bondita keeping her hands on her waist.
Aniruddh rolled his eyes. “Toh phir tumhara naam kya hai?”
“Arre yehi toh sankat hai.” Bondita said, patting her head.
Aniruddh gave her a toothy grin as he asked; “Kya sankat hai Bondita?”
“Dekhiye Pati Babu, Vivaah hone tak, sab mujhe Bondita bulate the. Kabhi Kabhi Bondita Das bhi pukaarte the log mujhe. Yaad hai Aapko? Jo Chitthi mene likhi thi vivaah se pehle, usmein bhi toh Bondita Das likhwayi thi mene!” said Bondita, her eyeballs moving here and there as she tried to recall things which were a year old now.
Aniruddh frowned; “Toh?”
“Toh ab me Bondita Roy Chowdhary kaise ban gayi?” asked Bondita with genuine inquisitiveness in her eyes.
“Kyunki ab tum Roy Chowdhary Haveli ki bahu ho Bondita. Yeh kaisa sawaal hai tumhara?” Aniruddh asked, leaning onto the headrest of the sofa hearing this very weird question of hers.
Bondita’s eyes widened in curiosity once again. “Toh mera naam badal gaya isiliye kyun ki mera vivaah hua?” Aniruddh nodded as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world. “Matlab, pati babu aap Roy Chowdhary the, isiliye me Roy Chowdhary ho gayi?”
“Haan Bondita. Aur ‘the’ se kya matlab? Ab bhi Roy Chowdhary hi hu me.” Aniruddh said.
Bondita questioned; “Aisa kaise ho sakta hai?”
Aniruddh tightened his lips in a straight line. “Aisa kyun nahi ho sakta?”
“Mera vivaah ho gaya aapse, ek Roy Chowdhary se toh me bhi Bondita Das se Bondita Roy Chowdhary ho gayi, woh bhi mujhse na pooche, na kahe.” Bondita stated and her head moved as she talked.
Aniruddh was now tired of this pointless discussion. “Toh? Yehi toh samaaj ki reet hai.”
“Agar vivaah karne se apna naam badal jata hai toh phir, aap bhi toh Aniruddh Roy Chowdhary se Aniruddh das ho gaya na? Par aapka naam kyun nahi badla Birristra Babu?” asked Bondita, her eyes fixated at the floor as she thought of more points she can keep in front of him, to get her doubts cleared with maximum clarity.
Aniruddh shook his head exasperated; “Aisa thode na hota hai Bondita. Kya keh rahi ho tum?”
“Toh vivaah hone par aadmiyon ka naam nahi badalta? Sirf aurat ka naam badal jata hai?” asked Bondita, her face saying she couldn’t believe what he just said. Aniruddh nodded again and crossed his arms across his chest as he stood up and walked to his table again to lean on it as he stood.
Bondita accused; “Agar vivaah hone ke baad aurat ko aadmiyon ka naam apnana padta hai aur aadmiyon ko nahi, Agar vivaah ke baad me Bondita Das se Bondita Roy Chowdhary ban jati hu, par aap Aniruddh Roy Chowdhary se Aniruddh Das nahi ban jata, toh phir, yeh aap aadmi logon ki reet hui na?”
Taken aback would be an understatement of what Aniruddh felt at that point of time. Why had he never thought about this? Why did he subconsciously change Bondita into Bondita Roy Chowdhary while he thought he could just remain as Aniruddh Roy Chowdhary? Didn’t he just try to snatch her individuality her identity just like other men in the society? And it was only her, Bondita who managed to raise her voice against it while half the world even failed to think about the inequality hid behind this custom.
“Agar vivaah ke pashchaat meri pehchaan aap se hui, aur aapki pehchaan mein koi badlaav na aaye, toh ye galat baat nahi hui? Agar mere paas khud apni pehchaan nahi, toh jaise aapne kaha me kaise auron ko raah dikhaungi? Toh yeh reet galat nahi hui?” asked Bondita, she was in an intense conflict with herself in her little mind and Aniruddh could make it out from her face.
However, he couldn’t answer but just look at her intently. It was such a strong argument she had put forward and the surprising thing was, he had never even thought of it.
“Bolo Bolo?” asked Bondita, furrowing her eyebrows. “Jawab nahi denge aap mere prashno ka?”
Aniruddh sat on his knees to reach her level. He held her arms as he looked at her with a smile adoring the intelligence of this little girl in front of him while Bondita just looked at him with just a trailer of the infinite questions inside her mind, shown up in her eyes.
“Zaroor Jawab dunga Bondita. Bhala Bondita Das ka koi bhi sawaal bina jawaab ke reh jayega kya jab uska Barristera Babu Yahan hai?” Aniruddh asked, while Bondita just kept staring at him. “Dunga me Jawaab Bondita, par ab...” he stood up to go to his table and did some alteration in the speech written in the paper and came back to sit on his knees again. “Ab tum jaakar yeh bhaashan padho, aur haan, naam badal diya hai mene, tum Bondita Das kehna. Theek hai?” asked Aniruddh to which Bondita nodded with a smile. Aniruddh continued passing a genuine smile to her; “Aur so jao, tumhara iss sawaal ka jawaab me dunga Bondita... par ab nahi.”
Bondita nodded and smiled at him as she took the paper from him and proceeded to leave the study room. Aniruddh looked at the little saree clad form leaving his study, and couldn’t help but be amazed by this tiny human’s thought process.
It was a strong question that Bondita had made, towards him, towards the society that night and Aniruddh had decided to find an answer worthy of Bondita, because he knew, nothing less than best was worthy of this intelligent little soul.
_________________________________________
Adding Something: Yes, Bondita Das is obviously a name taken after her father's. Well I am a person with an opinion that the last name can be either of Mother or father, even of both, better if the child gets to decide it. But then in this OS I just wanted to focus on this identity change as marriages happen. Yes as we think of it there is no head and tail for this argument but for sure we can bring in changes that encourages equality in such things.
Yes I thought about how the surname 'Das' is also a result of patriarchy, but little Bondita questioning it is a story for another day as I wanted to focus on this on the time being.
Dedicated to : Shaheen. I love you behen. 🤗
Please forgive the grammatical errors.
Not edited, No Proofreads.
I wrote it very fast so it is not very philosophical and I did wanted it very simple just like a scene from the show. Hope you all like it.
If you do, then please Like and do COMMENT down your views down. I'd be waiting for your comments.
Love,
Sujz!❤️
