Hey guys,
This is my entry for the SS contest though I feel I could have done a better job with the writing. It was a fluke that I won…
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Song Unsung… …
"You are standing beyond my song. My melody reaches your feet, but I cannot reach you…"
{Rabindra Sangeet}
Light dispersed…the thunder roared…the clouds huddled…within a few quick moments the rain drops poured, fresh and pure…the first rainfall… all the people ran hither and thither, scuttling towards their thatched huts…the Sundarbans turned a deep green, surrounded by a landscape of agricultural lands, with thick forest covering expanding to the horizon which appeared lighter green, the clustered mud houses appeared tan drenched in the rainfall, and the gushing streams turned a shade of deep blue...
"Tadatadi koro… (Hurry up)" the local people shouted to each other, trying to run towards their respective homes, trying their level best not to get wet but the forceful bristling rain wetted them inevitably… …
"Bani…ki korcho…(What are you doing?)" a lady screeched pushing a young girl who was blocking her way, walking past her… the girl frowned, straightening herself, she stood…in the rain, feeling the cold rain drops kiss her skin which tingled with delight…she loved rains… …
"Sundor Sundorboner sundor Brishti… (Beautiful Sundarban's beautiful rain)" she sang, opening her mouth, drinking the fresh water… her over-used cotton sari completely sloshed, clinging to her sonsy body… then suddenly remembering something she hurried inside the small hut, picking up the earthen pot she kept it under the hole in the roof…to collect the water…She lived alone for the past one and a half year, after her only living relative, her maternal grandmother died, her eyes went blind due to cataract which the local physician couldn't detect and she suffered from high levels of sugar which also went unnoticed, though not young, sixty-five, a die-able age, but still her departure had left bani orphaned with none to call of her own except the luscious forest, the overflowing sea, the bursting rain, the chirping birds, the groaning animals…Her father had went off to Bangladesh and never returned and her mother breathed her last breath waiting for her husband who never came, it wasn't a new story, not even sad, pathetic of course but bani always thought that her father never loved her mother, else no matter where he was he would have returned, no matter what… …
Shivering slightly, she closed the door, finding herself another sari she changed unknotting the wet sari… the loud banging on the withering wooden door alerted her, quickly covering herself properly, she crawled towards the door, opening it slightly…to encounter a pair of blue eyes boring into her, they were restless, just like the fierce Bay of Bengal…
"Umm…err…I need shelter…I have lost my way…" the foreigner spoke in a language unknown to her… she panicked, trying to close the door…
"Please…let me in…please…" the grainy velvet voice begged her…though at first she was overcome by fear but there was something in his voice that made her open the door and reveal herself for his restless eyes and reveal him for her curious eyes… …
"Hey, hello…I need help…H-E-L-P!!!" the stranger said, seeing confusion written all over her face, he shamelessly barged into her incommodious house…
"Rain…wet…lost way…" he indicated with her hands…finally snapping out of her confusion and curiosity, bani understood what the stranger was trying to indicate, he might have lost his way…bani smiled gingerly… getting a cloth for him to dry himself…he took it finally relieved that the unknown girl understood his treacherous plight…he first took out his multi-lensed camera and wiped it clean, checking if anything was damaged or not, he heaved a sigh finding it to be perfectly fine…
"Thanks…thanks a lot…" he said looking up at the huge lotus-petal-shaped eyes of the girl, they were dark brown resembling the soil with speckles of gold thrown over it… he found her staring at the camera positioned in his hands…
"Jai…naam…" he pointed towards himself to state that his name was Jai, the only Hindi word he managed to learn apart from a few short monosyllables…she nodded still looking at the camera with wonder…
"Naam…" he said pointing towards her…
"Bani…" she said causally…shrugging her bare shoulders…she disappeared and reappeared within seconds with a plate full of rice and a fish floating in a soup…his mouth watered, he had been walking relentlessly for quite a few hours, he could almost hear his stomach churning, he gave her a sheepish grin as she offered him the plate…he took it and without hesitating dipped his fingers relishing the rice with curry…it was delicious… while he gorged on the food bani traced her fingers over the camera watching it with amusement… yes, she remembered the white-skinned foreigners who came to study about the rich fauna and flora of Sundarbans… he might be one of the them she concluded watching him as he finished the food…jai stood up, a bit embarrassed, bani took the plate made of dried leaves stitched together and threw out of the window, looking at the rain which was beating down…jai stood unsurely as she guided him to wash his hands… he looked out to see the rain not intending to stop in near future…
"Err…can I stay here…I can't find my way…" he said turning to the dusky girl… but he spotted her busy in setting up a bed out of ragged blankets…then poured some oil into the lamp…the flame flickered, burning brightly… he stood transfixed by her face glowing in the faint light…
She came to him keeping her folded hands under her ear, tilting her face sideways she indicated him to sleep… jai smiled at her gratefully…
He watched her intently as he laid down, the pitter-patter of the rain echoing in the small house…she was sitting with folded legs in a far end, under the low window, looking out in the darkness…he wondered at how efficiently he could converses with her without even knowing her language… He was foreign bred, born to an Indian father and American mother; he saw the best of both worlds… he was still doing his wildlife photography when his parents died in a car crash, a few months later he received a letter from his estranged grandmother to come and stay with her, he couldn't bring himself to refuse the emotional letter of his grandmother whom he never met, by then he had started working with the 'National Geographic' he accepted a project and came to India and resumed his work…last month he took a new assignment to research about the Royal Bengal Tiger and despite of his ailing grandmother's pleas to not go he had stubbornly came and landed in this jungle … from the morning her was roaming around in search of a tiger but couldn't find any and soon it started raining and he lost his way… Somewhere he had fallen in love with this strange, scary yet gorgeous place…he shifted in the unfitting cot, soon his heavy eyelids soon drooped… …
The morning sun rays filtered in…through the small window of the hole like house, the environment was already surrounded by the clatter of the people doing their work….bani woke up from her deep slumber, she had been sitting most of the night watching the rain fall, she rubbed her eyes, yawning, suddenly the thought of the stranger crossed her mind, she shifted her focus to the cot to find it empty… he had left… she frowned with an empty feeling… she got up and walked towards the cot to fold the blanket when her eyes feel on the notes of rupees kept on it, she scowled, the very next moment a smile formed on her lips seeing a crimson hibiscus resting besides it, she picked it up, putting it in her hair… …
****
The name Sundarban was literally translated as "beautiful jungle" or "beautiful forest" in the Bengali language (Sundar, "beautiful" and ban, "forest" or "jungle") abundant with the Sundari trees that were found in Sundarbans in large numbers…Indeed it was a breathtaking sight… Sundarbans was a block of tidal halophytic mangrove forest which was widespread and formed a seaward fringe of the delta… The seasonally-flooded Sundarbans freshwater swamp forests lay inland from the mangrove forests… intersected by a complex network of tidal waterways, mudflats and small islands of salt-tolerant mangrove forests.
Jai walked down the narrow path, he had reached the delta of Bay of Bengal…he was only successful to find a few threatened mammal species, such as the capped langur (Semnopithecus pileatus), smooth-coated otter (Lutrogale perspicillata), the leopard (Panthera pardus) and several smaller predators such as the jungle cat (Felis chaus), but he was yet capture the Royal Bengal Tiger (Panthera tigris tigris), he had caught a glimpse of it but it soon vanished before he could take its picture… he hurried down the rocky terrain which was loose with moisture from the rainfall…his boots making a peculiar sound…
Abruptly he yelped in pain… as he felt something bite, on his leg…finding a rock he sat down, keeping his backpack aside, he removed his gumboots, pulling up his cargo pant, to his horror he noticed a snake-bite, he pressed the skin trying to analyze the wound, two red incisions were make on leg, just about where his boots ended… he clutched his leg, arresting the muscles, not letting the poison to spread…he quickly rummaged his travel bag for the medical kit…
"Maa go… (Oh My God!!)" he heard a squeal…he looked up to see bani hovering over him…she bent down…looking at the bite, a few seconds later she heaved a sigh of relief, it was a non-poisonous snake…
"Kichu na…(Its nothing)" bani muttered looking around for something, spotting the required shrub, she plucked a few leaves, pressed them in between her palms, and applied the thick green paste over the cut… all the time jai mutely watched her…
"Thanks…" he said…which certainly wasn't understood by her… bani made a face…taking her sari pallu she untied the knot, taking out the notes of rupees she handed it to him… without a word she left… …jai sat suprised by her action, he had only kept the money as gratitude…but she seemed to have been hurt…
"Shit!!!" he cursed himself looking at her retreating back… …
Bani ignored him…she didn't utter a single word as she saw him stroll about in the lane of her house…she was busy storing the pickle she made, that was the only livelihood she had…the monsoon had begun and if not preserved properly then all her hard-work would go waste and the pickles would decay… through the corner of her eyes she saw him standing at the entrance of her house…she didn't pay any heed… …
Jai cleared his throat… he couldn't understand what he intended to say, the greater part was that he couldn't understand why he was here leaving his work, for a girl who was nothing more than a mere acquaintance who just helped him out of kindness…
"Bani…" he called out, surprised that he remembered her name so vividly… bani looked up with a dazed expression…
"I am sorry…I was just…Sorry if you felt bad…okay…" he rambled in an accented English which went over her head but somehow she could connect with what he was trying to say… he was apologetic, yes his ocean blue eyes conveyed it to her without the aid of any physical words… …
Jai shut his mouth seeing her unmoving…he extended his hand…
"Friends!!!" he said with a genuine smile… …bani looked puzzled then dubiously lifted her hand, placing it in his palm, he gripped it, shaking it…
"Will you show me…the forest…Sundarban…" he asked…she nodded her head enthusiastically… …
****
Bani giggled…as he clicked her pictures…looking away shyly… he grinned, he had seen many pretty girls in America, even dated a few but bani was something else, she was indigenous just like this enclave of board-leafed forest…she was dusky with striking features, full and ripe, he at times found himself ogling at her unmarred beauty shamelessly, she seduced him like a sweet scented wild jasmine flower, he had erotic dreams about her at nights, robbing away his sleep… …
"Sshh…" she made a sound, peeping through the bush behind which they were hiding…
"Ukhane… (There)" bani pointed showing him a tiger swimming in the confined pond… he instantly started picturing it, he knew it was a female tiger, a tigress, a pregnant tigress searching for food for its fetus, she would be really dangerous to deal with now…but nonetheless he carried away his work as bani watched in awe… the sky bellowed, it was about to rain…
"Come…" jai held her wrist, dragging her away as the tigress yowled…
They ran across the stream, parallel to the lined huts, panting…the sun reached the horizon, about to set… …They stopped tired, resting against the thick bark of a tree…jai kept looking at her, her tinkling eyes followed his…his eyes rested on a hibiscus plant near the tree…his twitched the deep red flower from the stem… her eyelids lowered seeing him gaze at her dreamily… …he ran his fingers over the side of her face…putting the flower in her hair, just above her ear…
"Sundar…(Beautiful)" he uttered, the little Bengali she was teaching him… she blushed, she caught her breath as felt his fingers playing on her bare waist…his face a few inches away from her face…she pushed him away…laughing throatily… …running away, he followed her… the clouds spilled…
"Thou hast made me endless, such is thy pleasure. This
frail vessel thou emptiest again and again, and fill it ever with fresh life.
This little flute of a reed thou hast carried over hills and dales, and
hast breathed through it melodies eternally new.
At the immortal touch of thy hands my little heart loses its limits in
joy and gives birth to utterance ineffable.
Thy infinite gifts come to me only on these very small hands of mine.
Ages pass, and still thou purest, and still there is room to fill."
The orange flame flickered, coming to an end as the wick famished, shrouding the room into complete darkness… …it continued to rain heavily…love-sick winds blew with a whistle…thirsty rain engulfed the surroundings… …The old cot sank under their weight like a ship flooded with water; its wooden legs swagged as if bare trees shivered in unresting storms… She rose like a mist; melting under his touch… … he kissed her with a raucous fleshly desire, she gasped and moaned as he proceeded to enrapture her hidden senses…she yearned for more as the animal warmth from his hands emanated into her… he growled caging her sylphlike body below him…she smelled of cinnamon and all the spices…his lapsing tongue rolled around her fingers which carried a faint taste of the pickles she made… the thin mud walls absorbed their coarse beastly sounds which diffused with the sound of the falling rain...she sang his name unceasingly…all night…till the outbreak of the amber dawn… …
Bani stole glances as he lay unabashed with languor, relishing the wet feel of her svelte skin; not letting her go…his off-white skin was tanned, glistening like bronze, last night had been so over-powering that she felt she was a totally new person when she woke up, many young men in the village viewed her lewdly, even made lecherous comments but she gave them a fitting reply to the rascals, being alone and that too a young attractive girl was difficult, with a future which was doomed even before it began as no one would intend marry her, she was considered unlucky by the villagers, a tag branded to her unceremoniously since her father had left when she was born and her mother had fallen sick…she was an unfortunate, wretched waif…her life was already written, her destiny pre-defined unless this foreigner came into her life accidentally…like a song unsung… …
"Mmmm…" he made a delicious sound, kissing the hollow at the base of her neck… …
"You are gorgeous bani…" he uttered, she blushed despite of not getting the head and tail of it, she knew what he said were wonderful words, it was music to her ears…he removed the translucent sari covering her…she gathered him in her arms, running her slender fingers in the thick crop of his auburn hair… …it was way past noon by the time they reluctantly let go of each other, tried and at loss of energy… …
She splashed the cold water on him…it was drizzling slightly… … he caught hold of her wrist pulling her under the waterfall… wetting her completely…the past week had been magical… two lovers loosing oneself to each other completely… irrespective of any cultural, language, or status barriers dividing them… …
They lay on the mud floor…hearing the tattling rain…she hummed a song in rhyme with the plashing downpour… her husky song enticed him…he traced the outline of her foot… he loved her feet, long curved feet, he kissed it along its soft contours, tickling the base of the foot…causing her to giggle…she pulled him up… kissing him hard on his lips…
"I… …tumake…balobashi… (Love you)" he said in his broken Bengali mixed with English…she laughed hugging him tight…dropping moist kisses on his chest, arousing him… he pinned her down… …
She took a deep breath, falling on her back, entwining her fingers with his, she snuggled closer to him…she sensed his body tighten, tensed, she tilted her face to look up at him… who was lost in his own thoughts… …she placed her palm on his cheek, he looked down…
"I need to go…" he said…her face turned grey, it wasn't good news, she could decipher from his sad face…
"Aami…jaabo…" he added…missing the grammar… …she sat up at once, fidgeting with her discarded clothes… …he raised himself, bringing her closer to himself…her trembling back touched his front… she broke down crying turning around, throwing her arms around him… …
"Aami aa..shbo… (I will comeback)" he said stroking her face…giving her a forlorn glance… …he left… …
She waved at him, tear-eyed… …with a hope that he would come back… …yes, he would come back she knew… …
****
Song Unsung… …
The song that I came to sing remains unsung to this day…
I have spent my days in stringing and in unstringing my instrument.
The time has not come true, the words have not been rightly set;
only there is the agony of wishing in my heart.
The blossom has not opened; only the wind is sighing by.
I have not seen his face, nor have I listened to his voice;
only I have heard his gentle footsteps from the road before my house.
The livelong day has passed in spreading his seat on the floor;
but the lamp has not been lit and I cannot ask him into my house.
I live in the hope of meeting with him; but this meeting is not yet
{Rabindranath Tagore)
Bani caressed her lower abdomen…with a feeling of great happiness and contentment, but that short-lived bubble happiness was tinged with a weeping melancholy…she was pregnant; a child was coming into her life…a child born out of love…It has been so many weeks yet he wasn't back… he had promised that he would be back…there were times when she prayed for his return, there were times when she thought that he would never come back and it was just a passing affair for him, but the very next moment she believed that he would certainly return to her… she had loved him, he had loved her, he had said he loved her…and he would keep his promise… may be something happened to him, her heart race, panicking she rushed to the idol of Goddess Durga and prayed… she looked at the gold bracelet glittering around her wrist, it was his, he had given it to her before his departure…suddenly remembering something she rummaged her small trunk, fishing out a crumpled paper on which his handwriting was scribbled, she couldn't read it but she recollected him signaling to her that it was his house… …tying a few clothes and the money she saved, in a bundle she held the piece of paper tightly and left her house… …
Bani looked flabbergast, reaching Kolkata was not difficult, she had hopped into a passenger train, sitting in the cramped compartment, huddled in a corner…but from here where to go…she went to the ticket counter enquiring about the address….
"Mumbai…" she muttered in surprise…then taking one ticket she boarded the train without fear…she trusted her love…the people back in her village looked at her with disgust, some mocked her, some ridiculed her, some passed ugly comments but she ignored them all with only one firm faith, in the Almighty and her true love… …
Jai got up with a start…drenched in sweat… … a humming far off tune…a distant voice calling him…a hazy silhouette standing like a statue… …he was sick of these recurring dreams…for the past two and a half months he was plagued by these unfamiliar yet so convincingly real nightmares… …the only filament of his memory alive was that he had seen a concerned face, looking at him with tears rolling down her wrinkled face, his mind was wiped out… …he couldn't even recollect his name… …later he was told that the old lady was his paternal grandmother with whom he lived, he was coming back from Kolkata, he had landed in Mumbai, and met with a fatal accident which gave him amnesia… … He squinted his eyes, shielding himself from the stark sun rays… it was a bright, sunny morning but he didn't feel anything, as if a void was created inside him, his memory loss bothered him but more so ever, the fact that he wanted to reach something pestered him, and What he wanted to find, to reach out to was still a mystery to him and probably would remain a mystery… … there was this unsettling, nagging feeling inside him which troubled him…something which he couldn't describe or put it in words but yet he knew it was there, somewhere deep down…throwing away the bed-covers he got out of the bed… today was his engagement…his grandmother was adamant and he had no choice but to give in, Roshni, his fiance was a nice lady, fair and pretty, intelligent who helped her father in his business, he had met her a few times, but he never could bring his heart to accept her, whenever he tried to come close to her, or understand her, or cajole his feeling for her he failed terribly, how much ever he tried he just couldn't see himself loving her despite all her qualities… …his eyes we engaged in a constant search for something he didn't know… … not able to contain his curiosity he had once asked his grandmother if he was in a relationship or whether he loved someone…she was equally clueless and replied that he never mentioned anything… …Jai turned the shower, maybe he was thinking too much unnecessarily… …
****
Jai smiled stiffly as the guests greeted him warmly… …Roshni stood near him, their arms linked, he felt invariably uncomfortable and out of place…
"I can't wait jai…I am so excited…" roshni gushed merrily… … jai looked unsure…
Bani cried, fell on her knees, clinging onto the legs of the watchman, with great difficulty she had reached the house, after reaching the Mumbai station she was petrified by the crowd, she was completely uninformed about what to do next when she overheard a couple talking in Bengali passing by her, she immediately sought them who helped her out of pity…the watchman looked horrified by this unruly girl who barged in calling out…"Jai…Jai…"and frantically speaking in Bengali which he couldn't fathom… … with great difficulty he let go off her, holding her shoulders he pushed her back, she fell on the concrete road... bani wailed copiously… …not understanding what to do he called Krishna Walia…
"What is it Bahadur…?" Krishna Walia said irritated by this petty interruption…
"Maam, sorry to disturb you but a woman has come asking for Jai Sir…she has been crying since past half an hour pleading me to let in…" he said
"What!!! Just send her away…pata nahin kahaan kahaan se chale aate hain…" Krishna muttered under her breath...maintaining her smiling face to the arrived guests…
"But maam, she is not leaving…" he said helplessly…
"Fine I am coming…" Krishna slammed the phone… she briskly walked out to look into the matter…
Krishna stood astonished by the chit of a girl, standing in front of her with tears in her eyes; she seemed like a villager, what was she doing here? Was the first thing that came into her mind… …even more shocking thing was the gold bracelet hung around her wrist…
"Show it to me…" Krishna snatched the bracelet from her hand… she was astounded to see it, it belonged to jai with his initials JW engraved on it… how she got it… jai many a times asked her if he was in a relationship with someone, but she had always denied it since he never told her about anything until his trip to Sundarbans, did he fall in love there, by her appearance she looked like a native of the east…in the dangerous accident, his camera was destroyed to get a clue…whatever it was she would never allow an uneducated, unsophisticated village belle to become her grandson's wife…
"Bahadur throw her out…" Krishna ordered heartlessly…she didn't flinch one bit while bahadur dragged away a yelling, howling bani mercilessly… …
Jai noticed his grandmother looking a bit tensed… … he saw her pacing in, her face set in concentration, she quickly came inside putting something away… …
Jai quietly slipped away, pulling out the drawer to see a golden bracelet, he took it out analyzing it carefully, it seemed familiar, JW, probably it was his bracelet, but then why did his grandmother hide it from him… …his thoughts stopped, a lost memory flashed in front of him… …
"Aami aa..shbo… (I will comeback)"
He stood rooted to his spot, bemused… …
"Ladies and Gentlemen…today is such a happy moment for me, my only grandson is finally getting married to this lovely young lady, Roshni Chopra…now the soon-to-bes will exchange rings…Roshni…jai come her please…" Krishna smiled affectionately as roshni stepped forward, dressed in the finest of finery… viewing jai unmoving…Krishna looked at him…
"Jai…come dear…" Krishna called out… jai looked up…blinking his eyes, his feet moved and he ran… shocking everyone present there…
He breathed heavily by the time he reached the gates… …
"Oh!! Bani…Where are you…???" he yelped… …stopping in his tracks as he witnessed a sobbing bani huddled on the footpath…he crossed the road…standing near her… …
"Bani…" he whispered… …jolted bani's head shot up… …
A soft cry escaped her throat as she saw him calling out her name…
"I have come to take you…Cholo…" he said reaching for her hand… …
****
The End… …
God bless
dhani
NOTE: Inspired by Kalidas's 'Shakuntala' and Tagore!!!
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Shiv Shakti
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
