‘’Marry her,’’ They said. She was young and beautiful. Not the kind of young we all are once in life but literally ‘young’. In fact, she was younger. They were four, three sisters and one brother. Charu was the eldest of all and the most qualified among the sisters. Lata was younger than her. To be more qualified than the groom has to be equated with deformity; it lessens your femininity. Masculinity has always been in danger when it has tied knots to a woman who is more educated.
They came to see Charu but were more willing to see Lata as she was the fairer one and younger too, a desirable addition. Roop Kumar Babu, the only man of the family who used to be in ill-health often was given this solution by one of his closest friends Moninath.
Lata, the fair-maid was too fair to know if it could be unfair. When she reached her new to-be- home, everyone could see her there but Lata was still at both the places. Lata could feel halved into two, the new and the old; one at this home and another at that which she had already left but still could not leave.
She did all she was expected to do as the bride of the eldest son in the family. Family, if you could call it so. She cooked and cleaned and washed and served and obeyed and got scolded and cried at but she cried not; the New Lata was a bride, how could she and if she did, would anyone hear?
Nir loved her not her fairness but he had an illness which muddled his affection towards her.
Sometimes, he was deaf and sometimes mute but he could always choose his illness and suffer rom it. He controlled his sickness. Our wedding cassette used to be played occasionally on the VCR. Yes, I am Lata and I refuse to talk about myself in third person anymore. So, Our wedding cassette was played occasionally on the VCR. And those occasions were when I, Lata, could become the Lata I used to be. I came across those occasions thrice as the cassette was played only thrice before it was kept in the closet.
The number three has always shared a connection with me. We were three sisters. I was the third girl Nir’s parents saw while looking for a daughter-in-law (of course, Nir told me this later). After three years of my marriage, Charu got her dream job and later she married one of her colleagues. Both fell in love. I gave birth to three kids who always behaved like grown-ups. Two of them are in college now and the youngest is here at home smiling at me while I write this.
I took out the wedding cassette from the closet last week. The cassette still looked new; unaffected by the passing time. Nir got a VCR too, to play it but it won’t start. When it worked, it was kept inside the closet and now when it was outside, it was better suited for the closet, it seemed.Nir looked at me and I looked back at him as if gazing at a distant landscape. We were here and there at the same moment. And it was time we hugged each other and our younger selves
Namrata Biswas
Guidelines for the competition : https://www.fanatixxpublication.com/write-o-mania-2023
A nicee strory, with a short length but deep meaning!
Your writing is accomplished 👏
Amazing story, loved it!