: Hello, can you hear me?
: Yes, I can hear you. Who is this, please?
: It’s half past one at night.
Why are you still awake? Won’t you sleep?
: I can’t quite
place you.
: No need to know me.
Want to talk?
: No. I’m hanging up.
And I cut the phone.
Back then, when girls called and I hung up, I’d feel like every girl in the world was crazy about me. That strange, arrogant ego of youth.
Two days later.
: If you hang up on me,
I’ll talk to your father
directly. I’ll tell him everything.
: Meaning??
: You know me.
What’s the problem with talking to me?
: Alright, go ahead.
: Got scared?
Hehe…..
The conversation continued.
Young girls can be a little unhinged. They can create trouble without thinking ahead. If she managed to get my father’s number and actually called him, he’d think I didn’t have the courage to tell someone I liked them directly. That I was getting the girl to do it for me. There’d be no dignity left. How embarrassing!
Another day.
: What good would it do
to know who I am?
: I feel neither love
nor hatred toward strangers.
: Haven’t you seen ‘Sudden Rain’?
Our love is like ‘Sudden Rain’ type love. Hehe….
: In movies,
both hero and heroine are beautiful.
: Even if you’re not handsome,
I have no problem with that. Hehe……
(I stayed quiet.
The girl had a sense of humor. That meant her chances of being pretty were slim.)
: Why so quiet?
Hehe…… So, what were you doing?
: Listening to music.
: Whose songs?
: Jagannath Mitra’s.
: Oh…..
: How do you like
his songs?
: Hmm, they’re good.
(From her tone,
it sounded like she was making it up.)
: Which one do you
like best?
: Actually, I haven’t
heard his name before.
(I stayed silent……)
: Why so quiet??
Okay, okay, that’s fine, I’ll listen to him. When his new album comes out, I’ll buy it and send it to you myself.
: He won’t be releasing
any more albums.
: Why? Has he stopped singing??
(My mood soured.
By then, Jagannath’s ghost had long since become a ghost. But the girl had her virtues. Excellent results. Read lots of books—all medical texts. And she knew Rabindranath’s name. She also believed that Rabindranath’s writings must be good. Otherwise, why would so many people call them good? I got tired of telling her to watch ‘Life is Beautiful’ and several other films, and eventually gave up. Let her be as she was. But she had one wonderful quality—she knew how to love, and she did love. Being in love with students who get excellent results is often a great punishment. She wasn’t like that. I was the one thinking like a fool.)
Happily,
today is her fourth wedding anniversary. I played matchmaker for her wedding myself. When I was studying at Chittagong College, I told a friend that Kishore Kumar was a big rice merchant from Khatunganj. He also sang as a hobby. Listening to ‘Aj Ei Din Take’ on his Walkman, she was truly enchanted. My friend didn’t know Kishore Kumar. (Really didn’t know him.) That day, his head bowed in reverence for such a rice merchant amateur singer. Sitting on the steps in front of the collapsible gate that was always closed in front of Chittagong College’s Chemistry Department, I told my good-natured friend all this in a convincing manner. Even the monkeys nearby could barely contain their laughter that day. I’ve always been able to tell harmless lies very systematically, like the truth, seriously and sincerely.
Friend, this is what I ask of you today—at least raise your children listening to Lata and Kishore.
Srijato asks in his
poem (to some girl),
If someone who’s never
heard of Shankha Ghosh
proposes to you, what
will you do……
In these days when
at least two friends or younger brothers invite me to their weddings every week, when I like photos of friends’ angel-faced kids, when I see fewer people in my neighborhood calling me ‘dada,’ when school-going youngsters call me ‘uncle,’ when friends whose marriages are settled say that many of the boys or girls they’d rejected earlier were actually better than this—then I tell Srijato, if there’s someone worth saying ‘yes’ to, I’ll get her to read Shankha Ghosh. (Enough now…….) Most girls gradually become like the boy they love.
দাদা প্রতিনিয়ত মনে হয় তাকে ছেড়ে এসে ভুল করেছিলাম… বার বার তাকে আপন করে ফিরে পেতে ইচ্ছে হয়। সেও ৬ বছর পর ফিরে এসেছে.. খুব নরমাল ভাবেই আমার সাথে মিসছে কিন্তু একবারও বলেনি সে বিবাহিত। সে আমাকে দিয়ে আমার সব ফিলিংস, তার জন্য পাগলামি করিয়ে আজ আমাকে জানালো যে সে বিবাহিত।
দাদা আপনাদের এই সো কল্ড বিসিএস ক্যাডার হয়ে সে আজ ৬ বছর পর এসে প্রতিশোধ নিয়ে গেলো। বিসিএস কি তাহলে তাকে এই শিক্ষা দিয়েছে যে, যাও তুমি এখন উপযুক্ত.. তোমার এখন যার সাথে যা ইচ্ছা করো!!