Storymania - Close With A Bang by Govindaraju Sita Devi

Close With A Bang
Govindaraju Sita Devi

It was 5-30 in the evening. Girija had stepped out of her office.
The scorching sun had suddenly disappeared followed by dark clouds and a heavy downpour. She had to walk at least a furlong to reach the bus stop. She murmured to herself “This rain, can’t it wait!”
Girija was completely drenched. But she had to reach the bus stop and necessarily wait for the bus. She increased her speed.
The bus stop was already crowded. Nearly half-an-hour passed but there was no trace of a bus. She left her home in the morning and was anxious to reach home at the earliest. There was no trace of even an auto-rickshaw!
But a bus had come hurriedly with packed passengers and with an equal hurry passed past the bus stop without stopping. This added to her anxiety but waited in a helpless state.
All of a sudden there appeared ray of hope! She spotted a familiar car coming towards the bus stop. It belonged to the one residing opposite to her house. Harigopal the owner of the car was driving and his wife Swarupa, a very attractive woman and a good gab too with her musical voice was seated beside him. ‘The pair is made for each other.’ Girija always thought of the couple!
In her hurry to reach home at the earliest to be with her ailing daughter, Girija had no second thought whether it would be appropriate to try to stop a moving car. Unexpectedly the car slowed down but stopped few yards beyond the bus stop. Girija almost ran to the car never minding her chappals giving away. But she noticed the scornful looks of Swarupa.
Girija suddenly stopped without proceeding further.
A teen-age girl overtook her and hurriedly opened the car door and stepped inside and the car sped away.
Girija was at the verge of shedding tears.
“Madam, if you have no objection I’ll drop you at your house.” It was an unsolicited help offered by a Muslim youth riding his scooter.
“Thank you.” She did not lose the opportunity and the scooter started soon after she sat on the pillion.
He dropped her at her residence and immediately vanished without even obliging a cup of tea offered by her.
With a deep sigh Girija unlocked the main door and rushed inside.
“How’re you baby?” she said switching on the light and approached near the bed of her daughter.
“Mummy, the bed is full of ants. I was unable to sleep or even lie down.”
“Ants! Let me see.” Girija picked up the bed sheet and also the girl.
“No mummy, Don’t. My gown is stinking.”
“Oh baby no! I’m sorry.” Girija lifted her child to her bosom and noticed that the bed sheet was urinated and also defecated. Girija sobbed and her tears rolled down her cheeks. So did the girl.
Girija looked at her daughter.
“How unfortunate! A very attractive face like her baby! A rare beauty! How wonderful life would be- She forget her labour pains while giving birth to a lovely baby. How happy was her husband Gopi too!
But their happiness was short-lived. Soon it was learnt that the baby’s hands, legs and also the waist were numb and after treatment by a specialist for about six months it was a confirmed case of paralyzed limbs. Desperately the couple consulted each and every specialist never minding the huge expenses in spite of incurring debts. But the efforts were futile.
The baby was growing up and also the problems.
Both Girija and her husband Gopi were employed. She would start at 9 am and Gopi’s timings depended on his shift duty. The couple was very thrifty and whatever they could save was spent for the treatment of the child.
While going to her office Girija would place all the requirements of the child very close to her bed and lock the main door from outside. Soon after the office hours she would rush home.
Girija always lamented ‘I was responsible for her deformity and the child is now punished for no fault of hers. Was it due to marrying a blood relation, which was discouraged by genetic science?’ But some of my cousins married likewise but they are happy with their children! Why’s the girl punished for no fault of hers…’
“Mummy the ants are still biting.”
Girija again rushed to her and found that some ants were still on the bed. She cleaned the bed thoroughly
“Mummy, these ants-they bite and bite. Today I cried loud and also shouted. That fellow Babi came to the window and heckled and hit me with stones.”
“My God… I’ll see … I’ll …”
“All of them had gone to a movie. The aunty next door rushed here and spanked Babi and admonished him not to repeat in future. But I cried and cried… Mummy please don’t leave me alone.”
“I don’t …” Girija could not say this since she could not do so. However best her presence was required I the house, there was an imperative need for her to take up a job to supplement her husband’s income as he could barely manage to rub along on what he earned.
Girija recalled that on a certain day recently, she kept the window doors open to allow a cool breeze inside. But a gale struck in the afternoon flowed by a heavy rain slashing through the widow doors resulting in a complete drench of the room and also the child. By the time Girija returned in the evening what she noticed was a shivering helpless child. She could do nothing except sobbing!
Such instances were frequent in varied forms keeping Girija restless and sometimes throwing her to a verge of madness.
Girija would be tired by the time she returned home and added to this; the problems with her child were mounting keeping her in agony and sometimes in disgust. The future of the child and also of hers seemed to be gloomy. But consulting doctors was not shelved with a ray of hope and hoping against hope that some miracle might happen in the present day of advancement of medical science.
“Mummy…” Girija looked at her daughter.
“You are soaked in the rain. Your dripping sari is adding to my shiver.”
Instantly Girija realized that her sari was wet She changed the clothes of the child immediately and also hers, brought some hot milk to the child and prepared a cup of tea for herself and stepped into the front room. She peeped out of the window to have some fresh air and looked at the opposite house. There in the balcony she observed that Swarupa was caressing her five-year-old daughter. That cute little girl was always seen in attractive frocks and Girija also liked her immensely. Swarupa’s husband was a very well to do person and also well placed in life. A posh building, a car, a good-looking wife and also a very charming daughter. -Girija always envied Swarupa.
Pankajam who stayed two rows beyond was a good friend of Girija and a frequent visitor to Girija’s house and even in her absence would be taking care of her daughter whenever she could do so. Pankajam’s husband was also a colleague of Gopi hence she had become a bosom friend to Girija. But Pankajam would be out of the city frequently and at such times it would be all the more difficult for Girija to manage the house with her daughter in.
Pankajam was out of station presently and returned only that day and immediately rushed to see Girija. With such affectionate gestures Pankajam had become one of the family members of Girija and an indispensable person.
“I am very happy with your presence and your company.” Girija said without any inhibition.
“How are you baby?” Pankajam inquired the child.
“Mummy, aunty ‘s very kind to me. She’s taking care of me in your absence.”
Girija expressed her gratitude with a dry smile.
Their attention was suddenly drawn to the opposite house and the rushing of the car inside.
“What happened? Something wrong?” Girija looked at Pankajam.
“Oh, it’s an old story. The husband wants another child but she vehemently opposed to it. She had an abortion recently and the present position is a post surgical problems. Funny these moneyed people and their fancies!”
Pankajam had left. Girija immediately prepared the dinner and shortly afterwards Gopi arrived with a bunch of flowers and a packet of biscuits for the child. It’s a long time Girija wore flowers.
After dinner ensuring that the child had slept, Gopi went to the other room with a mat and spread it on the floor and said, “Girija bring a pillow for you.”
Girija could sense the invitation and it’s more than a couple of months that her husband invited her.
Girija did not delay since the child was always sleepless and she didn’t know when she would be awake. She slowly stepped towards the other room and to her waiting husband.
“Mummy, I’m scared- it’s dark-put on the light.” The child suddenly called for her mother.
Girija was upset. She murmured aloud. “How long-how long? She sleeps like a log during daytime and awake throughout the night. I’m fed up. Oh, it’s miserable she’s making my life miserable.”
Gopi heard this and with impatience rushed to his daughter and slapped her. At this unexpected development the child cried aloud as if in a hysteria.
Gopi realized that his outburst on the helpless child was unbecoming of him and ashamed of himself. He came out of the room and lighted a cigarette not knowing what to do.
Girija felt that her sympathies for the child were dwindling perhaps mainly because she had to forego even small pleasures of a married life.
Four or five months have since elapsed and this time added to her chaotic condition the child developed diarrhea compelling Girija to be on long leave from her office work. Her stay for long period in the house had created a mind of restlessness and she was almost fed up with her unending service to the child. Sympathy for the child was totally vanished and a peculiar kind of aversion towards her developed. A stage had come when she was not even responding to the child’s immediate needs. But the child had not noticed any change in her mother and continued to call her frequently for her needs.
Added to her plight Girija was looking at her opposite house and comparing herself to Swarupa who always looked majestic than any other woman she had ever known. She could not say whether this look of majesty was innate in Swarupa or whether it was her own ravished glances that attributed it to her.
Prior to her marriage Girija dreamt a life of exactly Swarupa has been enjoying now-a big bungalow, a car, a husband like that of Swarupa and always on the move in her car and her husband.
But the reality was otherwise. She married her uncle whom she had known from childhood. Yet she reconciled with the circumstances. But her child born with an immobile body was a shock, which she could never overcome.
However best she tried to reconcile herself she was always reminded of Swarupa and her lifestyle and started hating herself. A stage had come when there was not a single moment that she was not reminded of Swarupa and her luxurious life and her own pathetic living.
“There should be an end sometime somewhere.” Girija always thought over, over and over again and finally came to a conclusion!
On that day…
“Mummy I’m hungry. Please give me milk.” The child called her mother in a meek voice.
After a while Girija came to her with a glass of milk, her hands shaking violently.
“I’m sorry mummy. I’m always troubling you for something or the other. I know that you don’t like my crying often. I don’t cry hereafter…promise…I don’t…”
Girija’s hands were trembling uncontrollably. Her throat was choked and also her body as if paralysed. All the love she had for the girl showed up at once deep from her heart.
And someone from inside her heart warned her. ‘How dare you! How devilish are you! Just because the girl is coming in your way of the small comforts of life, you have gone to the extent of..of…How monstrous! And can you do it? Alright go ahead if you can!’
Her whole body trembling Girija dropped the glass on the floor, which was broken.
Just at that moment Gopi stepped inside only to find a broken glass and also his shivering wife.
“Oh God,” she immediately ran and embraced her husband with a stream of tears rolling down from her cheeks and immediately hunched up with her head in her hands.
Gopi saw the broken glass and also some of the undisolved tablets in the milk lying on the floor.
“Girija .no..no.. don’t …never…” Gopi’s voice was drawling and yet firm.
He had not completed what he was saying. Girija heard the sound of the car of the opposite house and hurried towards the window and closed the doors with a bang.

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