The Wind of Adversity

"You murdered my parents. You filthy bitch," cursed Rupam, as he pushed Kadambini towards the creaky old divan. She kept her balance. The cursing continued, "Your father must have bore you with some bitch."

The dead father's mention was not tolerable. A fire of anger and hatred singed Kadambini. She took the steel tumbler from the floor and threw it towards Rupam. When the tumbler hit Rupam, it hurt his emotions more than it hurt his forehead. He took the cup of steaming tea and threw it on her.

Her body scorched and her blouse soaked. But she didn't move. Rupam strode to his bed, limping as he was drunk. Kadambini sobbed. She had never thought that such a travesty of hatred would ever occur.

Kadambini Kalita was married to Rupam Medhi at the age of sixteen. Kadambini wanted to complete her education, but her father's rapidly declining health forced her to marry. It was Dharani Chandra Kalita's - Kadambini's father - last and final wish to see his daughter getting married.

The bridegroom was found. A farmer's only child. The family demanded and noticeably low dowry. "If you insist, then what can we say. But, we will take only ten thousand". The family knew that the bridegroom's father meant that the marriage will not take place with a paisa less than that. The budget was of 50,000. The bride's family had assumed the dowry to be around twenty thousand. This was a special one-time offer.

They started preparing for the marriage. Kadambini's family was a very disciplined one. They decided to do simple arrangements for their marriage which corroborated with their dignity. Some people say that poverty is a curse, while some say it is a boon. But, very few knew that it was neither. A zamindar's wealth will also surrender if his wants are greater than his dignity. Kadambini's family was one of the families which knew. So they enjoyed the little pleasures they could afford. And, so the marriage was to be held on the month of Magh, with only seventy invited guests. The whole fifty thousand would be spent, but not a paisa more than that.

Say it the wrath of God or a stroke of bad luck, her father died fifteen days before her marriage. But the arrangements of marriage were already made and the people were already invited. So they decided not to postpone the marriage. Moreover, it is said that it's a harbinger of the good, if a daughter's marriage could be held within one year of her father's death.

The marriage fell on the fifteenth day, the day of 'Matsya Sparsa', of her father's death. They day passed with the little pomp and gaiety that the family could afford and the mourning could accept.

Kadambini left her home to enter into a new stage of her life. She remembered that her father once said her, 'Someday, you will have to leave all your love for us here, on this house, and you will have to go to a remote place, where nothing will be familiar to you. Still you have to own that place and it's people and love them as much as you do now to us.'

She had asked with a tone which was the mixture of sorrow and curiousness, 'Why only women have to do that? Why not men?'

'Only the most auspicious and most sacred creatures get to live in two homes. We men are not worthy of that,' that had been the answer and after that her father had smiled. This was the solitary consolation to her, when she cried at the time of leaving.

As time wore out, Kadambini got adapted to the air of her new home. At first, she felt like an alien. But gradually, she breathed in the love and affection and care of her husband and the two in-laws with a kind and gentle attitude. The serenity of the atmosphere went on for another year. But eventually the dark clouds started to appear. Rupam's relatives started becoming envious of Kadambini's utopian happiness. They started to plant the seeds of suspicion among her husband's crop of love. However, Rupam set these rumors at naught. He loved his wife as before. Unfortunately, then the storm came. Both of her in-laws died in the same year. It marked the inception of the floods that were about to occur.

The weeds of suspicion finally destroyed the crop of love. At first, he started to ignore her. This further developed into gruesome quarrels. Then the things took a more severe turn. Rupam stopped working on the fields. He would go home to home and clean the gardens for daily wages. He took only a small portion of these wages to home. The larger part was used up for buying liquor and gambling.

When on one night, Kadambini got the strong scent of alcohol from him, she scolded him with dangerous fury. Her father's death was also caused by alcohol. She didn't want to lose her husband to the same evil. But she shouted in vain. The next night he again came with a heavy intoxication. The same thing continued for a month, after which he started to beat Kadambini.

That night too he came drunk and beat her harshly and finally ended up in throwing the hot tea on her. She sobbed till she was exhausted and fell asleep. At the daybreak, she woke up with a dizzy head. She started performing her daily morning rituals. Bur she didn't feel well. Her head was spinning. Something inside her body was nauseating her. She vomited.

Three day passed. Her condition was not changing. On the afternoon of the fourth day, she went to the Government hospital. There she got the reports that she was pregnant. A dawn of hope illuminated her dark heart. She thought it as a fresh start. She saw the faint glimmer of a lone lamp in the vast kingdom of darkness. She thought that her husband would mend his ways if he gets this news.

But the damp and cold wind of hatred extinguished that lamp. He wouldn't even listen to her. She was lying! Because that is what she does! There was no chance of coming back from such a point of life. It was the event horizon. Now she had to make a decision. She had to choose between a better life for her child and an entrance to this black-hole of chaotic madness. And so she did it. She chose her way. She knew that she had to leave something behind to move forward. She decided to leave her husband. No, not through a divorce, because he wouldn't do that. She found a more permanent way. It was the gravity of her situation that made her immune to the reluctance of making a plan to murder her own husband. That was it. She had to do it. So she found a way.

Three weeks later from that, one day after her husband went out for work, she went to the bazaar. Making her way through the crowd of the bazaar, she stepped into the stationery shop. 

She said to the shopkeeper, 'I need a bottle of rat poison'. The shopkeeper suggested her to take solid rat poison as it would be more effective. But she stuck to the bottle.

That night, was the finale. She was to do something that she never would've even thought of if she were normal. But now it was not the time to be normal. She made tea for her husband and poured all of the poison to it. The tea smelt odd, but she was sure that her drunken husband will never notice that. Then she waited and after some time, he came, drunk as usual. He stumbled at the threshold of the room and caught the door frame.

"Why did you kill my father," were the words that came out from his mouth as he steadied himself. "Why did you kill my mother? What was wrong with you? You bitch."

Now the clouds burst. It was not tolerable for Kadambini. She will not let her husband die without feeling regret. For the first time in her life she felt being driven by her anger.

"You were a scoundrel, not me. It is you that should die. You killed your parents, you devil!" the words came out from her mouth involuntarily. The lightning stroke. His anger rose too high. Somehow keeping his legs sober, he pulled the sickle hung on the wall and plunged it deep into his wife skull. Death came instantaneously. She fell on the ground, as dead as a nail. No regret came to him. Perhaps it was because he was still under the influence of alcohol... Or perhaps he truly wanted her dead. Only the God knows.

Without even a tinge of knowledge about what he had done, he walked towards the table, where the cup of tea was placed. He picked the cup up and took a long breathe. He was not in mood to drink it. But his hand brought it up to his mouth, let the cup touch his lips, and poured down all of the tea in his mouth, involuntarily. And he gulped it.

The night became silent. He walked to the bed and lay down on it. The creaking of the bed was the last sound made on that house that night. The night was dark and full of terrors, but not unpleasant anymore. The wind of adversity had blown and the night was full of its consequences...

- Kritaarth

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