SONA, The Golden Girl :

SONA, the Golden Girl :

It was the month of February. My niece called me up to her room. As I entered, I heard her introducing someone, 

"This is Sona, Gouri Kakima's cousin sister. And Sona, this is Swagata Kaka. The person we were talking to you about."

As I directed my gaze to the girl, sitting on the bed, I saw the most beautiful face I had seen in my life. She had an oval-shaped face with a pair of the most expressive eyes I had seen till then. Tall and shapely for a Bengali girl, she was sheer grace and class. 

We became the very best of friends within no time. Soon we were talking about everything under the sun, well almost. I was in my early twenties then. She couldn't have been more than sixteen or seventeen. What must have taken a lot of people aback was how we stayed glued to one another for the next twelve days. We could be seen in every nook and cranny of the house. Somehow, we became inseparables. I didn't know what love was at that time. I still don't know much about love even today, in the twilight of my life! 

Every morning on waking up, hers was the face that greeted and mesmerized me. And I went to bed thinking of her sweet nature with her face implanted in my head. 

How we spent so much time together in a house literally crammed with people, is still a mystery to me. What did we talk about? How could we become such close friends in such a short time? 

My life came to a stand still when she left. And I dreaded the moment when she it was time for her to leave. There was a storm brewing inside me. My sister-in-law was a picture of calm and composure though. 

"Hi, brother-in-law, how did you find my sister?" She asked with a glint in her eyes. I was looking down at the floor, gritting my teeth, trying to act like a man before her. 

"She's so beautiful. Will she be coming to our house again?" Finally, I heard myself asking my sis-in-law. 

She must have realised what I was going through. 

"I hope so." She replied lovingly and got herself busy. 

******************************************

Sona did come to our house during The Pujas again. We struck it up like we had never been apart from one another, like we stayed together all these months. What was even more strange was the fact that we became more close to one another after the separation of the last few months. It was like being scared of another separation, we were trying to make the best of the little time left to us.

My life was full of Sona (gold) that particular Durga Puja. Every now and then I would sneak a peek at her either walking up the corridor after a refreshing bath or giggling non-stop and slapping my nieces on their backs over a joke or something. In short, her presence in our ancestral home during that unforgettable Durga Puja brightened my days up. 

Soon, the three days of fun and frolic were over. It was time for the image of the goddess to be immersed. We had hardly returned home from Babughat (a place on the bank of the Ganges where the idols are normally immersed) when I found the youngers running after the elders to touch their feet to seek their blessings. 

I went up to my Kaka's room on the second floor. I was coming back down to our room on the first floor when I bumped into who else but Sona at the turning of the staircase. 

But for the streaks of lights coming in from the street lamps outside, most of the staircase was enveloped in darkness. She came up to me like a hurricane. Covering her face partially with the edge of her sari, she looked like a newly-wed bride before bending down to touch my feet. 

I was completely nonplussed by her ghomta, the sparkling smile on her charming face and her act of touching my feet. Something was urging me to be more desperate at the time, to take her in my arms, take her chin in my hand for all I cared before planting a kiss on her divine face, you know. But my upbringing stopped me from doing anything silly. With the ghomta still on, she kept probing into my eyes.

She must have realized something and that was why she came out with something like this, if my memory serves me right. 

"You know, (I find it strange now knowing that Sona never addressed me directly by my name!) I am leaving tomorrow. I don't want to go but I have to. I just want you to know that I have looked upon you as mine from the first time I set my eyes on you. You may think of me as a bad girl or what you will but you have become such an important part of my life that I knew that I had to bare my heart to you. Will you ever come for me to Birati? (She was from Birati, a place an hour's journey by bus from Calcutta proper) … .. " Her pleading look made me feel like the fool I was. 

She looked up at me. In the glimmer of the shady lights, she looked so hauntingly graceful like a melody or a poem. That's when I wanted to hug her. But she gave me the slip before I could put my arms around her. 

That particular moment has stayed like a freeze with me. Sona was gone the very next day. Gone from my life for good. I leant from my sis-in-law a few months later that there was a marriage proposal for her. I didn't pay much importance to the news as I thought that my sis-in-law wanted some fun at my expenses. 

Today, almost thirty years after my epic encounter with Sona, I think of her often and wonder what life would have been like if I had dared to visit Sona at her house in Birati. 

They say that true love stories have never happy endings. I am not sure about it but I truly believe that true love is like a dream that leaves you in a blissful state for a while and vanishes as you wake up to be caught up in The Web of Life.

The end