By Sushi
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Damodar closed his eyes and prayed for a while. The Durga of their colony pandal glowed like a thousand suns as his wife touched Her feet, but Damodar didn’t notice it.
Back home, Damodar carried his wife — without her consent — to the bedroom and threw her on to his bed. He climbed on top of her to pin her hands down.
The woman would scream in a while. That would lend some fuel to his train of excitement. He removed his cotton kurta and looped the loose end of her sari around her neck.
Half her hair covered her eyes.
“You enjoyed the pandal visit, didn’t you?”he asked.
No reply.
He slapped her cheek.
“Maa Durga was magnificent, wasn’t she?”
No reply.
Damodar pinched her stomach hard.
“Maa Durga will save you today?”
He kicked her legs.
Nothing.
“How about a kiss?”he asked.
He pulled her face to his and leaned down to bite her mouth, but the wind rushed in from the window.
It blew the hair off her face so Damodar could see her eyes.
The man couldn’t move.
Her big black eyes were like two shining mirrors in which he saw his pitiful face — the sweat falling off his chin, the ugly leer on his lips, and the fear that engulfed him as his wife breathed in and out, like the Universe beyond the open window.
“Maa!”
Damodar backed off her body and fell at her feet. She glowed like a thousand suns.
“Forgive me,”he said.
He closed his eyes again and prayed as the sun rose and set — like birth and death — with his wife’s gentle, rhythmic breath.
(ends)
Sushi 