Story
Translated from the Bengali into English by Alamgir Mohammad
Everyone in the ‘Cholonbil’ knows this story.
The story is of a brother and his sister.
Only two, they’re orphans residing in a small hut in a village.
The brother who goes out for work early in the morning doesn’t have a boat of his own, so he catches fish in others’ boats. During ‘Baishakh’ he reaps paddy. If there’s no work, he works as a laborer in the ‘ghat’ in the local town.
If he fails to find any such work, both the brother and the sister have to starve.
They spend their days in hardship as they cannot cook every day, do not have rice in the bowl, and have no cot to sleep in. So, they have to sleep on the ground which is surrounded by rat holes. During rains, they cannot sleep. For water drops down at them from the old thatched home.
Thus they don’t have any entertainment in life. They can’t celebrate Eid as they cannot afford to wear new clothes during Eid or other festivals. With the little earnings of the brother, they can hardly make their ends meet. How could they buy clothes? But human beings need to wear clothes. They wear too. But they have only one set of clothes for each of them. They are torn and altered. They spend their day in this single dress. Early in the morning, before people get up, they bathe in the water of the marsh. Standing in the sun they have to dry up clothes. They catch cold at this. On some days they keep their clothes on the bank of the marsh and take a bath. They have to take a bath before people come out.
One morning after getting up from the bed, the sister recalls that today is her brother’s birthday. She wishes to cook and entertain her brother with a bowl of latex. But, from where could she get sugar, milk, and powdered rice? At this, she starts crying. She is crying in silence. For she knows her brother cannot tolerate her tears. She sobs and tears roll down and her pillow gets soaked. Later she remembers that her brother loves to have ‘shaluk’ cooked. She decides to collect some ‘shaluk’ from the marsh. Making no delay she sets out for the marsh. She doesn’t find any shaluk in the water where she takes her bath. Shaluk blooms in the distant water. Far away! So what? She will swim across to bring them. She goes to the distant water keeping her clothes in the bank and, swims far away to collect shaluk.
It is a hot summer day. They got soaked with sweat at night.
The world has started getting cold after the whole night of heated temperature. Morning breaks. The heated environment runs out and the wind is breezing. She feels comfortable in the water. She dips one after another in the water, swims like fish, and reaches the shaluk. It takes much time for her to reach them. After collecting some, she comes back to the bank with a good heart. But with utter her surprise she finds her clothes taken away. Her heart falls down. Who has taken away her clothes? Certainly, some thief may have taken them away. Alas! The thief. This is the only piece of cloth of this wretched girl. With anger and sadness she cries out for her brother: Hey brother! Come here quickly. I am in utter danger here.’
Hearing her cry, the brother makes his appearance in a jiffy. He has a chopper in hand. Has any tortoise or filthy creature caught his sister?
After reaching close to her, he feels relieved. No tortoise is seen. But she is crying standing in the neck-deep water. He has asked, ‘What happened? Why are you yelling?’
Brother, I kept my dress there in the bank. Someone has taken it away.
‘I see.’
The brother runs here and there for a while. But none is seen. Neither the dress too. After coming back to the ghat, he says, ‘Sister, I haven’t found your dress. Go home.’
The sister sobs, ‘How can I go home without my clothes, brother?’
Now, the brother feels the sky down upon him. It is true indeed. How can she go home?’
He says, ‘Wait for a while, I am coming with clothes?’
The brother sets for the weavers’ house. He goes to one and another and pleads for a set of clothes, ‘Give me a piece of cloth, please. My sister needs a piece.’
The weaver asked, ‘How can I give you a piece of cloth? We are the mere weavers, not the owner. We cannot give you without the permission of the owner. Go and fetch permission from him.’
‘Who is the owner?’
‘The owner is the lender. We have taken a loan from him. It doesn’t matter whether we are unfed or fed, we have to give him the woven clothes.’
‘Where does the lender live?’
‘He lives in his hut in another village.’
The weavers let him know the whereabouts of the lender.
The brother heads on in search of the lender.
Here the sister keeps waiting under the neck-deep water. Whenever she sees a man, she dips. Stopping the breath she keeps hidden under the water. After the men disappear looking to and fro she comes out from the dip. She is eagerly waiting for her brother to come. The more it is getting day, the more people are gathering in the ghat area. Boats keep coming one after another. Being compelled, she keeps hidden under the water much of the time. When she feels suffocated, only then she brings her head up. She keeps searching for her brother, takes a deep breath, and dips again.
She cannot do it anymore. The sister calls her brother anxiously. But, even the shadow of her brother is not seen. At one point she goes down under the water. She metamorphoses into a dolphin when it is impossible to remain alive as a human being.
Being a dolphin, the sister keeps down the water. Only she comes once or twice out in search of the brother if he brings a piece of cloth.
When will the brother come back?
2.
After three days, Shamsu came down from a boat in the bank near his house. His whole body is afflicted with allergy, his hairs were full of lice, the lungi he wore was shabby to the worst. He carried a sack filled with six grenades and a rifle on his shoulder. As soon as the evening falls, ghostly darkness spreads everywhere. But no uneasiness there. No feeling of fear. Why? Shamsu looks for the answer. He tells himself the country is independent now. So no fear and fright.
Zakir Talukder : Fictionist in Bangla Literature
Alamgir Mohammad : The Translator teaches at the department of English, Bangladesh Army International University of Science and Technology, Cumilla.
Illustration : Satabdi Zahid
