"Thirty-six Plus Twenty-seven equals to... Three six plus two seven... One two three, three six... And...No No... Start from beginning... Thirty-six and twenty-seven... Seven sounds like Reven... No Ravan... Twenty Ravan plus Ram...equals to rescuing Sita Maa...Where is my Vanar sena?"

"Bondita... What are you murmuring for the last 10 minutes?"
Anirudh's abrupt grave voice had startled the nine years old, as she quickly gasped, dropping the small pieces of chalks, her 'Vanar Sena' from her hands and looked up at him.

"No... Um... I just..."
She had held her wooden pencil in one hand, it was her Shri Ram, and had a small wooden ruler on the other, the bad 'Seven', her Ravan.

"I was... I was doing addition." She murmured, trying to hide her hands under the small table on which her notebooks lay.

"What are you trying to add?"
Anirudh had stopped typing, his eyes were on her now, intensified, and his face hardened at the sight of the scribble on the fair wooden table...
'Like that Headmaster in her school.' She had thought, her eyes slowly looked up at his, and she gulped.
'That same look... And they even had a name for it, she and Batuk... Death-stare...
Batuk says he could even kill someone with that stare... How awful!!'

"Why are you staring at me like that Bondita?" Anirudh had asked her a question, and she would have to answer, even if there was no prescribed proper answer to it.

"I... I am.. looking at your nose."

Anirudh frowned and touched his nose.
"Why? What's wrong with my nose?"

"Everything." She murmured, and looked down at her notebook once again, trying to fight the battle of adding thirty six with the mighty Twenty Ravan... without her Vanar Sena this time.
She giggled, the thought of a battle without an army appeared hilarious to her. Her mouth had opened automatically, the missing two front teeth was painfully giving away the visual of a bare pink gum as she stuck her tongue out to lick it unmindfuly, the lead of her pencil had just touched the paper... and it was exactly when the mishap had happened.

"Bondita... Why are you laughing?"

His voice was so loud, almost like a yell, so sudden that it made her hand press the tip of her pencil harder on the paper, breaking the soft lead with a low click sound.
'Did Sri Ram just died in her story?
Neck snapped!!'

Tears had already started to build in her eyes and by then Anirudh had already left his table and was standing infront of her with his arms folded to his chest.

"Broke..." She looked up at him, her lips pouted and her eyebrows twitched, almost touching the bridge of her nose...
"It's... it's broken..."
Another word, and her face was starting to flinch even more, her eyes teary and her nose red, and Anirudh was exactly aware of what was going to happen next.
Without wasting time, he quickly pulled an ink pen from his table and almost shoved it inside her hand.
"Here... Don't cry... Write with this... This won't break."

A drop of tear had already fallen on the white homework sheet kept infront as
Bondita's eyebrows straightened, and she stared at the fountain pen with wonder struck eyes.

"Bondita... Aren't you a grown up girl? Aren't you my wife? Have you ever seen grown ups to cry like this?"
Anirudh's voice had softened considerably, he had always been strict about studies but scaring her was never his intention.

"No..." Bondita sniffed back a tear, "I won't cry", she sobbed.

"Then stop crying." Anirudh touched her head and tried to ruffle her neatly parted hair, making her smile happily.

It was so easy to make her happy, to make her smile, and Anirudh's heart felt a little overwhelmed thinking that it was his duty to never let this smile fade from those tiny lips.
Bondita had pulled open the cap of the fountain pen and tried to write on the paper, and her eyes immediately widened with surprise and wonder as she saw the red ink strains making the letter B on the white sheet.

"Red??" Her eyes widened even more, a broad grin revealing her toothless gum, and Anirudh too couldn't help but smile with her.
He withdrew his hand from her head and ran it through his hair once, back-brushing his shiny mane out of habit.

"He he he... Barrister Babu... Your forehead."
Bondita's giggles had grown louder as she pointed out a finger to his forehead making Anirudh touch the spot.

"Eehee... Ishh... Bondita..." He rolled his eyes as his fingers gave away the red vermillion dust that had contagiously transferred from her head to his.
And, before anyone would find any other reference of this small episode he quickly got up to clean the vermillion strains from him.

"Two minutes, I'll be back... And focus on the addition, alright?"
He leaned forward to look into her eyes as she nodded her head slowly.

Vermillion, funny things...
Just a pinch, and they so easily binds people together, their lives, their hearts, their happiness and sadness...

But, at that moment, Bondita wasn't happy, for the same vermillion had made her dear Barrister Babu leave her sight, although for only 'two minutes', but still those two minutes left like an unbearable eternity to her tiny heart.
She hero worshipped him, she wanted him all by herself, all the time, and suddenly her mind gave away a brilliant idea that would bind him to her 'permanently'.
She quickly finished counting the numbers as she scribbled the answer on the almost tattered homework sheet, and next, she jumped down from her seat and ran towards her reflection on the glass cover of the tall mahogany bookcases.

"There you go..." She pressed the nib of the foundation pen on her parted hairline dropping some red ink on her already sindoor-smeared head.

"Perfect!" She pressed her eyes in happiness, as the red ink dripped down her hair to her saree. She took some on her finger tip  and smeared an imperfectly shaped round on her forehead as well.

"Just a little more..." She ignored her strained saree and took some more ink and applied it on her tiny pink lips, licking a bit, as her face flinched at the bitter taste of the liquid.

"Yuck!" She gagged, but again, looking at the smudged red ink on her lips, her happiness knew no bound.
She remembered the 'MemSaheb' who had come to her school, the beautiful MemSaheb with rosy red cheeks, and the thought brought another naughty spark to her eyes.
She pressed some more ink on her palm and applied it generously on both her cheeks, but the uneven smudging make it look visibly odd, even to her eyes.

"Some more to the left..." She murmured happily and tried to extract some more ink but, only a drop came out... Not more.

"Bondita!!" The loud voice had startled her once again, as she quickly turned around to face her husband standing at the door with his hands on his waist.
She knew this gesture of his, and it didn't take her long to realise what blunder she had committed!

"I... I didn't finish the ink..." She stammered as Anirudh walked briskly towards her with his wide angry eyes.

"What have you done to your face!!" He shouted.
"Really?? I had just left for two minutes Bondita!! Just two minutes!!"

Words weren't getting registered to her ears, and Bondita frantically tried to shake the pen to show him that it still had ink, and that she was innocent, and to her surprise, the ink pen didn't disappoint her completely...
The ink did come out, but not on her hand, but on Anirudh's face and shirt as he had lowered down to talk sense to her already full head.

"Bondita!!" He had groaned, as they both looked at each other with a stunned expression, taken aback by the sudden abruptness of the situation.
Bondita's face was all red, the red ink was invariably smudged on her forehead, dripping down to her nose. Her cheeks looked funny, strains of the ink reaching almost to her tiny ears. A naughty smirk played in her fearful eyes as suddenly both of them burst out into loud fits of laughter together.
Anirudh had pulled out another blue ink pen as he pressed the nib spraying more ink on her, and she too shook her pen with all her might splattering more ink on him.
The laughter grew louder, their game grew wilder, and as Trilochan came and stood at the study door out of curiosity, he saw his nephew ticking his baby daughter-in-law on the ribs as they both rolled on the floor of the study room, laughing, with fresh marks of red and blue ink splattered all around.

"Hey Bhagwan..." He had groaned, patting his head against his palm, as he turned around to leave the two to their  indecorous merriment.
His mind was repulsive but his heart had made him smile as he muttered a silent prayer to the Goddess,
"Maa Durga... Keep these two together like this... Always..."

.............................................................

It was about 1:50am, Bondita sat by the window and waited for her husband. The old man wasn't there on the road any more, the guards weren't visible either. She let out a soft sigh and smiled at the recollection of her fun-filled childhood days, her days with her Barrister Babu.
Why wasn't he coming home?

She check the time on the wall clock once again and tiptoed inside the study room.
Rudhi was sleeping, and so was Manimala.
She crossed the hall and passed Batuk's room, as her eyes narrowed at the sight of the telephone receiver which was resting below, beside the handset.

"How careless!" She chuckled, picking up the receiver as her hands gently placed it back to its place.
She walked past the kitchen, down the narrow corridor as she lit the light inside the study.
Study rooms were always her favourite... And so was his!

She looked around, hoping to pick a book as her eyes narrowed at a small tin suitcase kept amidst the unboxed books underneath the shelves.
The eyes shone at once.
This was her suitcase!
The first gift that her Barrister Babu presented her with!
And he still has it??

Bondita pulled it out slowly and clicked open the lid.
And there it was!
The tattered homework sheet, a little yellow with faded ink strains all over.

"Thirty six plus twenty seven equals to sixty three", she smiled.

..........................................................

Raimoti was seated hurled up in a corner  behind the locked door of her room.
No one was to enter or she to go out, were her father's instruction, and around 2am she finally decided to give it one last try.
She had tried dialling the Roy Chowdhury residence infinite times in the last two days, and the now she could recite the telephone number even in her dream, or a nightmare!

"Three one... Three zero..."
Her hands trembled and her heart hammered as she muttered another silent prayer to the Goddess.
"Maa Kali... Please... Maa... Please..."

The telephone was ringing...
For the first time in the last two days, and Raimoti clutched the wooden leg of her bed with all her might to cope up with all the adrenaline that was coursing through her blood at that moment.

"Pick up... Pick up... Goddamn... Please Pick up..!"
She clenched her teeth and prayed continuously.
The telephone rang for the sixth time and... and then suddenly...

"Hello... Roy Chowdhury Residence."
The familiar feminine voice had never felt so relieving.

"Bondita!!" Raimoti had almost cried out.

"Raimoti?"

"Bondita... Save your husband Bondita... Save him..." Her voice had broken down, and this time, her broken heart couldn't even stand a match.

"What? What happened? Calm down... Tell me what are you saying?"

"Your husband... My father is trying to..."
Raimoti was panting, she felt dizzy, as if her head would explode, her heart would stop beating...
But, with all her broken self, Raimoti took one deep breath and tried once more to conjure words, before her words would seize to exist, perhaps forever.

...........................................................

~I take no pleasure in taking you down. None. It's just necessary. You love to hurt and I can't heal my family with you around. Giving mercy is good until it is proven to hurt the innocent, then see me come out fighting. I haven't even swung a punch yet and I see you quiver. How weak you are. This isn't cruelty, this is mercy and justice combined. You cannot control yourself and so I control you. Fight me and you know I'll win, or maybe you like gambling? It's a sin, you know, as is greed.~

Anirudh Roy Chowdhury had opened his coat, tossing it away on the pitch black road. He pulled up his sleeves and stared directly at the four men standing infront of him. Three with bamboo sticks and one with a pistol, he calculated.

"How much did they pay you?" He growled, his voice cold enough to raise a havoc in the heart.
"I'll pay you more!"

"It's not money.... " One of them shouted back.
"He has my son... "

"And my sister..." The second one barked.

"He has taken my land..." The third man shouted a little louder as Anirudh's eye shifted to the fourth one standing with a pistol.

The man shrugged.
"I just came for fun... The old man told me I can have your wife once I kill you... He said she is a pretty little thing, is she?"
A sinister laughter filled the darkness of the night.

Anirudh clutched his fist, his eyes focused on him, his jaws clenched.
"Then fight like a man you coward... Make your mother proud, unless..."
His words were provoking enough for the man to snatch a bamboo stick from another as he charged towards Anirudh with a demonic vigour.

"Arghhhh...." He growled... pulling a blow on the barehanded barrister as Anirudh ducked his head evading the blow successfully.

One kick, one blow on the neck and the man fell on the ground, with his pistol a little away on the road.

The second man had pulled another blow as Anirudh snatched the stick from his hand and lunged him with him, making him wither in pain. He had turned around, fighting the first man as
another one charged forward, his blow striking on Anirudh wounded leg, making him fall on his knee with an audible bone cracking sound. Another blow on the head, on the shoulder, as jets of dark red blood gushed out from the Barrister's head.

"Scoundrels!!"
He spat blood and fire at the same time.

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