A community of buildings stood tall together in the city centre, reflecting both the blue and the clouds of white-silver hue. These tall sites of education, so different from one another, were so very content to reflect the beauty of green campus.The building where Bondita was to enter galloped up to the clouds, yet traditional in it's approach, and had an entire floor dedicated to a grand library, something that had attracted her attention on the day of admission. There were spiral staircases to go down several floors at a time, they had iron grilled elevators too, but convention stairway was what formed the heart of the building. Then there were the beautiful trees, sprawling their green canopy throughout the campus, turning the stretched land into some sort of a fairyland. Then there were the parts that transferred wind and solar energy to electricity, and the ground outside had parks with benches and butterflies. They had canteens as well, four of them in total, serving food and beverages to suit both Indian and British tastebuds.
Bondita had closed her eyes firmly, gripping her husband's hand, as she sat in the front sit on the car, with her heart thudding in anticipation.

"Don't worry Bondita, everything would be great." Anirudh's assuring words reached her ears and she let out a deep sigh.
"Consider this like your convent in Dehradun... It's the same. And, here you get to stay with me." He flashed a bright smile to comfort her.

"Dehradun was different." Bondita gripped his hand tighter.
"I was a small girl then. But, this is huge Barrister Babu." She ducked her head a little to get a full view of the enormous building that stood proud at the entrance of the University gate, welcoming the pursuers of knowledge with its open arms.
"Dehradun convent was a pond, and this is Bay of Bengal!" She murmured inaudibly.

"Do you want me to drop you to the building?" Anirudh touched her forehead lightly to tuck a strand of her hair.

"No, Barrister Babu, we talked about this, remember?" Bondita turned around and rolled her eyes at him.

"Oh yes. But I'm still not convinced. I mean going by your point, even my female clients and random people from here and there can fall in love with me and behave erratic." Anirudh smirked at her.
"Atleast let your friends see how good your husband is... So that no one bothers you." He winked at her helping her with the sling bag kept at the backseat.

"You mean, Bondita, let your male friends see how handsome and powerful and intimidating your husband is!" Bondita mocked at him, deepening her voice to match up to his tone.

"Intimidating? That's interesting!"

"Yes! Absolutely!"
Bondita smiled meaningfully and bend down to touch his feet.
Anirudh touched her head lovingly in return.

"Learn well Shona, and be safe. All my good wishes are with you." He touched her chin gently. "And, we shall discuss about me being intimidating at night." He winked at her again, making her flush before she opened the door of the car to get out.
"Bondita, you know the house telephone number and my personal telephone number at the judge court, right!" He raised his voice a bit as he saw Bondita walking towards the university gate.
She turned around at his words and raised her thumb in response, flashing a beautiful smile, cheerful enough to brighten her husband's day.

"God, I already miss her!" Anirudh let out a sigh and murmured as he reversed his car to fade away into the city crowd.

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

"Did you receive your class allocation?"
A thin pale girl with black braided hair, neatly parted on both sides asked another girl standing next to her.

"Nalini, I received mine yesterday. My brother is a professor here, remember?" The girl remarked. She was wearing a long pleated skirt and a blouse tucked in neatly, with a pair of matching heels.

"Yes. Right." Nalini murmured.
"But, where do I get mine." She looked confused as her shy eyes searched the walls with glued posters and announcements.

"There, it's beside the subject enrolment list." Bondita smiled at her brightly, guiding her to the desired direction with her index.

"Oh thank you." Nalini smiled back.
"I'm in English major. You are?" She held her hand out to Bondita.

"Women Studies." Bondita shook her hand cordially.
"But, I do have English as a subject. So I guess we'll share a class."

Nalini nodded in agreement.
"Here, Beena is also in Women Studies." She looked at the other girl, drawing Bondita's attention to her.

"Namaskar, Beenapani Ganguly." The girl folded her hands, joining them together in a greeting.

"Bondita Roy Choudhury." Bondita joined her palms to greet her back.

"Married!" Beenapani raised an eyebrow.

"Yes! I am."

"So, your in-laws have no problem with you studying in a co-ed college?" Nalini asked her softly.

"No. Not really." Bondita flashed her beautiful smile. "Infact, it's my husband who got me admitted."

"Wow, a rare progressive husband I must say." Beena let out a dry laugh. "What does he do?"

"He's a ba." Bondita swallowed her words immediately. "My husband is a zamindar actually. He himself is a learned man."

"Hm. Good!" Beena moved her lips a little disinterestedly in an attempt to smile.

"Hey, I'm to be married soon you know." Nalini intervened.
"To a businessman actually."

"A cobbler actually!" Beena spoke flatly.

"A shoemaker. He wons a shoe making factory, Bondita!" Nalini rolled her shrunken eyes at Beenapani.

"What about you?" Bondita turned towards Beena and asked her politely.

"My family is rich, educated, progressive and..." Beena paused and shrugged.
"I'm a child widow." She smirked at Bondita with a non-chalent arrogance in her demeanor.
Her answer, for a moment, had taken Bondita aback. Her words accompanied by that careless smile proclaiming 'l don't care'... but Bondita was wise enough to realise the deep wound that she bore and her indomitable try of not being pitied by others.

"We all should probably leave for our classes now." Nalini spoke a little loud, in desparate attempts to lighten the air between the three.

The shrill electronic bell rang twice, somewhere, announcing the beginning of the first lesson of the new session.

Bondita and Beena walked silently, side by side across the busy corridor to reach to their class.

"So, Bondita, tell me about your progressive zamindar. Don't mind me, but the zamindars of Bengal whom I have seen are all lousy and worthless. Yours one sounds new... And it's suddenly got me interested."
Beena entered the large gallaried classroom and walked up the small steps to secure a seat for herself. Bondita was behind as Beena gestured her new friend to sit beside.

"Not all zamindars are bad. Infact my KakaSasurji is exactly opposite to what to what you called as lousy and worthless."
Bondita refuted Beena's words politely and settled herself on the desk.

"And your husband? Old and fat?" Beena raised her eyebrow naughtily as Bondita noticed a playful smirk on her lips.

"Not fat, definitely not." Bondita pressed a smile understanding her jest.

"So old?" Beena asked again.

"Older than me. But not old."

"Hmm... I guess you got lucky then." Beena let out a sigh. "My in-laws were zamindars as well. Tried to burn me after my husband died."

"How old was he?" Bondita asked.

"Not much, three years elder to me. I was thirteen, so he would be... what, sixteen around?" Beena took out her notebook from the backpack and kept on the table infront.
"It's wasn't a marriage of desparation, or a forced one, if that's what you are thinking." Beena looked sharply at Bondita. "My folks married me well... It's just my fate and the damn Cholera." She leaned back against the chair and looked up at the ceiling fan rotation lazily above their head.

"I'm so sorry to hear this. I... I am a child bride myself if that's any comfort to you. Zamindar Babu actually saved my life by marrying me." Bondita spoke softly and kept a hand on Beena's palm.

"So how many co-wives do you have?" Beena removed her hand from Bondita's and asked her.

"Co-wives? None. Why?"

"Old zamindars with young beautiful wives like you generally has more than one wives." Beena shrugged again as it was time for Bondita to roll her eyes at her.

"You are quite presumptuous, you know that. My husband is not like others."

Beena sat straight at her words and let out a soft laughter.
"Hey, hey new girl, don't get me wrong. Alright, I agree your husband is the best." She winked at Bondita playfully.

"Ya great. Can we just not talk about my husband."

The professor had entered the hall in the meanwhile as the girls stood up in unison with the rest of the class.
Bondita quickly eyed the room. The few boys in her classroom were seated in a cluster in one side of the room, whereas the girls sat together on the other side, clearly segregating the seating arrangements as per gender.

"So tell me, why are we all in this class?" The professor asked as the entire class suddenly fell silent. "Leaving subjects like English, Comparative Literature, Philosophy, history, why are you here... in this women studies class?"

Bondita followed the professor's gaze and looked around. A pin drop silence prevailed in the entire classroom. Bondita noticed him looking subtly at Beena and share a quick wink.

The man was younger than most of the professors in the university, looked fresh out of college himself, may be because women studies was a new subject entirely, Bondita thought to herself. He was wearing a simple white dhoti and a white stripped long shirt with spread collar.
"This is definately is a Krantikari!" Bondita lowered her voice and hushed to Beena.

"Yes, there... Mrs... "
Bondita's soft murmur was loud enough to draw the teacher's attention. He was looking straight at Bondita and his demanding eyes were expecting an answer from her.

"Bon... Bondita Roy Choudhury."

"So, Mrs Bon... Bondita Roy Choudhury, tell me why are you in this class, in women studies?"

Bondita wasn't prepared for this sudden quizzing. She swallowed hard and took a deep breath.

"I... I... " She muttered, closing her eyes, as she pictured Anirudh standing infront of her. Bondita smiled.
"Sir, I'm a woman myself. And before I learn or understand how the society or the world works, I need to know my own rights. I need to understand where I, as a woman, stand in the face of the world. And I'm expecting to learn the same from this course." She paused and stood up slowly.
"It's only by learning about my own rights and responsibilities, I'll be able to incorporate the sense of true equality in our society, among other women. And, an equal society is what can lead our country to greatness."
The entire class cheered at her answer with a round of applause as Bondita stopped and opened her eyes.

"And Sir, it's just Bondita, not Bon Bondita." She smiled at the young teacher brightly before taking her seat.

"Very well said, Bondita. But a woman who only seeks equality with men, lacks ambition." He paused to smile at her. "However, I'm glad that I'll get to teach bright minds like yours this year." The professor folded his hands and joined them together.
"Namaskar, my dear students. I'll be guiding and coaching you all through this journey of self awareness and understanding the true sense of equality.
My name is Prathamesh Ganguly, your women studies professor." He flashed a cordial smile to the class and turned towards the blackboard.

"Ganguly? Is he?" Bondita hushed to her friend again.

"Yes, he is, my brother and the reason why I'm here in this class." Beenapani whispered back.

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