The woodland floor was a million hues of brown, more than Bondita's eyes could detect, yet they were there. The differences were magnified by the moisture, variation on variation. Mingled in were some stones, adding their greys to the mosaic beneath her feet. The trees were khaki over the bark, kissed with moss; on their shaded sides grows lichen as if thrown there like powdered paint, so softly green as to be close to white.

Bondita let her tired eyes rest on the trees, their bark scarred by forest animals seeking insects. Each of them was soft brown, their injuries mahogany and deep even where the light reached them. Periodically there was a raised ring under the bark going right around the girth, regular and chaotic all at once.
Bondita tried to focus her mind on her natural surroundings, trying to distract herself, her throat dry and she swallowed hard.

"No water anywhere Bondita." Satyakirth had come and was standing infront, bent down forward, holding his knees for support, panting hard.
"I... I looked around... Just two huts, and nothing nearby."

It's been almost twelve hours that they had walked, relentlessly, hiding and running, without water... And, as they finally reached to the camoflaging safety of this unknown woodland, they finally rested, but only for a while, as Satya had gone out in search of a shelter, or atleast some water.

"Two huts you said?" Bondita strained her eyes to look up.
"Let's go and ask for some water there."

The walk wasn't long, but was different, as the two breathless souls held each other's hands firmly for support and staggered forward.
They had money, all of it, but there wasn't anything to be bought, and the basket of vegetables that Bondita had so generously bought from Ghontu's mother was left inside the police vehicle.

Even as the sunset was only a whisper to the stars, the straw roof of the hut glowed golden at the tips. Bondita and Satyakirth stood infront, and hesitating for a moment, she knocked. Once as first, and then two in a row.

"Who?" Came a voice, a trembling fearful female voice, and Bondita sighed softly at the possibility of some positivity.

"We are travellers, weary travellers. We seek some water, and refuge if that's alright." Her words were a request, yet confident, and Satya stood beside her, alert.

"Name?" The voice asked again.

"Bondita."

"Bondita what?" The voice hissed this time, and Bondita felt an eye staring back at her from the crack on the wall.

"Bondita Debi." She replied back, careful enough not to reveal any of her actual identify, lest it gets them into any complications.

The door opened a little, and a pair of sharp enraged eyes emerged from the dark.

"How dare you come here? That too begging for water?"
The woman hissed and spat, and Bondita narrowed her eyes in confusion.

"I... I... Don't understand Didi... Is there anything wrong?"
Bondita murmured, and the woman widened the door a little and came out only a little, revealing the large thick broomstick held in her hand.

"You vile Hindus!" The woman spat again.
"Have you no shame?"

Bondita frowned at once and stepped back, and the woman continued to spit fire.

"How dare you come at my doorstep. My husband will cut you into pieces if he comes here..." She glared at Bondita, as her eyes fell on Satyakirth.
"Go... Go from here... Go at once."
She walked back inside and was about to slam the door, as Satya quickly inched forward and held it open.

"Apa... Which village is this?" He asked politely, and the woman gasped in terror at this sudden display of his subtle strength, forcing the door open.

"Mur... Murshidabad." She gasped.

Satya had let go of the door with a sigh, and the woman latched it at once, leaving the two of them standing outside, in the open cold of the graduating night, and finding no other alternatives, they decided to try their luck with the other house.

"It's very rare to be treated like this." Satya sighed deeply, and Bondita nodded her head in agreement, her throat as dry as a desert.
"But given we've entered the border of Murshidabad, it isn't unexpected."

"What do you mean?" Bondita coughed up a little.

"The British had been brewing communal sentiments between these two once peaceful lands... Murshidabad and Mymensing." Satya exhaled sharply.
"Once lived as brothers, now these two villages need no reason to hate each other, kill each other... We won't find any help here... We'll probably have to go to Mymensing to get a shelter Bondita."

Satya walked infront and Bondita nodded half-heartedly.
"How can they get influenced so easily by some outsiders?" She murmured.
"Is there nothing called humanity? Brotherhood? Love?"

Satya chuckled at her words.
"I wish they could hear you my dear." He sighed again.
"These fine emotions you spoke of, they don't work in battlefields Bondita... And those Britishers have turned our peaceful land into a battlefield."

Bondita remained silent, partly due to the exertion, and partly as she wasn't entirely convinced with Satya's words.
Had this been her Barrister Babu, she would have asked more questions, and would have presented her views too, but Satyakirth was different, and suddenly she didn't feel like rising a debate with him. She was missing her husband dearly, his words, his comfort, everything, and the more she thought of the possibility of him been far from her, the more she felt a piercing emptiness inside her heart.

"Let's rest here." Satya pointed at the sheltered open porch of the second hut, guiding her there stealthily, as she tiptoed up the mud steps and sat down, her back rested on a bamboo pole that the kept the building erect.

"You stay here... I'll look for some water." Satya hushed, and Bondita nodded slowly, her fatigued eyes looking around the place with curiosity.

Into the harkened light of day, into the blessed blue, the silhouette of that modest establishment had stood proud, as if born of shapen light. And to her eyes, her adjusting eyes, to the brain still processing the freshly brightened hues, appeared doors, windows, a roof of fine tile instead of hay.

Unlike the first one, this wasn't a hut really, rather a small cottage, fairly a newly built one, and the closed windows had new wooden frames installed in them. There probably was a cowshed behind, as Bondita heard a couple of them mooing in unison.
Must had been Satya, she smiled.

Bondita was tired, sleepy, her head lolling and the muscles of her face trying to relax, releasing the tension of the day. And though if the unfamiliar darkness of the night threatened to wrap her senses with its uncertainty, she decided to take her chances, for once, closing her heavy eyelids and drifting off to a happy memory... a memory of her dear husband feeding her rosogolla.
She gulped in sleep.

A loud banging noise, and a sharp scream!

Bondita stirred up. Though her eyes had opened at once, she couldn't think of why; her heart was pounding, mind empty. It's as if a hypodermic of adrenaline had been emptied into her carotid. Bondita stood up quickly, straining into the utter darkness, breathing rate beginning to steady.

"Satya..." She called out, not too loud, and from the lurking darkness came a silhouette of a man, towards her, his face covered in shadows and his raised hand held a shinning scythe.

"Ahh..." Bondita screamed in fear, and from darkness emerged another figure, a familiar one, standing in between them, and in the scanty moonlight Bondita saw Satyakirth, rushing towards her, with a broken coconut shell carefully held in hand.

"Stop!" Satya roared at the man, and stood infront of Bondita, sheathing her.
"We come in peace!"

"Peace?" The man roared back, pouncing infront, and Satyakirth dropped the bowl from his hand, spilling it's white liquid content on the ground.

"You filthy Mymensinghees...!" The man slashed the wind with his scythe, making a sloshing sound, and Satya threw a punch at him. But, before he could do anymore, the man tackled him with his leg, making the sacrosanct fall on the ground.

"Satya..."
Bondita jumped infront of the dark figure, and threw herself on Satyakirth's fallen body, and before anyone could do any further, she cried out and joined her hands at the man, her voice tainted with a begging plea mixed with unblemished tears.
"Please please let us go..."
She pleaded, and as if suddenly, the man felt a hitch in his heartbeat. This voice was known to him, this silhouette of the crying woman, and as he narrowed his eyes to strain a look of the woman's pristine face bathed in the moonlight, the scythe fell from his hand, and he stepped two steps backwards, in awe and in repentance.

"Budur.....???" He called out loud, his head turned towards the door of his modest cottage, and he called out again, this time almost a scream.
"Budurrr... Get the lantern and come at once... Your elder sister has come."

Bondita had a frown on her face, her mouth fell, and she slowly left Satya and stood up, and in that sparse glow of the moonlight, Satya saw drops of tears glistening on the man's face.

"Bondita Maa..." he sank at her feet at once.

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

"What's your Gottra?" The pandit asked in a sing-a-song tone, pouring another round of ghee into the raging fire of the kund, chanting mantras, as he took his turn in asking Mira for her Gottra the second time.

"Didi... Tell him your Gottra!" Bhargavi, who sat beside her, hushed, her hands were joined into a prayer, and Trilochan looked at them, a shadow of clear displeasure tainting his face.

It was the same night after their arrival that Trilochan had arranged for a quick sacrificial prayer for the wellbeing of his family, and the two girls were readily asked to participate as well. They had bathed, ate and changed, both in the same room that was initially alloted to Bhargavi alone, and Batuk had voice a little displeasure in keeping Mira up in the attic, given the wild chilly wind of the month.

"Your Gottra???" A restless Trilochan had repeated the question this time, his eyes fuming with unapproval, and Batuk too had frowned at her.

"I... I... " Mira was shaking, with all the enraged gazes piercing at her, she was trembling, and gulping a few time, she slowly got up, and started to step backwards.

"How outrageous!!"
The pandit had remarked, and Trilochan glared at the woman spitting fire from his eyes.
"Don't you know your own Gottra? What's your surname?"

Mira was still quiet, looking down, and Trilochan exhaled sharply in vexation.

"Abshaguni!" He clenched his jaws and turned his face away, and before Bhargavi or Batuk could fix the situation, they saw violent jets of tears run down Mira's flushed cheeks, as she quickly dashed out of the Puja room, leaving the rest of them gaping at the suddenness of the situation.
The pandit had let out a sigh, and resumed his chanting once again, with a little too enthusiastically this time, and the Zamindar sat with his palms folded, his heart racing and his mind throbbing at this outrageous behaviour.

"What just happened?"
Batuk hushed, leaning a little towards Bhargavi, and the girl pouted her lips and shrugged a little.

"She was crying." She murmured.

"That she does all the time." Batuk cleared his throat, earning a stern look from his uncle, and he too straightened up and tried to focus his mind on the unfathomable mantras that was being chanting infront of them.

"When will this end? I'm hungry."
Bhargavi had hushed again, and Batuk frowned at her, a smile on his face.

"You remind me of someone you know?"

"Who?"
Bhargavi whispered.

"Bondita."
He smiled.

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

Dear readers,
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And the last two updates had very less votes.
Please go back and vote for those chapters as well.
And, I'll update the next chapter very soon.

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