The black motor carriage ran faster than it could through the narrow earthy stretch of land with green paddy fields spread until the horizon. It had left the concrete cityscape of Calcutta only an hour ago, yet the vast transformation of the scenary left the two mountain dwellers in complete awe, their wide eyes soaking in the beauty of the green plain lands.
Mira was looking outside the carriage window, her head covered with a black shawl, her fingers had lifted the white lace curtains slightly, and her face had a gaped expression, while Bhargavi sat beside her, looking outside too, but at intervals, as her hands held a small book with brown cover on it.

"Look look... Isn't that a mango tree!"
Mira gasped softly and clutched Bhargavi's arms in excitement, as the latter smiled broadly looking up from the book at once.

"A green pond!" Mira exclaimed again, and Bhargavi nodded, burying her head into the book once again.

"What are you reading?"
Batuk was seated opposite to the girls and although had an English newspaper spread infront of him, he too was secretly admiring the beauty outside, occasionally eyeing the two beauties seated infront as well.
Mira was exquisitely beautiful, a typical mountain beauty, he thought, her flawless white skin and her pink cheeks were no match to any artificial blush that the city girls apply, but what saddened him was her eyes, they had no glow, as if she was living yet not alive!
Bhargavi, on the other hand, was brimming with life. She had a more sombre demeanor, although a few shades darker than the former, but her face had an adolescence glow, and her doe-eyes shone with intelligence.
He saw her focusing on a book with a pencil in hand since the time they had boarded the carriage, and barring a few occasions, she hadn't really spoken much.
"Is it some story?" He asked again, and Bhargavi nodded her head.

"I don't read stories. They are meaningless."

"Meaningless? Interesting!" Batuk frowned in amusement.
"What book is this then?"

"It's... Well... It's a little puzzle book. It's called Math Magic." Bhargavi murmured, a little embarassed at her own queer nerdiness.

"Math Magic? Sounds interesting!"
Batuk's eyes, however, had shone up instantly, as he rubbed his palms in excitement and stretched his arm to her for the book.

"It's silly really", Bhargavi objected, "just number puzzles."

"I love number puzzles, and you have no idea how good I am?"

It was now Bhargavi's turn to stir and sit upright, smiling at him.
"Really? Let's see then!"

Batuk invited Bhargavi to sit beside him, and she readily complied, their mutual affection for mathematics pouring down as first drizzle of friendship, shadowing the rattling sound of the carriage wheels with their unblemished laughter.

The air had lightened, and the gentle breeze from the outside ruffled Batuk's hair, threatening to sway Bhargavi's tightly oiled braids, and they sat together, lost in the world of numbers and their endless mysteries. Mira sat quietly by the window too, with a folded letter in her hand, the letter that carried the news of her son... her only beacon of hope, the only source of her happiness... Her only solace!

"Ayey...arey... areyy areyy..."

A rough gush of wind tousled the hair and clothes of the three passengers seated inside, abruptly, like an uninvited guest, and it's unwelcomed advances blew Mira's treasured letter along with it, outside the window, flying high in the wind like an autumn leaf.
It was a moment, a brief second, and before Batuk could fathom the occurrences of the situation, he saw Mira unlatch the door of the moving carriage, about to jump.
Another brief second, another sudden instinct, and Batuk jumped up and pulled her inside by her arm, but blame it on the inertia, or the strength of a wounded mother's heart, the pull backfired, making Batuk fall off the carriage along with Mira... both rolling down the pathway to the edge of the paddy field... She on the soft grassy ground, and he on top of her, clutching her to his chest, their bodies aligned, and their faces collided with each other's.
Batuk's eyes were fixated on her face, his mouth opened, as his senses made him acutely aware of his lips touching Mira's cheek in an accident, a little near to the nose, and he heard Mira sigh, along with the unrhythmic thudding of her heart.

"I... I... My letter... It's...it's flew out..."
Mira was fumbling with her words, and sensing no attempts from Batuk to leave her to sit upright, she too lay still, frightened, clinging under Batuk's lean frame.

Batuk continued to stare at her with dreamy eyes, her anxious fluttering eyelashes, her slightly parted quivering red lips, the stray strands of her long disheveled traces... everything about her seemed surreal, and Batuk gulped once, drinking in the pure aesthetics of her beauty.
Mira gulped too... nervously, and tried to move her hand up to his chest, in futile attempts of pushing him away, but that subtle movement of resistance from her, along with her arched eyebrows reminded him of someone else... someone who had broken his heart like a porcelain toy just a day ago, his gaze narrowing at once, and his heart filling up with a renewed distaste for the woman trapped under him.

"Mira didi...!!"

The carriage had stopped too, and with it came out Bhargavi. She screamed, and ran down the slightly raised pathway to the green paddy field where the duo lay still.
"Are you alright Didi?"

Bhargavi's voice had brought Batuk back to the reality, and the realisation wasn't sweet. He had sat up at once, brushing his clothes, and the flush on his face had turned to an immediate anger.

"What the hell Mira? What's wrong with you... Do you want us to get killed?"
His voice was tough, rising gradually to a higher pitch, his hands waving in the wind in indignation. Although the carriage was moving rather slow, and the fall wouldn't have been fatal in anyway, but this sudden carelessness seemed unpardonable to Batuk.

"It's... It's my letter..." Mira sat up silently, trembling with fear... her red cheeks tainted with a trail of fresh tears, yet to reach her chin, and when she tried to reason, it was too much for Batuk to handle.

"To hell with your letter, and to hell with you Mira!" He screamed, getting up at once, and Bhargavi skidded down the edge, hugging Mira tightly in her arms, soothing her in her girly embrace.

"Sshh... Shh... Don't cry Didi..." She rubbed Mira's cheeks with the back of her palm and pressed her face against her chest in a gentle tenderness.
"This man is mad!" She hushed, "don't mind him at all."

Batuk's hadn't waited for the girls to get up, and on his way back, as his eyes fell on a crumpled paper hanging from a low branch of a shrub nearby, he inched closed to rescue it, his mind still fuming with the rage that his heart had felt.

"It's my letter!"
Mira called out, her hand stretched at his direction, and turning around once, he crumpled the piece of paper further, turning it into a ball, as he threw it disdainfully at the seated women.
The paper ball landed near Mira's lap, soiled, and she plucked it from the ground, hurriedly, seizing it to her bosom like a precious treasure, as tears of helplessness poured down in abundance from her eyes.
The letter was torn, and the ink was matted, and as Mira tried her best to stretch it with her hands, it tore further, a drop of her love falling on it's creased surface.

"Anirudhhh... my Awnii...!"
Her heart let out a suppressed wail.

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

The calm pleasant morning had welcomed the four wondering souls with a different perspective, a broader vista infront of their eyes, with a narrowed recourse to claim it. They had very little resource, and the bundle of big notes stacked inside Anirudh's pocket wasn't of much use in the rural poverty stricken thatched hut, otherwise known for selling food, where they had found their first stop after a couple of hours walk.

Raimoti was particularly cheerful that morning, but the day hadn't greeted Bondita with equal brightness. She had thrown up twice since their journey, and felt considerably dizzy.

"Barrister Babu... I threw up...!" She gasped, sitting beside her husband on the open mud porch of the hut, after they finished their food.

"It's probably the Pabda last night, it wasn't roasted well." Anirudh replied plainly, contemplating the way they were about to take next.

"Barrister Babu?" She hushed again, leaning a little closer to him this time.

"Yes Bondita." Anirudh nodded, and prepared to pour some water down his throat from a clay jug.

"I think I'm pregnant!"

The words came out blunt, and Anirudh spat at once, spilling the water from his mouth all around, making Bondita purse her lips.

"What if I am?" She rolled her eyes.

"Then congratulations... I guess!" Anirudh chuckled, pressing his lips as he winked at her in a tease, making her roll her eyes again.

"Go...I won't talk to you." She looked away at once, her eyes pouring sharp displeasure, as Anirudh nudged her waist with his elbow playfully.

"Daat bhaat, aloo bhaja... Four plates, chaar ana!" A young boy came to them and demanded money from Bondita, as she gestured her husband to pay the boy.

"Just chaar Ana?" Anirudh confirmed, and looked a little shocked.

"Haa..." the boy replied, as Anirudh turned to his wife and sighed softly.

"I thought It would be more... The least combination I have are five rupee notes Bondita."

He sighed again and his wife held her palm open.
"Give me... I'll handle."

Anirudh handed her the entire bundle carefully, and Bondita eyed them once before taking out a large five rupees currency note from it, her eyes following her husband as he joined Satyakirth to look around the area.

"What is your name?" Bondita asked the boy gently, pulling him closer by his hand.

"Ghontu." The boy flinched his face awkwardly. No one had ever treated him with this gentleness and this sudden affection from a stranger lady was making him uncomfortable.

"Bah! Ghontu... What a lovely name."
She remarked, and Raimoti held her head backward and looked up at the sky.

"What an excuse of a name!" She murmured in English.

"Aaccha Ghontu... Do you know any place where we can stay, like a hotel... Or a lodge?"
Bondita asked and Raimoti mocked a sigh, earning an eye-roll from her, and Ghontu frowned harder, and scratched his head thoughtfully.
"Chaar ana... Give now!" He demanded again.

Bondita however hadn't let go of his hand yet, as she waved the five rupees note infront of his eyes and asked him again.
"Tell us, and I'll give you this... The whole thing!"

"How much is this?" Ghontu asked.

"Paanch taka!" Bondita widened her eyes to express the magnitude of the amount, but Ghontu flinched his face again.

"No... I want Chaar ana... A coin... A don't want this paper."

Bondita sighed and Raimoti cleared her throat a a subtle laugh, calling the boy towards her.

"Do you know who I am?" She asked, raising an eyebrow and folding her arms to her chest, and Ghontu saw her white pretty face and swallowed hard, nodding his head in negation.

"My husband is a British police... Do you want me to complain about you to him?" She deepened her voice and the boy widened his eyes, in disbelief and fright.

"But... But... I haven't done anything!" He objected.

"Is it that the British police always punish those who have only done something?" She rolled her eyes again, and Ghontu swallowed hard, nodding his head.

"No... They took my grandfather, and father... and they did nothing!"

"Exactly!... So call your Maalik or whoever owns this place and tell him to see me... Now!"

Raimoti needn't pursue anymore and Ghontu ran inside at once, forgetting all about his coveted Chaar ana, and in no time came out a widow with a white saree pulled over her face.

"Yes, Maalkin!" She bowed down and joined her hands, and before Raimoti could weave more lies, Bondita stood up at once, holding the widow's hands in hers.

"We are lost travelers, and we need your help Kaki...!" She pleaded, and after a while when Anirudh and Satyakirth returned back to the hut post their scouting, they saw the two women sitting at the open porch, grinning at them, with two moderate sized sacks placed beside them, along with a large cane basket filled with vegetables.

"What's all these?" Satya exclaimed, and Raimoti winked at him with pride.

"Rice, daal and vegetables... We got ALL these just for five rupees, plus the food we ate!"

Anirudh looked away, pressing his eyes shut and sighing at the two women basking in their new found victory, and Satyakirth nodded his head in a pointless disagreement, as who would make those two women understand the adversities of travelling miles incognito with baskets of fresh vegetables on their heads!

"Good job now...let's move!"

Without further argument, Anirudh had simply picked up the two sacks on his broad shoulders, and started to walk ahead, and Raimoti followed him with a aura of happiness on her face, and as Bondita bid the widow farewell and prepared to leave, Ghontu came to her and hushed,
"That lady's husband is looking for her, is it?" He clenched her saree and pointed behind, and as Bondita looked up, she saw two uniformed British police standing infront, their eyes narrowed, and their red face showing off the mercilessness that they probably bore in their heart too.

"Ogooo... Shunchooo...!" Bondita let out a mild scream at once, and Satyakirth who was right beside the hut, washing his hands, turned around at once, his jaws clenched, and muscles tightened at the sight.

"Who are you? Are you new?"
One of the officer's asked Bondita in broken accented Bangla, and Bondita pulled her torn saree almost covering her entire face and joined her hands together, falling on her knees.

"Babu... Babu... I'm a poor, village woman... We lost our house in fire..." She cried out in a shrill localised accent, making the officers flinch, her heart thudding in her chest, aware of the risks of being with the most wanted Krantikari of the land,
"and... and, since then, we are roaming around, with the little that we have, in search of shelter..."

"We?" The officer frowned, and Bondita looked up, pulling her saree up a little to reveal her tear stricken eyes...
"Me and my husband my baap... my blind and sick husband, he's mute too!" She sobbed out loud.

"Which way?" The other officer asked, and Bondita pointed her hand towards the direction where Anirudh and Raimoti had walked a few minutes ago, leaving them a little behind, clueless at their current state, and the policemen looked around and sighed.

"Come... Call your husband... We're going that way... We'll drop you to the next village... " They turned around to leave, without giving her an opportunity to react or object.
"Come... Come right now!" They demanded.

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

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