Surjeet Shona comes up to him. The tears still mark her face, but there is a spring in her step. She speaks as softly as Mumtaz. “ You,” she says. “You were the one hurt.” She can’t stop her hands from trembling and Mumtaz catches them and puts them to his lips. He looks deep into her eyes. Surjeet Shona feels dizzy. She is certain sorrow doesn’t exist, never existed, never will exist. There is a fireworks display in her head. She stoops to touch his lips with hers, gently places her cheek against his scarred healed face.
Then he says, “Jainab. Jainab’s gone isn’t he?” His expression droops and there are gasps all around the room.
“Ali, Ali, he’s relapsing,” cries Saira in a panic.
“Oh I’m all right. Don’t worry Mother!” Mumtaz makes to get out of bed and is stopped by the doctor.
“Just a minute young man!”
“Young man? I’m in a time warp, am I?!”
The doctor ignores the question and examines him. The others look at one another acknowledging the irony of Mumtaz’s words.
The doctor tells them Mumtaz will be well and ready to leave soon. He tells them Mumtaz’s memory has possibly been restored fully. Except for the period between the injury and now. It has been neatly sliced out.
“And if he remembers later?” asks Saira.
The doctor smiles at them. “Does it matter?” he asks. “He is quite strong already. He will cope.”
Suddenly, all the conundrums cease to exist, never were. The period now cut out of Mumtaz’s memory has no importance. Even if he remembers his grief in a time warp, his repeated anguish. Even if his heart twinges for Lalitha occasionally.
“How can we ever thank you enough?” Saira sobs happily.
Mumtaz is discharged from hospital. He wants most to be with Surjeet Shona. He has no recollection of his regression. No one tells him of it. His children mill around him, his brothers, his parents. They tell him of his precarious condition, of his life teetering on the brink, but nothing of his earlier memory lapse. He listens to all this with Surjeet Shona by his side, often holding her hand as if holding on to reality. Sometimes he hesitates, seems to frame a question, but doesn’t.
He has moved into a bungalow with Surjeet Shona. It has no resemblance to the Rajmahal.
Healing takes place of the many wounds. There is happiness. Even when Mumtaz has headaches, moans, occasionally shouts through his sleep, reliving the sliced out period of his hospitalization at times, and calling as he did then for Lalitha. And Surjeet Shona takes it without fear. Fear has left her. Death has become so familiar, almost like a friend. She sees Mumtaz’s nightmares as a subconscious healing, the work going on at night to free him during his waking hours, and maybe, maybe, to free him altogether one day during his lifetime. And hers. Surjeet Shona’s spirit is bright and shining, true like the best of metals, forged and tested in the furnace.
Glossary
Adivasi indigenous population, the first dwellers
Arrey! Arrey baba! exclamation of surprise, impatience etc.
Aurora-Ushas Aurora, the Greek goddess of dawn, Ushas, the Hindu goddess of dawn
Baba revered person
Bhaiji Sikh priest
Bhistees water carriers
Bhapaji Father (Punjabi)
Bhogoban God (Bengali)
Bilayatee-pawnee Anglicization of Vilayati paani (English water), soda
Bobachee-connah Anglicization of Baawarchi Khaana (Hindi), kitchen
Chanakyan moves crafty moves. Chanakya, a Brahman expert on statecraft in ancient times, an earlier Machiavelli
Channa parched gram
Chchi! exclamation of disgust or dismay
Chik reed or bamboo screen pulled up by string
Consommah Anglicization of Khansama, cook
-da, dada respectful suffix, elder brother
Dhuti length of cloth worn by men from the waist down
Dhuti-punjabi dhuti with a long white top
Durga puja the worship of Durga, a huge calendar event
Five Sikh k’s requirments for all male Sikhs: comb, uncut hair, steel bangle, dagger, and undershorts
Ghat wharf
Gherao to surround and lock in, besiege
Gurudwara Sikh temple
Guru Granth Sahib holy book of the Sikhs
Jai Hind Victory to India
Ji suffix of respect (north India)
Jamdani a particularly delicate, woven sari, usually associated with Begal
Kachcha undershorts, one of the five Sikh k’s
Kanga comb, one of the five Sikh k’s
Karrha steel bangle, one of the five Sikh k’s
Kesh hair, one of the five Sikh k’s
Khalistan Name given by separatist Sikhs to their “homeland”
Khansama cook (Urdu)
Khas khas fragrant reed
Khichri a stew of rice and lentils
Khilafastis a movement in British India to help the Caliph of Baghdad after the first world war; became associated with the freedom movement in India
Kirpan dagger, one of the five Sikh k’s
Lungi length of cloth tied around lower body
Maidan large, open grounds
Mashi maternal aunt
Memshaheb Begali way of saying “memsahib”
Mlechcha barbarian
Mog community from northeast India and Bangladesh
Moorri puffed rice
Mora wicker stool
Omaboshyo the last night of the waning moon
Pan Betel leaf (Bengali, Hindi)
Pandit title for a Brahman
Pankha fan (Hindi)
Pir, Pir-ji Muslim saint
Puja worship
Qui-hai Anyone there?
rag classical music scale
Ramjan fasting month for Muslims, variation of Ramadan
Rasgulla round Bengali sweet
Rudraksha Hindu prayer beads
Ryat peasant
Saheb Bengali way of saying “sahib”
Salam greeting
Salami fee a landlord pays to a tenant when the tenant moves out
Sardarni wife of sardar
Shabads Sikh holy songs
Shala common, mild swear word
Shalwar-kameez long tunic and loose pants worn by Punjabi women and now worn widely throughout the Indian subcontinent
Sukhasan putting to rest the holy book of the Sikhs
Swadeshi indigenous, refers to a pre-Gandhian movement to boycott British goods and exhibit self-sufficiency
Tha’ma abbreviation of “thakur ma,” paternal grandmother
Unani Muslim system of medicine
Valmiki author of the Ramayana, patron saint of the sweepers
Wahey Guruji Praise be to the guru, a Sikh phrase
Writer’s Building seat of government in West Bengal
Zamindar landlord
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Published in 2010 by the Feminist Press
at the City University of New York
The Graduate Center
365 Fifth Avenue, Suite 5406
New York, NY 10016
feministpress.org
First Feminist Press edition
Text copyright © 2010 by Kamalini Sengupta
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reprodu
ced or used, stored in any information retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission from the Feminist Press at the City University of New York, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
Originally published in India as Top of the Raintree in 2006 by IndiaInk.
Publication of Rajmahal by Kamalini Sengupta is made possible with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Sengupta, Kamalini.
[Top of the raintree]
Rajmahal / by Kamalini Sengupta.—1st Feminist Press ed. p. cm.
Originally published in India as Top of the raintree in 2006 by IndiaInk.
eISBN : 978-1-558-61693-6
1. Mansions—India—Calcutta—Fiction. 2. City and town life—India—Calcutta—Fiction. 3. Calcutta (India)—Social life and customs—Fiction. I. Title.
PR9499.3.S259T67 2010
823’ʹ914—dc22
2010011316
Rajmahal Page 32