‘I am the son of late Sohrab Hossain of Old Maulvi Bari, Comilla.’
‘Please write your name and your father’s name here,’ the kazi points to a section of the marriage certificate.
At the sound of my great-grandfather’s name, I raise my veiled head. Before me I see my great-grandmother, mad, shackled to her bed, her face turned towards the majestic image of a chariot-cloud floating up to her window, carrying her husband Sohrab Hossain inside. He speaks to her his last words, words of hope that will last her a lifetime without him. He has come back now to speak his last words to me. He will always come back to witness these moments of love in the lives of his descendants. I sense him around me, gently reminding me that love hasn’t disappeared, that it never does, that it only changes form. Old loves transmute themselves into new trust and new desires.
I see my great-grandmother on her daughter’s wedding day. With her bony hands she wraps a red silk sari around my grandmother as she tells her, ever so softly, to be kind and loving to Najib Ali, who is now her husband. My grandmother looks up at her mother’s face and sees only love in her eyes.
Now I see my grandmother on my mother’s wedding day. She wipes the sweat off her brow as she enters the room where my mother is sitting, surrounded by a group of women. My mother looks resplendent in red and gold. Nanu approaches her with a small earthen bowl of orange turmeric paste. She dips her index finger in the bowl and touches the cool paste to her daughter’s forehead. Turmeric, the ancient healer of all ailments, the antidote to decay and nature’s generous source of beauty, given by mother to daughter as a token of love, as purifying and invigorating as turmeric itself.
I turn my head and search the crowded room. I see my mother, sitting in one corner, quiet and unmoving. Her spine is straight, her head slightly bent, her eyes are closed, her hands cupped before her face in a gesture of pleading. She is saying a prayer for me. I can feel her appeal to the universe to hold me tight and keep me safe. I can hear the rhythm of her heart, as if I were a child inside her womb again, tied to her forever.
Acknowledgements
I want to thank my teacher Rebecca Brown, for guiding me with such love when I first conceived this book. She never lost faith in my vision and never failed to make me feel special as I shared the pages with her. My heartfelt thanks to Kazi Anis Ahmed for pushing me beyond my comfort zone, for cheering me on, for answering all kinds of questions and for being such an invaluable friend over the years. I am truly grateful to Masud Khan Shujon for being unduly generous with his time and for providing me with so much insight when I really needed it. And last, but not least, I cannot find the words to thank my editor Diya Kar Hazra, who, with her kindness, patience and unbelievable warmth and clarity, helped this work come to fruition.
A Note on the Author
Maria Chaudhuri was born and raised in Bangladesh. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and Religion from Mount Holyoke College, Massachusetts, and an MFA in Creative Writing from Goddard College, Vermont. Maria Chaudhuri’s essays, features and short stories have been published in various collections, journals and literary magazines. She lives in Hong Kong.
Copyright © 2014 by Maria Chaudhuri
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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN--PUBLICATION DATA
Chaudhuri, Maria.
Beloved strangers : a memoir / Maria Chaudhuri. — First U.S. edition.
pages cm
“First published in Great Britain in 2014”—Title page verso.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
eISBN: 978-1-62040-623-6
1. Chaudhuri, Maria. 2. Bangladeshi Americans—Biography. 3. Immigrants—United States—Biography. 4. Muslims—United States—Biography. 5. Young women—Biography. 6. Dhaka (Bangladesh) —Biography. 7. Jersey City (N.J.) —Biography. 8. Coming of age. 9. Belonging (Social psychology) 10. Transnationalism—Psychological aspects. I. Title.
E184.B13C47 2014
305.8914'126073092—dc23
[B]
2013041951
First published in Great Britain in 2014
First U.S. edition 2014
This electronic edition published in June 2014
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Beloved Strangers Page 18