Bini: The Story of an Ordinary Girl
Somnath Barui
Assistant Professor
Jalangi Mahavidyalaya
West Bengal

'I'm happy now--happy that life has smiled on me after so many tough times', Bini said these words to Lusi, her childhood friend as they were journeying to Silchar from Guwahati, which was Bini's home town. She suddenly met Lusi after almost a decade. The last time they saw of themselves was during a wedding ceremony in Guwahati. They were schoolmates in Gangadhar-Leelamoni High School situated within ten kilometres from the heart of Guwahati town. Bini lived in a slum which was not far away from the school. Lusi, comparatively well-off, lived on the other side of the school with her parents and a little sister. They made a lot of chatting regarding the way twenty two years passed off between now and their first meeting in class VIII. But the chatting didn’t concern childhood memories too much as Lusi, a mother of two children now and well aware of the latter's slum identity, didn’t want to make her friend uncomfortable. As soon as she learnt that Bini was the mistress of a hefty property assisted by her job-holding husband's salary, she started to open up a bit more. And by the time she had arrived Silchar, she began to feel her breath getting heavier with the acrid intrusion of jealousy.
Bini was the youngest daughter of Nishikanta Das and Malati both of whom had huddled in the slum called Guwahati Rail Colony after the first wave of infiltration from Bangladesh in 1971. They had two sons, Mukunda aged 3 years and Rony aged 2 years at the time of that catastrophic exodus. Bini was conceived and born in Guwahati. Life was very hard in those days: Nishikanta could never have imagined of leaving his dear hearth and home with sufficient property in Bangladesh and living in complete contrasting conditions in another country. Initially he made moves to re-enter his homeland in the hope of some money, but tensions in Assam also were on the rise regarding the "foreigners or Bongals" issue, and he evidently didn't want to jeopardise the already-painful existence of his poverty-stricken family members anymore. There were quite a few other families too, and Assam government was temporarily permissive of their stay in the colony.
Bini was a very amiable girl inheriting her mother's traits to the fullest measure. They had two rooms in all, made of bamboo on all sides and straw on the roof. As always happens to a slum, the alleys in the colony were very narrow, and there were endless quarrels over water. From morning till night, there was continuous queuing for collecting drinking water and Malati, busy in household chores always ordered Bini to queue for the family. Mukunda and Rony rather enjoyed the snug corners of their little shanty. 'Tell Rony da, I'll go to Laxmi now. I've to discuss matters relating to studies', Bini pleaded. But the invariable answer used to come soon, 'I've told you to go and you'll go. Let Rony rest a bit.' Bini didn't say any longer. 'Mysterious is the rule of mothers', Bini inwardly demurred, 'they always find ways to push their girls into work. The sons are apples of their eye.' One thing was common with Bini: she had a marvellous sense of decency. When she went to her class X friend, Laxmi's shanty a few yards away, she hated to notice the latter's father in half pants roving around. 'How unsophisticated Laxmi's father is!' she thought, totally shocked. Moreover, when there was long brawl going on with water in the neighbourhood, she would leave the queue and complain to her mother. Malati rebuked her and said, 'Why did you leave the queue? Now, you've to queue again. What shall I do with you?' Malati discerned the point of view of her daughter, but life in a slum, she thought, shouldn't allow anyone to ponder over the nuances of decency.
Bini was in class X then, the year 1988. She didn't possess enviable beauty but she was fairly good-looking. And in those days when communal riots in Assam were rife, social security of girls wasn't particularly emphasised upon by local administration, esp. if it concerned the girls from a slum area infested with people coming as refugees from another country—a country of opportunist Bongals! There were fair number of adult urchins whose eye was already on Bini, and Bini was conscious enough not to miss that. But mentally she belonged to a higher social plane, she had no liking for the thousand unsound ways in which she was used to living in that locality. She had a teacher in her school, Anindita madam who actually was successful in instilling some of this idealism into her. In her Bengali classes, Miss Anindita, a young teacher of only twenty six, highly spoke of the value of right manners. In one of her classes she once disbursed heavy punishment to one of Bini's classmates for calling another teacher by a bad name. Her classes on Saratchandra, the famous Bengali novelist were filled with descriptions of the humane side of the novelist who maintained great sympathy towards the poor people and his undying honesty in portraying simple life. Bini noticed on many occasions how Anindita madam talked softly with her students, even arranging tiffin for those who couldn't afford to bring tiffin to school daily because of their financial issues.
When Bini was in class XII, she had matured into a sober individual aspiring for higher things. Her mother was in a fix regarding this as she understood that Bini would have to suffer for all this. Bini was not a bad student; she was a regular sixty percenter, although never doing exceptionally good despite hard efforts. She received no help from her parents who were not highly educated: in Bangladesh when her parents were children there were hardly any schools in their villages. Moreover, continuous worry with money left their parents with no choice but to allow what was happening. Nishikanta didn't force his sons to study as they would often struggle to meet both ends; reading or learning was some kind of a luxury to him. He was happy to see his two sons somehow employed: Mukunda, now a 22-year-old youth was working with a carpenter and the younger one, Rony of 20 years worked at a restaurant as a waiter. They could support their father well now and simultaneously supply the tuition fees for their adorable sister.
Bini had a very simple yet impossible dream: to marry a cultured man who would take care of her. The dream was simple because ever since she had attended a wedding ceremony in their vicinity 5 years back in 1985, her mother would time and again remind her of the importance of marriage in a girl's life stationed so low. Malati also used to tell her how all the girls including Sabita, whose wedding Bini had attended five years ago, didn't have good husbands, and Bini herself knew this well when she observed those husbands in time of any festive season, esp. in Durga Puja, how they used to drink all night and spit out unheard-of slangs in the next morning. The dream was impossible, vehemently impossible for Bini as she was reminded by her mother how a good husband and his family would demand lakhs of rupees as dowry and how their slum identity would invariably keep away any good boy from entering into any nuptial agreement with them.
Bini thought of the latter, if not of the former. She remembered Anindita madam once saying in the classroom that properly educated youths never demanded money. She might somehow find such a match for her if circumstances would ever smile on her.
It was not that she remained ever bent on thoughts regarding the all-round beauty and availability of her husband—she lived her life with the routine of a nun. Love had bothered her only once when she was in her nineteenth year. She was in the second year in Guwahati City College. The boy was from Shillong, who lodged at the City College hostel. His name was Maikhum, from a Khasi clan. Bini was reading with Bengali Honours while Maikhum had Honours in Botany. It was here that Lusi, also a Bengali Honours student, came into the communication business between the two. Although no amorous letters were exchanged, yet Bini felt a certain drag towards the boy because of his easy-going simplicity and a pleasant, Khasi smile. When they were in the third year in college, Bini noticed that Maikhum was showing no interest in her—both of them met after a long gap of three months due to final examinations. Bini tried to communicate through Lusi, but it was of no avail as Maikhum was a completely changed boy utterly callous to the calls and signals of Lusi. Bini felt a deep pang inside her. Days were hard for her in college. But she had never given more importance to anything than her parents and studies. So, she forgot Maikhum's chapter after some kind of unease.
Bini graduated with over 50% marks and thought of post-graduation from Assam University. But in the 1990s, after the late 1980s Assam Movement, getting a government job was more than a lottery winning. It was because the local Assamese looked upon the Bengalis with a lot of hatred, and the Bengalis, as already mentioned, were pejoratively called 'Bongals.' Bini was one of these Bongals, and she was intelligent enough to understand the situation. One of her teachers suggested going to Calcutta for pursuing higher studies, and he all but arranged everything. But Nishikanta firmly decided that Bini must be married off.
Life came to a halt for her. Bini didn't like her shabby neighbours, always quarrelling over petty matters. Her education and culture provided her with an ideal mentality—free from petty care, concerns and unnecessary hullabaloo. Malati understood the way Bini had been sulking at home all so silently. Bini performed household chores and remembered the depressing words of her mother, 'A slum girl can hardly have a good husband.' But she somehow had a feeling that life kept something good in store for her. One day, Malati while having lunch with Bini, proposed if the latter had a yearning to visit somewhere. 'Where do you want to go?' Bini asked. 'To Shillong,' the answer came, 'I've saved some money. That'll do it.' The name of Shillong seemed to her so sweet, and the name of Maikhum came into her consciousness. His face replaced the hills of Shillong immediately.
There was no train route between Guwahati and Shillong. Three bus tickets were booked: Bini's brothers wouldn't get any leave for workload. Journey started from Guwahati Panbazar at 7 a.m. Bini was in the seventh heaven: she matured not psychologically but her physique was a matter of some pride to her parents who knew that the daughter must be married off. It was in November that they took the journey. All along the road Bini kept her vigilant eyes: the tinge of the sky had lapped over the trees and water-bodies below, and the slight cold weather was fascinating. When they were through Guwahati, it was not so cold, but after one-and-a-half hours Bini felt the chill of Shillong with the long wooded hills gradually obstructing the view left and right. But it was a sweet obstruction. It was her first-ever visit to a place; 'chill penury repressed' their life with such tightness after all. They reached Shillong after nine thirty in the sunny morning. The tour was for two days and they got for themselves a cheap hotel near Police Bazar in Shillong, a place dominated by the Khasis. After taking some rest during midday, Bini suggested to her father that they should visit the famous lake region first. When they neared Umiam Lake, Bini could hardly believe her eyes: it was wondrously beautiful. The blue sky had touched the breast of the Lake, and the meandering little channels jutting out from the bank contained crystal clear water. The whole scene was surrounded by the benign presence of pine-like trees.
There Bini met Ajay. No, not Maikhum who was lost in some undiscoverable corner of the world. Ajay Mondal, a Bengali had already reached there before Bini. He lived in a suburban town, Beltola positioned fifteen kilometres away from Guwahati. Ajay lived and worked in Shillong. He had already sanctioned a transfer from Shillong to Guwahati from the District Inspector of Schools. He had served in a local high school in Shillong for four years, and the transfer was a welcome new guest in his life, for he had to struggle a lot going back and forth between Shillong and Guwahati to meet emergency situations. He had his mother and an elder sister already married off. His mother stayed back in Beltola, never entertaining the idea of leaving her husband's home for helping her son off in Shillong. She was aged between forty nine and fifty two. Ajay was almost thirty. For long, his mother was telling Ajay to marry Nila, a girl whose mother happened to be long acquainted with his mother. But Ajay was sensible and he didn't approve of the ultramodern ways of Nila, and often Nila's manners would mentally wound him. He knew Nila for long. Since the death of his father, Ajay had wisely managed the household duties, and his mother had inwardly endorsed that also. But she didn't like Ajay's habit of procrastination. Whenever, his mother asked, 'When will you marry, Ajay? Don't you see the problems?' His mother evidently meant the problem of bridging the gap between Shillong and Beltola. Ajay only nodded his head and said, 'It will come off someday. Don't worry.'
Today when he saw Bini for the first time, he had an inner call that he ultimately got what he was waiting for. Bini's grace, while walking and talking and smiling, attracted him. Moreover, the ways of her parents gave him the hint that they were from a poor background. He liked exactly this: a girl brought up in poverty and knowing the ABC of life's real lessons. He believed that poverty always tends to temper an individual. The only thing he had to know was whether she had grown up sharing or alone, implying whether she had siblings. Opportunity came when Bini, accompanied by her parents, went inside the Lake View hotel nearby for some food delicacy of Umiam. He observed where Bini took her seat, and he positioned himself exactly beside her with his face towards the opposite direction. Bini was all the while watching him also, which he was slightly aware of. From the mode of conversation Bini had with her parents while eating and gossiping, Ajay became certain that she knew how to share because Malati mentioned quite a few times how Mukunda and Rony might have liked their visit here. 'Mothers always are anxious about their babies left behind in the nest,' Ajay thought.
Those of us who have read so many love stories are cognizant of how, after such a situation, as Ajay and Bini both found themselves in, lovers can get details of each other out and by employing which methods. Bini also liked Ajay's manners from the little talk she had with him there by hoodwinking her parents. Shillong ultimately gave Bini her lover back—although in a different mould. They tried to know each other with head and heart.
Within three months, Beltola and Guwahati Rail Colony became intimate to each other. Bini's neighbours were astonished to see the high flight into which Bini's family found themselves in. The neighbourhood buzzed with different hearsays for the next few days, some of which reached Bini and her family's ears. But Bini had been able to temper the family's outlook by now.
When Ajay saw that Bini had a desire to be independent and that it would allow her scope to help her parents out sometimes, he erected a confectionery outlet on the left side of the entrance to their two-storeyed building. Ajay's shifting to Guwahati also provided his muscles enough rest from the hectic Shillong journey days. Life was settled. Bini's impossible dream became a reality after all—a slum girl could also fulfil her dream of a cultured husband and house. But one thing Bini never thought that she had herself set the tone of her dream by struggling with poverty and continuing her studies. Residing in a slum and successfully graduating from a renowned college in Guwahati wasn't a cakewalk in those volatile days of Assam. How many of Bini's neighbour friends could cross the Board examination? One could hardly find any. Bini possibly was aware of it but she hated to think highly about herself. That was something that Anindita madam had made her class aware of so many times. There was another determination in her heart: from the time she had heard of her mother that slum-dwelling girls weren't good enough for a good in-law's house and husband, she had started focusing on her studies more and more. 'I've to break this tag,' she determined. To get a good match like Ajay, Bini had to be a Bini. She was a lotus in the mud, who had absorbed and imbibed everything good—imparted both by her teachers and her books. Life smiled on her for just reasons. Her life was no fairy tale.
When Bini waved a goodbye to Lusi, she was happy. She was a mature woman now, realising the mysterious ways of the world and the part an individual needed to perform within this framework of unperceivable mystery. She studied Lusi's face but didn't mind anything. She thought that Lusi would also learn some day. She had met Lusi at a wedding ten years back when Bini was spending her aimless days after the stoppage of study after graduation. Soon after that meeting, Bini's visit to Shillong and her meeting with Ajay had come to pass. Bini came to Silchar to attend a business workshop. Ajay had wished to come with their eight-year-old daughter but couldn't, because of a certain public examination duty in his school. Bini's daughter finally didn't agree to leave her father behind.
Bini had an overwhelming feeling of satisfaction: meeting with Lusi had certainly incited this feeling. She could feel the impossible days in the slum where they had almost 'no-human' status. She remembered how one day in school when she was in class VI, she eavesdropped one of her rich classmates mentioning her name with some snobbery and saying, 'Bini lives in the slum. She is a bad girl without manners.' She had never wronged anyone, but because she hailed from a slum, the adjective 'bad' was tagged to her. She remembered how her father in a rainy day had cried profusely failing to stop rainwater from leaking into the room through the porous roof. Now, her parents didn't have to live there in the slum. She had made her parents a house through a bank loan. Initially Nishikanta and Malati were loath to agree to the proposal but then Bini wept a lot, and her parents gave in finally. Mukunda and Rony were also happily married. While leaving the platform arena, Bini thought, 'One should continue chasing dreams no matter how hard the circumstances are. Who knows an angel might be waiting near the destination with a bright key.'
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