An Old Man and His Young Wife

The early life of Himangshu Barua was almost similar to the early life and exploits of Kanak Barua of my earlier novel, ‘Blessed One’. Himangshu also had to face all the hurdles of life like Kanak Barua, to establish himself as a successful man. Being a rustic village boy of rural Assam, he was also rejected by many beautiful girls of urban background. Finally, he married Sumitra at the age of 25 and had a happy married life until suddenly Sumitra died when their only child, Bitopan was only a boy of sixteen. Bitopan was the only child of Himangshu and Sumitra. It was not that intentionally Himangshu Barua and his wife, Sumitra decided to have only one child. But just after the birth of Bitopan, Sumitra had developed some complications in her ovary and which finally led to the removal of the ovary and that forced the couple to follow the ‘one-child norm of China’ when the Total Fertility Rate (TFR) was more than 4.5 for India during that period. Initially, the couple was extremely unhappy to have only one child, but later on, they came to the terms with the reality that God had decided to bless them with one child only. Himangshu sometimes thought God had punished him by blessing him with only one child because he had physical relation with few ladies before his marriage to Sumitra. However, they bestowed all love to Bitopan and whatever might be the situation, both were united to resolve any issue pertaining to the interest of Bitopan. Bitopan had a lovely childhood and almost he had completed his lovely teen age with a fairy tale life until he lost his mother suddenly in a massive heart attack when he was barely sixteen. Like his father, Bitopan had been a brilliant student throughout his career. He passed out from a reputed engineering college at the age of 21 with flying colours. Before, his result was out, he was offered a good job by an Indian MNC. However, he decided to go for his masters which he had completed in the next two years with another brilliant result. After his masters, he joined an American MNC which had picked him up from the campus itself. After his training in New York for a short period of six months, he was posted at Gurgaon as a Deputy Manager, Operation for the company. After sudden death of Bitopan’s mother eleven years ago, Himangshu decided not to marry again thinking of Bitopan’s future. At that time, Bitopan was in class eleven only and he was completely devastated at his mother’s death. It was Himangshu’s bold and affectionate counselling that helped Bitopan to overcome his personal loss and was able to concentrate in his studies once again after a month or so. After eleven years, Bitopan being a Deputy Manager in a reputed software development company with a reasonably good package, Himangshu thought Bitopan should settle down properly. At that time, Himangshu wanted Bitopan should marry a good girl and expand his family tree so that void of his wife would be filled with the joy of playing with his grandchildren. However, according to Bitopan, he had some other priorities in his life and therefore he was not at all interested to marry. One day, diametrically opposite views of father and son led to a heated exchange of arguments between them. After the showdown, Bitopan went out for a stroll for half an hour at the nearby park. When his head cooled down after half an hour, he felt very bad at his own behaviour towards his father. He recalled how his father brought him up after his mother’s death forgoing all his physical and emotional comfort. Had he thought for his own comfort eleven years ago, Bitopan’s life might have been in a hell. Thinking about those days, when he was in college, he became very sad for his father. Without his knowledge, few drops of tears rolled over his cheek. After reaching home after one hour or so he reluctantly told his father to look for a suitable girl for him, if he really thought, that would solve the problem of loneliness for him. Himangshu was all along waiting for his son’s nod, though he knew that with a reluctance, his son had given his consent to marry. Without losing time, on the very next day, he gave an advertisement in a leading newspaper for a suitable girl for his son. But after six months, in one evening when his father confided about his proposed marriage with Anuradha, Bitopan was initially shocked. He all along thought his father was too old to think about his own remarriage and that is why he was insisting on Bitopan’s marriage for the last one year. ‘Papa, hope you are not joking!’ Bitopan exclaimed. ‘No, my child. I am serious about my marriage. I have decided to marry a young girl named, Anuradha. I hope you will understand me.’ Himangshu replied to his son’s exclaim. Though he was shocked for few minutes at his father’s decision for a remarriage, Bitopan became extremely happy within no time for his father who was thinking about his own marriage along with Bitopan’s marriage. He recalled how his father was preparing his breakfast, lunch and dinner for him and how his father was barring Bitopan in going to the kitchen for any sort of cooking after the untimely death of his mother. He recalled, how his father disposed of all the proposals from the relatives for remarrying any lady considering the future of Bitopan. In the meantime, Bitopan had been settled financially and became matured enough to understand the loneliness of his father. He also could foresee the plight of his father once he would get married to a lady who might not be very compassionate to his father and his sacrifices. Bitopan could foresee his father might be lonelier once he gets married and settled somewhere else due to his posting. Therefore, Bitopan was more relieved than happy at the very news that his father was going to marry a lady of his choice. He whole heartedly supported to his father’s wish to remarry thinking about his own interest and father’s interest. ‘May I know whom you are going to marry? Do I know her?’ Bitopan asked his father. ‘She is very young. She is only 25. Actually, this girl has been rejected by you for her educational background six months back. Her name is Anuradha, as I have already mentioned.’ Himangshu replied coolly. When Bitopan came to know that the girl whom his father was going to marry was the girl who had been rejected by him because of her arts background, Bitopan was very much surprised and intrigued. Luckily for him, he was yet to meet Anuradha face to face even for once. Otherwise, it would have been a major embarrassment for both of them. Another thought also gave Bitopan a sleepless night on that day; ‘will his father be able to satisfy the physical need of a lady who is younger than even his own son? Will her love for his father will vanish once initial euphoria is over? Has she agreed for the marriage only because of his father’s property without any feeling from her heart? Once she will have a child, will she try to snatch his father from him permanently? So far property of his father is concerned, Bitopan can sacrifice all the properties of his father for the happiness of his father. But emotional attachment? Can the young lady will be comfortable with Bitopan?’ Many thoughts had disturbed Bitopan on that night. However, in the next morning his veil of doubts evaporated and he had decided to support whole heartedly the remarriage of his father. He was eager to meet the young lady who had stolen the heart of his father but was rejected by him for her educational background. He prepared himself mentally to treat his father’s young wife as his own mother like Debabrata (Bhisma) who always treated Satyavati as his own mother despite of the fact that Satyavati was much younger than Debabrata in age. (Debabrata and Satyavati are two very important characters of the epic Mahabharata).