by DR. SAROJINI SAHOO
(This story was first published in an Odia magazine in 2009 and till now it has not been anthologised in any of my Odia short story collections. Hindi and Bengali translations of this story are anthologised in my short stories collections Rape Tatha Anya Kahaniyan (ISBN: 978-81-7028-921-0) published by Rajpal & Sons, Delhi and Dukha Aparimit (ISBN 978 984 404 243-8), published from Bangladesh by Anupam Prakashani, Dhaka) respectively.)
We were as if roaming around a stump. I was feeling restless and terrible. But still, we could not get away from it. It was perhaps we did not have a way out.
I was tired of trying to make her understand but she failed to comprehend. Finally, I decided not to meddle in her affairs. Let her think whatever she desires and do whatever she wants. I can’t say whether it was a common incident or a rare one. While the incident appeared very insignificant to me, she gave it a lot of importance. The problem laid there. When I said forget it and move on she got irritated, protested loudly, and gave even more importance to the event. Eventually I left her to her state of mind. Slowly she enclosed herself just like snails hide themselves in shells.
I observed she was not at peace with herself. Had she been calm, she would have come to me and chatted. But she even stopped coming over to my place. I was perturbed with her behaviour but was helpless to anything about it. What right did I have over her other than trying to make her understand?
She was much younger than me. But still we became friends because we were neighbours. She was only comfortable around me. Both she and her husband thought little of the other less educated women living around us.
She used to come to my place in the evening and we used to sit and chat. Every morning we went on a walk for two-and-a-half kilometers. Previously she used to get up around seven to seven-thirty in the morning. Once when I was returning from my morning walk, she saw me from her balcony. As I was about to climb the steps, she was waiting for me on the verandah. “You go on walks? You never told me? I used to go for walks with my mother before my marriage. I gave up the habit after I came here. When do you start? I will come with you.”
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