Dutta stood near the open window looking at the small house across the road. The window was open to one of the rooms. He had felt like he was being watched from there. He stood for another second and pulled on his smoke. Immediately, he felt being watched with distaste as if he had been found wanting on some grounds. The hair on his nape stood up for a second before the feeling went away. He stood looking at the dark window a long time, the cigarette burning away unnoticed between his fingers.
Technically my hair to stood up, wow did he see her!!!
All the sisters seem to behave like his mum, too good for him..somehow Dutta comes across as a very restless person, something troubling him and he himself not able to put his finger on it..but still he packs his cigars..that is more important than packing clothes and other essentials..he is a grown up man, but in some aspects still a kid. and he secretly enjoys his sister bullying him..he loves his sisters a lot though he is not the kind to display it..otherwise he could have easily changed his mind and ashed their hopes of looking for a girl for him..i think he is ready to get married too and does not trust himself to find a good girl and so is quite happy to use that as an excuse to give that duty to his sisters?! But as any man who has said yes to marriage, even his mind sometimes questions him whether he is doing the correct thing!
Well, at first read, you may think he was being rude in that train.. I don't think so.. he is camouflaging several things with his supposed rudeness..if he was in fact rude, he would never have swapped his berth with the old lady or agreed to go up to that berth as soon as she said she wanted to rest there..but his problem is with attention from girls.. as he himself said, he used to love that sort of attention, but not anymore..wonder what happened to cause this?!! Any incident or just self realisation..i am more inclined to self realisation and having reached a point of saturation with that lifestyle he had..at least until now, it looks like that..but then again, he is trying to keep to himself in the train and when he cant do that, he downgrdes! So there you go, he is not a snob either! But someone with a troubled mind and soul..
Well, the Goa incident also makes me wonder whether he fears commitment..whether the happenings of the past makes him feel vulnerable to give into love and commitment.. he saw what happened to the family when his parents died..they were all heartbroken..and then he saw the slow disintegration of his sister's marriage.. again not an ideal scenario to be witnessed by a growing lad..he probably lost faith in such relationships..felt that they tied you down and gave the other person the ability to hurt you as and when they pleased..trouble is he has not experienced love to understand how pain and happiness go hand in hand in being together..how even when you are hurt, the power of love gives you the courage to overcome such obstacles/pain in life..so he is sort of running away from anything meaningful..not a bad guy at all..
The sleeper comp description was spot on.. esp in today's wprld where everyone is busy in themselves, ie., laptop, phone etc and don't indulge in chit chat.. wow.. he made 14 new friends!! And that too on FB.. pretty cool!but he left his cards and doc case behind.. just goes to show what a great time he had to have even forgotten his doc case! Esp since he has been living a medic's life for last so many years and not letting anything come between him and his career! And he forgot his doc case.. very interesting!!
Glad he did not ignore Dr Ghosh's talk..sometimes for a person like Dutta he could have taken it the wrong way too.. but glad he understood the care/concern behind those words and decides to do something about it even if it meant handing himself over to his sister! Wow, so 2 months with kala tai.. huh.. hope he/circumstances don't cut short this trip..he remembers his previous trip as being miserable..well, his state of of mind in his previous trip was such.. so anything good would have also been viewed with suspicion and distaste by him na.. friendly overtures from other kids his age were also not welcome as he probably wanted to be left alone and wallo in self misery..so he never allowed himself any chance to see light at all..was clinging to unhappiness with a fervour..well, he couldn't remember that incident with naku..hmmm..
Hmmm.. he loves the room.. but thinks rajnighandha is old fashioned.. wont judge him on that as he is used to lilies and a diff class of life.. so will take some time to get used to other beautiful things in life! I am not at all surprised when he did not want the idol in his room..just one more after effect of his troubled childhood..he forgot the good things like his sisters as he was just wallowing in grief maybe?! Or did he have a major incident in his past that we are not aware of?!!
Nani is so sweet .. and it is true that grandkids and nani have a special bond.. I am in no way saying a dadi is less imp, but personally I feel nani-grandkids rishta is something more special, more maternal!and nani used such a beautiful story to make naku understand what is imp in life and she should never stop dreaming..loved the following lines.. Waise bhi agar sapneo mein tumne kuch paa bhi liya to kya wo paana paana hua..aur ankh khulte hi agar wo kho gaya to kya wo khona hua?
The story also makes me think how it relates to dutta too.. in his own sorry, he is hell bent on ignoring the beautiful things he has in life..searching for that elusive something?! This will probably make more sense once we get to know if indeed there was something more in his past!
Wow.. first meeting was absolutely great..she can only see his shadow walking. But assesses correctly that he is like a caged beast..cannot even see his face, but can feel his anger stood so far from him..so she still has not seen his face.. like in the dream, it is still in darkness! Still a bit misty! But she has seen him smoking! And OMG, he also feels her distaste..though he has not even seen her or knows she exists! Superb ending or shall I say beginning ;-P
Thanks so much for a lovely part :)
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