A Prologue -- UNTOLD
Not needed ,but she was born.Nobody spoke highly or happily about what preceded or what followed immediately.
Ani,could sit without support when she was six monhs.She had big ,expressive and appealing eyes was what her relatives told her ,when they handed over a black and white photograph of hers to her ,lying with them ,for almost fifty years.
She wreathed in pain .No not the mother ,who gave birth to her but Ani,Nobody ever asked her if she wanted anything in all these fifty years of consciousness.
"Do you know how this photo was clicked? Guess who is behind the curtain trying to keep you steady by holding on to your waist ?" The elder cousin asked.
" Where's Ma? Ani was curious
" She had gone to college.She has to attend her Honours Classes.She will ask her friends to give proxy for her pass classes.,"immediately the elderly paternal aunt intervened.
"And papa? was a prompt query from Ani
" Uncle the one who clicked ,in his box camera.He bought it in Bombay where he went to attend a meeting,"another cousin recalled.
Ani was in a remote village ,in a district ,in an eastern Indian state.The drains were still open there.Mosquitoes invaded every house before sunset .Mosquito nets were fixed with strings connected to the nails drilled in four corners of the rooms.Mosquito coils were in use for guests in their living rooms.
Ani stood in the balcony.Her father often cycled down those narrow temporary paths with his younger brother enroute school.
Her mother came with her when the entire paternal family stood beside the still ,shrouded ,thin woman in her late eighties,lay with eyes closed,her three daughters moaning and her seven sons squatted speechlessly around her. Indumati was her name.
