Let me tell you a story today. A story about a woman
much before her times. Sova Rani Das was
born in 1916 in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Born into a family of eleven brothers and
sisters, she was the third eldest. Her father was a village schoolmaster and
mother a homemaker. Sova’s family was plunged into poverty when her father
suddenly passed away and thereafter it was a struggle for the young widow and
her children to survive. The two older daughters were married and settled by
then and helped out when they could. However, it was still tough. Sova was an
exceptionally brilliant and talented young lady. Yet she had no arrogance and
was the epitome of humility.
A mischieveous streak added to the dimensions of her
personality and she would often lead her younger siblings into all sorts of
naughty escapades. At the same time, she was diligent in completing all
household chores and often would take up the slack of one of her siblings’
chores. Sova passed out of school with distinction and innumerable prizes and
she should have studied further but for the fact that there were no funds to
send her to college.
In those days, daughters were married off as early as
possible and Sova’s eldest sister brought a proposal for her and her two
closest sisters to consider. The guy in question was a widower with a young
son, living in Yangon, working for the Burmese Government. Sova’s sisters both
turned this proposal down flat, as they turned up their noses at marrying an
older man with a child, who was bald and short too.
Sova on the other hand said that since she was not as
beautiful as her sisters, she did not mind accepting this proposal. So, the
marriage was fixed. Sova Rani Das became Sova Bose when she married Bijoy Kumar
Bose. From day one, Mr. Bose told her that he would accept her as his wife,
only after she became a mother to his son. Saying this he sailed for Burma giving Sova
the responsibility of following him with
his son in tow. Sova took Bijoy’s dictum to heart and devoted herself to
becoming a good mother for the five year old.
The first step for that, was to rescue the boy, Deb Kumar
Bose from the clutches of one of Bijoy’s uncles who had been using Debu as a
boy servant in his household. Sova at first took the direct approach and went
to visit her uncle in law. When she asked to take her son with her to Yangon,
the whole family turned her down, saying that she would drown him on the way
over, as she was his stepmother and not his mother.
Sova left the house dejected and sat on a rock to decide
what to do next. Opposite to the uncle’s house was an ashram headed by Gauri
Devi, a holy lady in Dhaka. Gauri Devi was sitting on the porch with her
disciples when she noticed the young lady looking sad and sitting on a rock.
She asked one of her disciples who the girl was. Everyone knew everyone’s
business in that neighborhood and the disciple told her the story of how Sova
wanted to take her son, but was not being allowed to by her in-laws. Gauri Devi
sent the disciple to call Sova to her. When Sova came, she gave Sova some
prashad and said, “Your wishes will be fulfilled, child!” and blessed her.
Mystically, soon after, another of Bijoy’s uncles who was at
loggerheads with the one harboring Debu, came forward to help Sova. He got the
tickets for a ship sailing to Yangon and arranged for a tonga. Then, he told
Sova that Debu came out early every morning to empty the chamberpots and that
was their only chance to grab him. Sova, braver than most people, agreed to
this daring plan. And sure enough, the next day, she was waiting on a tonga for
Debu to come out. At about 5:30 am, the small limping boy came out with a
chamberpot which he could hardly carry. Sova did not waste a minute but got down, ran to her son,
snatched him up in her arms and dashed back to the tonga. As fate would have
it, two of her sisters-in-law spotted what was happening and came out to grab
Debu back, shouting obscenities at Sova.
The tongawallah though was an expert one and he set off for
the docks, leaving the evil sisters behind. Sova reached the ship without
further problems, and set sail for Burma to a new life with her husband and son….
To be Continued..
No comments:
Post a Comment