She was the chirpiest amongst all her friends. Dusky, with long hair, falling gracefully down her back, she was also the prettiest amongst her friends. In the first flush of youth, their main pastime was ogling the young boys who made their way back home in the evening from work.
This was the mid nineties, girls were coquettish, and only the very brave, eyed the boys and fluttered their eyelashes at them. The minute the boys, raised their eyes to eye them back, they would dissolve in a fit of giggles beneath the windows. The handsome among the boys were sighed over, and eyed longingly, the flirtatious ones hooted at. But there was this one boy who had caught her fancy.
He was tall, wide shouldered and quiet. All he ever did was pass from near her home every morning on his way to school. How it had happened no one knew. Maybe he had paused once to look up at her as she stood regally in her window and their eyes had met. Maybe his crime was that he had dared to smile at her. Flushing with rage, she turned away. Why is it that some small boys, will catch a butterfly, then slowly rip out its wings ? It's vulnerability ? Or the inflated sense of power that a bully feels when he torures someone weaker than himself ? Maybe that would explain why she toook to taunting him, everytime she saw him. "Oi. Bhuriya !" she would call in her tinkly voice, then dive beneath her window, smirking all the while. Because he was albino.
Her friends, ashamed of her behaviour, chastised her, then washed their hands of her. Some even tried to tell her it was a sin to taunt him so, some got angry, but whatever they said had no effect on her, as she continued to torment him, until she got busy with her own engagement. Rich, good looking, he was the perfect match, and she was ecstatic at having ensnared him. The best match from amongst all her friends was hers, and she never let anyone forget it.
Soon enough she was married and moved off to far off Calcutta, with her husband. Within the year she had conceived and came back to her native home for her delivery as was the custom in those days. Most of her friends were married too, but a few were still around. She was one of the few lucky women who enjoy their pregnancy to the hilt. Having grown even more beautiful, her body in full bloom, she couldn't help wondering who the child would look like. That he would be big and beautiful, she had no doubt, both she and her husband made such a striking pair. "Some people have all the luck in the world." said her friends amongst themselves.
Her pains started in the middle of the night. Rushed to the hospital by her mother, her labor lasted for quite a long time. "The child is big, but she'll be fine," the midwife reassured her mother. "Please wait outside."
The last scream from within the room was the loudest. As her mother rushed in, she saw her daughter, collapsed on the bed, weeping copiously. The midwife soundlessly held out the child. A girl. Perfect in every way. Except that she was albino.
"Vengeance of the Gods" whispered her friends, as they patted the sweet little child she abandoned to her mother. To her relief her three other children were normal, ones she could take home proudly to her husband.
This was the mid nineties, girls were coquettish, and only the very brave, eyed the boys and fluttered their eyelashes at them. The minute the boys, raised their eyes to eye them back, they would dissolve in a fit of giggles beneath the windows. The handsome among the boys were sighed over, and eyed longingly, the flirtatious ones hooted at. But there was this one boy who had caught her fancy.
He was tall, wide shouldered and quiet. All he ever did was pass from near her home every morning on his way to school. How it had happened no one knew. Maybe he had paused once to look up at her as she stood regally in her window and their eyes had met. Maybe his crime was that he had dared to smile at her. Flushing with rage, she turned away. Why is it that some small boys, will catch a butterfly, then slowly rip out its wings ? It's vulnerability ? Or the inflated sense of power that a bully feels when he torures someone weaker than himself ? Maybe that would explain why she toook to taunting him, everytime she saw him. "Oi. Bhuriya !" she would call in her tinkly voice, then dive beneath her window, smirking all the while. Because he was albino.
Her friends, ashamed of her behaviour, chastised her, then washed their hands of her. Some even tried to tell her it was a sin to taunt him so, some got angry, but whatever they said had no effect on her, as she continued to torment him, until she got busy with her own engagement. Rich, good looking, he was the perfect match, and she was ecstatic at having ensnared him. The best match from amongst all her friends was hers, and she never let anyone forget it.
Soon enough she was married and moved off to far off Calcutta, with her husband. Within the year she had conceived and came back to her native home for her delivery as was the custom in those days. Most of her friends were married too, but a few were still around. She was one of the few lucky women who enjoy their pregnancy to the hilt. Having grown even more beautiful, her body in full bloom, she couldn't help wondering who the child would look like. That he would be big and beautiful, she had no doubt, both she and her husband made such a striking pair. "Some people have all the luck in the world." said her friends amongst themselves.
Her pains started in the middle of the night. Rushed to the hospital by her mother, her labor lasted for quite a long time. "The child is big, but she'll be fine," the midwife reassured her mother. "Please wait outside."
The last scream from within the room was the loudest. As her mother rushed in, she saw her daughter, collapsed on the bed, weeping copiously. The midwife soundlessly held out the child. A girl. Perfect in every way. Except that she was albino.
"Vengeance of the Gods" whispered her friends, as they patted the sweet little child she abandoned to her mother. To her relief her three other children were normal, ones she could take home proudly to her husband.
loved the turn at the end..
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